Zero Dark Thirty

Films regarding the recent and on-going wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been box office poison. The huge irony behind Zero Dark Thirty is that the film was originally going to be about the Battle of Tora Bora and the failed attempts to track down Osama Bin Laden. Regardless of quality, we can be pretty certain that effort would have also failed to rouse the punters, particularly in North America. However, when the US eventually got their man director Kathryn Bigelow and screenplay writer Mark Boal had to scrap their project. However they didn’t hang around and 5 months later the cameras were ready to roll on Zero Dark Thirty. A year later and, predictably, it’s scored well at the multiplexes. Is it any good though? The story spans a near ten year period from the September 2001 terrorists attacks through to the Navy Seal raid in Pakistan in 2011 and is mainly told through the eyes of CIA operative Maya (Jessica Chastain). The good stuff first. Bigelow has tried to remain as honest to the reality as possible with the actual hunt being portrayed as slow and bureaucratic until she gets the chance to flex her (considerable) biceps with a superbly directed final third of the film. Trying to be as accurate as possible, the Abbottabad raid in the film is similar in length to what actually did happen and the production design team should take a bow for their exact re-creation of Bin Laden’s compound. Throw in endless CIA jargon and realistic weapons, uniforms etc. and you have a production that has tried it’s best to give an honest portrayal of what went down. Plus, Mark Strong spotters will enjoy a brief and sweary cameo from the man who is in every film ever made. Peer a bit closer though and the cracks start to appear. The dodgy helicopter graphics don’t convince in the slightest (though at times Bigelow tries to cover this up by having a seriously dark filtered screen), the soundtrack appears to have been stolen from Seven and a scene where one of the head honcho’s is interrupted whilst using a prayer mat, though apparently true, just smacks of trying too hard to remain politically correct. The biggest stumbling block the film has though is with the character of Maya herself. Chastain is a great actress, but even she seems unclear about what part she is supposed to be playing. At some points it’s said that Maya has a solid background of work behind her, whilst at other times it’s mentioned she’s a still a bit of a rookie. Plus she actually doesn’t do much investigating at all during the film, with everyone else doing the legwork and her picking up the glory. I mentioned earlier that the film tries to portray events as close to the reality as possible, however this is a film and its clear artistic license has been used in some places and for reasons of pace (though this still clocks in at 2 hours 40 minutes). How true what’s being shown though is up for you to decide and there are already pages and pages of debate and counter claim out there that you can read for yourself. However there can be no excuse for the film makers for using (without permission from the family) at the start of the film a clip from one of the flight attendant’s calls from one of the hijacked planes from that fateful day in 2001. As if the audience really needing reminding what was the background to this whole business……  

The OC Film Sting Final Verdict

A tough subject matter to film regardless of the talent involved. Bigelow’s action scenes are thrilling and tense, though this is countered by a confusing main character and accusations of insensitivity and inaccuracy. Rating: 7/10.