"Zero Dark Thirty" - Film Review

“What other cases have you done besides Bin Laden?” –CIA Director

“Nothing … I’ve done nothing else, sir.” -Maya

When people at my college learned that Osama Bin Laden had died, many gathered at the library, the building at the center of the campus. They sang patriotic songs loudly and poorly and drank openly and unquestioned by the administration. It was a boisterous, unrestrained display of patriotism. I didn’t participate in this. I remained in my dorm room, changing little of my regular routine. When I learned how people were reacting to it, I was a little unnerved. Yes, Bin Laden had been responsible for countless deaths and unforgivable tragedy, but everyone seemed to be unphased by the violence necessary to achieve the means to this end. When I stated my particular (and apparently unpopular opinion on the subject), I got a lot of fuming glares and judgmental, unthoughtful comments. See for me, Osama Bin Laden had become a ghost, a boogey man. It had been a decade since the attacks of September 11^th, and he was the farthest thing from my mind. Of course, I was relieved, even pleased. But so many of the events, policies, and actions post-9/11 have been exhausting to bear on the country and our citizens, and killing Bin Laden felt like trying to put a bandaid on a flesh wound. It was never going to truly be healing, and Zero Dark Thirty takes little satisfaction or pleasure in his death. 

But Zero Dark Thirty really isn’t about Osama Bin Laden. In fact, at its heart, it’s much more of an exacting character study of its protagonist Maya (a magnificent performance by Jessica Chastain). CIA agent Maya’s obsession with (and it totally is an obsession) finding Bin Laden continues to wear down on every fiber on her being, and she slowly becomes consumed by the case and nothing else. We can see it in her face: she’s increasingly tired and harrowed; sad and weary, and Chastain knocks every single scene out of the park. It’s a goddamn near perfect piece of acting. By the time Bin Laden’s been found and killed, there’s no pleasure in it. Maya has spent 12 years of her life (and her whole career as part of the CIA) trying to nab this guy that once she has, she doesn’t know what to do with herself now that it’s finished. The film ends with her whole life in uncertainty and her deeply disaffected.  

Oscar winning director Kathryn Bigelow was an incredibly well-suited choice to direct the film. Coming off of some of her career’s best work in The Hurt Locker, where she brought impeccable realism and purpose to the story of a bomb squad detailed in Iraq. In the steady, capable hands of Bigelow and with a searing script by Mark Boal, the film goes step by step through the procedural work that led up to Bin Laden’s demise. Like the best historical dramas (All the President’s Men comes to mind), it makes something we already know the ending to deeply interesting and intense. Having gone step by step to learn just how Bin Laden was tracked down, it makes the Navy Seals stealth operation all the more heightened and intense (especially with Alexandre Desplat’s pulse ponding score set to it).

Not only is it deeply relevant and thoughtfully crafted, but carried by such strong performances, not just by Chastain but a cast of great supporting performances, including Kyle Chandler, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, and Chris Pratt. Zero Dark Thirty is one of 2012’s brightest, most gripping, most vital films. 

Grade: A