Zero Dark Thirty, a Review

The film begins on 9/11. We hear recorded calls transmitted from the air traffic controllers, the planes, the Twin Towers, the people trapped inside the buildings, the 911 operators. We see nothing, but we hear chilling accounts of that day. Whether or not they're real transmissions we are never really sure, but it's a chilling way to begin a film.

We quickly head to the Middle East, where we see CIA operatives working at "Black Sites" to "question" Al-Qaeda operatives. They have a few in custody, and are utilizing torture techniques to retrieve information. The use of torture is clearly not supported by the film, instead we just see that it is a tool that is used. We also see very quickly that the use of torture and waterboarding doesn't necessarily produce the desired results. The lead, Maya, played stupendously by Jessica Chastain, doesn't support the torture techniques at first, and she seems very affected by it all, even though she was recommended to this post by her superiors in Washington as being a "killer."

Maya, and the rest of her team in the Middle East, have one goal. To stop terrorism that affects the homeland, and to find the ones responsible for the horrific acts of 9/11 and bring them to "justice" so to speak. The only courtroom Osama Bin Laden will ever see, according to Maya and the rest of her team, is a bullet. They have no desire to arrest him, they just want to see him dead.

Over the course of 10 years, we watch Maya follow lead after lead, to no avail. But Maya clearly has one goal in her job, and her life, and that is to find Osama Bin Laden. She keeps at it, fundamentally discarding every part of her life other than this mission.

Throughout the film, we see the subsequent attacks that occurred. The bombing of the bus in London, the failed bombing in Times Square, the bombing of the hotel in Pakistan. All of these take a toll on the CIA operatives, propelling them towards their ultimate goal.

The tension that Kathryn Bigelow builds in this film is unsurpassed. There are times where we feel the loneliness that Maya feels, the toll that torture takes on the torturers, and the frustration they all feel while searching for a lone man on a cell phone in a cell phone-ridden market.

Two hours of the film spans 10 years. The last 40 minutes spans a mere 30 minutes. We all historically know how the raid pans out, but we still are on the edge of our seat for the whole mission.

Kathryn Bigelow has made a classic film here. A film we will talk about for years. This film is a masterpiece. Mark Boal's brilliant script, coupled with Kathryn Bigelow's brilliant eye has made a film that is unsurpassed in its perfection.

2 hours and 38 minutes, and we are still left wanting more. That's good filmmaking.