{"id":11638,"date":"2013-01-17T16:20:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-17T23:20:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/?p=11638"},"modified":"2013-02-24T14:10:57","modified_gmt":"2013-02-24T21:10:57","slug":"zero-dark-thirty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/2013\/01\/zero-dark-thirty\/","title":{"rendered":"Zero Dark Thirty"},"content":{"rendered":"

Film (2012)
\nDirected by Kathryn Bigelow<\/p>\n

Screenplay by Mark Boal\t<\/p>\n

Original Music by Alexandre Desplat
\nCinematography by Greig Fraser
\nFilm Editing by William Goldenberg, Dylan Tichenor<\/p>\n

With Jessica Chastain (Maya), Jason Clarke (Dan), Reda Kateb (Ammar), Kyle Chandler (Joseph Bradley), Jennifer Ehle (Jessica), Harold Perrineau (Jack), Jeremy Strong (Thomas), Mark Strong (George), Fredric Lehne (The Wolf), Mark Duplass (Steve), James Gandolfini (C.I.A. Director), Stephen Dillane (National Security Advisor), John Barrowman (Jeremy)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jessica
Jessica Chastain as Maya
in “Zero Dark Thirty”
Photo: Jonathan Olley
Courtesy Columbia Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
A superbly produced thriller about tracking and assassinating Osama bin Laden.<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Maya (Jessica Chastain) is a young CIA operative who becomes obsessed with the pursuit of Osama bin Laden. Through sometimes brutal and sometimes crafty means, she manages the intelligence that eventually leads to execution of the mission by American commandos which results in bin Laden’s death.<\/p>\n

There is hardly a bad thing one could say about this intelligently written, directed and edited suspense thriller. <\/p>\n

\"'Zero
©2012 Columbia Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Much of the opening of the film involves vivid torture scenes. This is hard to watch, and clearly meant to be so. <\/p>\n

There has been much controversy over this film’s depiction of torture, with some commentators arguing that the film implicitly condones it. <\/p>\n

I think this intelligently written film makes a far more subtle point. The intent here, without forcing it down the viewer’s throat, suggests that, despite garnering useful information during the Bush administration, brutal methods like waterboarding, banned at the outset of the Obama administration, give way to the more subtle and acute kinds of investigations pursued by agents like Maya, the protagonist of this film. <\/p>\n

With delicacy of inflection, the film shows how, despite Obama’s restrictions on torture, Maya uses her wits to pursue bin Laden. The success of that venture is a subtle but potent tribute to those policies and an appreciation of the functions of intelligence over brutality.<\/p>\n

\"Jason
Jason Clarke as Dan
in “Zero Dark Thirty”
©2012 Columbia Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This film oddly creates suspense effectively, despite the fact that everyone who sees it knows how it will end. <\/p>\n

Director Bigelow’s capacity to portray the known in a way that makes it dramatic is indicative of what great tragedies do. One of the significant traits of classical tragedy is that the audience knows exactly what will happen. The drama, for the audience, is not in finding out about the end, but reliving, through the perceptions of the tragic hero, the calamities undergone. <\/p>\n

The same is true of this film, which has no surprise in the end, but which packs a great deal of experiential power nonetheless.<\/p>\n

Jessica Chastain’s performance as Maya is stellar. Her entire demeanor in the film conveys determination. This film about a woman, and directed by one, is a tribute to the kind of insistent, but successfully subtle, approach that compares favorably to those pursued beforehand. The entire thrust of the first part of the film is to show that Maya is not a wimp; she witnesses torture sessions willingly, though obviously affected by them. But, later on, when necessary, she pursues things with a nuanced outlook that goes well beyond what her counterparts have pursued. <\/p>\n

Jennifer Ehle, a wonderful actress (I saw her brilliant performance in 2007 in Tom Stoppard’s trilogy, The Coast of Utopia<\/em>, in New York), provides a companionable presence to Maya, reinforcing female wits at difficult outposts in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Ehle (who also delivered a wonderful performance as Elizabeth Bennett in a 1990s BBC version of Pride and Prejudice<\/em>) can convey striking intelligence without sacrificing empathetic appeal, perfectly suited to the demands here. This echoes the same modes in Chastain’s Maya, whose ferocity of will and incisive analytical powers do not diminish an obvious vulnerability.<\/p>\n

The brilliant economy of writing in this film prevents it from dawdling into all the arenas in which it might well have. There are no romances, thankfully; Maya is all business. There are moments when Bigelow creates a shot that makes the audience wonder what else might be going on in Maya’s mind and heart, but, again, the point is subtly raised, not forcefully imposed, and so much more effective for that reason.<\/p>\n

In keeping with the high level of this production, the music is so delicately interwoven it creates the requisite mood perfectly without at all becoming a distraction.<\/p>\n

Nor are there stupid scenes involving the two presidents. The writer and director wisely focused the energy and attention on Maya and the team with which she works, not elsewhere. <\/p>\n

\"James
James Gandolfini as C.I.A. Director
in “Zero Dark Thirty”
©2012 Columbia Pictures<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

We do get a few scenes with James Gandolfini as a reasonable version of Leon Panetta. Here, contrary to his signature Tony Soprano portrayal, he drops into the action and never dominates it.<\/p>\n

One would be somewhat hard put to designate any political slant here. The clear depiction of torture early on and the apparent relief of it later on are indications of policy changes in the Obama administration, as noted before. But the film does not cheer these changes, it merely notes them. And, appropriately, it shows how subtly such changes manifest themselves. At first, through the eyes of these torturing interrogators, the Obama changes seem like an unfortunate restriction; later on, it becomes more of a fact of life. And it is during that latter phase that Maya’s more successful approach to finding bin Laden takes root.<\/p>\n

On another level, the film is a delicate reflection on the nature of passion and obsession. Once Osama bin Laden has been killed, we watch the long pan of Maya’s face and wonder what she will now do. It raises questions about how best to direct our communal intelligence in a complex world. <\/p>\n

One only hopes that Maya, and ferociously determined people like her, will also turn their efforts to the great problems of humanity – feeding, clothing, housing, educating and caring for all – as well as finding the bad guys when necessary.<\/p>\n

– BADMan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Film (2012)
\nDirected by Kathryn Bigelow
\nScreenplay by Mark Boal<\/strong>
\nA superbly produced thriller about tracking and assassinating Osama bin Laden.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11638","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-movies","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11638"}],"version-history":[{"count":61,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12874,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11638\/revisions\/12874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bostonartsdiary.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}