Ink Blotting - Zero Dark Thirty

Posted on Wednesday, January 16, 2013 at 05:00 PM

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is a military term for 12:30 at night, the time at which the US Seal team was launched from the American Base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, illegally and under the cover of darkness, into Pakistan to determine proof of Osama bin Laden’s location and if proven, execute him. The movie, Zero Dark Thirty is the highlight of key events, individuals and actions over the 11 years it took to bring ObL low.

Characters mean less in this film than events. Few, if any, reviews that I have read comment on this, but many of the characters are not even named until they’ve been on screen for half an hour or more. There could be several reasons for this; naming the characters detracts from the clinical angle the movie is taking with the events, naming the characters early might not help with clarity given the number of characters in the movie, but more likely naming the characters tips the hand of the plot, because several of the characters were in the news during the hunt for ObL and things happened to them that the movie would like to generate suspense and solicit an emotional response from you.

There are some strong, talented actors here, James Gandolfini, Mark Strong, and newcomer Jessica Chastain, but they are given so little opportunity to develop complex characters. They are but placeholders in the plot of the movie, driving forward the intelligence gathering and decision-making (or lack thereof most of the time) regarding the intelligence work performed to bring ObL low. We see Maya, Jessica Chastain, grow as a CIA agent, but we have no real understanding of her as a person. She is her job. Any scenes that do not directly relate to her working involve her drinking, which I don’t think says good things about the personal lives of CIA agents.

This is a long movie for what it is. Many reviewers are critical that the amount of time spent trying to find ObL does not create the payoff needed at the end of the movie. A brilliant job is done showing us how the Seal team secured the house and eventually brought him low. A brilliant job is done showing us how a spunky young woman uses her blunt personality and sheer force of will to achieve what no one thought possible, but the two brilliant pieces juxtapose so terribly that we’re left with only a better understanding of how the events came to pass, not the story that unfolded. Am I being unfair? Is it even possible to tell this 11 year long manhunt and its conclusion as a proper 2 hour tale? Is this more a chronicle of events that needed to be created for High School Social Studies classes to have added to the curriculum?

What I don’t see talked about in any of the reviews I’ve read so far is how the movie got me thinking “is this important?” We don’t see the payoff that the death of ObL brings. Did the death of ObL kill Al-Qaeda? Have there been fewer terrorist attacks since then? Were billions of dollars spent, Lamborghini’s bought for Kuwaiti Princes, and alcoholics made of CIA agents to kill an old man on dialysis who was essentially imprisoned by the world, without the world really knowing where he was? Was this not just a well-cast, well-scripted 2 hour snuff film? What happened to the women and children in the house following the raid? It’s hard not to care for the plight of crying women and children, and they are all crying over the death of ObL.

Was the movie showing us that what America did in assassinating ObL was right? Or did the movie leave the judgement to the audience leaving the movie? I thought that the movie did a great job of sticking to the facts and left the morality of that choice in the conscience of those who made those decisions, and the judgement of that choice to the audience.

Either way, this was a tough film filled with heavy topics about something that has loomed large in the conversations of Western Culture since September 11th, 2001.

I cannot rate this movie on a scale. There are too many factors here. This is not a popcorn, eye candy movie. Events have happened that have changed us collectively and this movie seeks to show how those events came to pass. It doesn’t matter if you see this movie or not, though I hope that you do, but you should think about what this movie is about, what happened, how it happened and most importantly, what happens next.