Movie Review: "Zero Dark Thirty"

"Zero Dark Thirty": B+.  Zero Dark Thirty is probably the most anticipated movie to have been released in 2012. In this day and age when movie projects sometimes take years to consummate, it seems astonishing that the time line between Osama Bin Laden's demise on May 2, 2012 and the film's December release date is so short. As luck would have it, Director Kathryn Bigelow and script writer Mark Boal were already in the process of putting together a film about the unfruitful US hunt for Bin Laden in the lawless mountains overlapping the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, when the Navy Seals pulled off the coup d'etat in Abbottabad. The film makers were all too happy to change their plans, fast-tracking the movie for a holiday season premier.

The majority of this film is about the persistence and diligence of a CIA operative, Maya (Jessica Chastain), who dedicates her life to finding the al-Qaeda mastermind. Chastain is a fair-haired actress with a slender physique, not a woman who, by outward appearances, would take on a gritty military mission having little prospect of success. But Maya's looks belie her dedication and resolve to finding the leader of the terrorists responsible for 9/11. Most of the buzz surrounding the film centers on two things: the use of coercion (torture?) by the CIA during its interrogation of suspected terrorists, and the final act, real time military operation of the Seals within the target's secret compound.

The US intelligence gathered in the pursuit of Bin Laden was mostly a result of three tools: the interrogation of prisoners, satellite technology, and on-the-ground undercover agents in various hot spots such as Karachi and Islamabad. The film is controversial because it raises the question of whether "enhanced interrogation," a euphemism for torture, is a means justified by the end. Some of the scenes are hard to watch. The film does not glorify torture nor does it attempt to persuade the viewer that it is an essential ingredient in the field of intelligence gathering. (Whether essential or not, torture is not an uncommon component in that grim endeavor, if we are to believe that Boal's story reflects actuality.) The question of whether the information furnished by the prisoners can be relied upon is left open. It is clear that Maya is uncomfortable being in the same room where her male colleague is conducting the inquisition of a shackled and already wounded prisoner, but she sublimates her feelings for what she sees as the ultimate goal: finding Bin Laden.

Two very effective scenes show how Maya stands her ground when challenged by her superiors. She practically blackmails her station boss, Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler aka Coach Taylor from TV's Friday Night Lights), into keeping her on the OBL trail, pointing out in an in-your-face expletive-laden rant that if he pulls her off the case she'll reveal how he gave up the hunt too early. Later, she tells the head of the CIA (James Gandolfini) that she is "100 per cent certain" that OBL is holed up in the Abbottabad compound, even though none of her agency colleagues is willing to place the odds at greater than about 60%. Mia's gumption impresses the Director. He asks her what she has done for the CIA other than chasing Bin Laden. She replies, "Nothing." She is staking her career on her assessment of the intelligence she has studied.

The final act, even though we know its outcome, is riveting. Bigelow shows the nighttime raid through the same type of night vision lenses worn by the Seals. The Seals are depicted as being nonchalant hours before the mission, as they are listening to music and playing horseshoes at their Afghanistan air base. But once the mission is underway they are all business. When one of the choppers crashes inside the Bin Laden compound, or the noise stirs up the Abbottabad townsfolk, the Seals stick to their plans. Within the space of twenty or twenty-five minutes, the Seals bring a third chopper onto the scene, blast through several reinforced metal entrances, bump off the bad guys, limit the casualty count among the women and children inside the compound, put OBL in a body bag for removal, confiscate computer hard drives and other data, blow up the downed helicopter, and escape through the mountain passes in the dark of night back to Afghanistan, all before the Pakistani air force can make an appearance. If what transpired that night was anything like the movie, it is a miracle that the mission was accomplished without the losing a single Seal.