::Spoiler Alert:: they shoot bin Laden in the end.

"Zero Dark Thirty" is the true story of the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden. The movie begins heart-breakingly, with an empty black screen accompanied by the audio of 911 calls from people trapped inside the Towers. I watched "United 93" long ago and it was a painful viewing experience; this opening had the same impact, bringing me right back to that day.

I think the movie managed to avoid an extreme political bias. Someone who is more involved in politics may disagree, but I didn't think there was a Democrat or Republican slant. Everyone on both sides of the aisle wanted bin Laden dead. The movie addresses the Gitmo & Abu Ghraib torture allegations (and shows them in pretty graphic ways), but doesn't appear to take the side of either party.

The cast was solid. Jessica Chastain was fitting in an odd way. Most of the time I felt like she was out of place, which actually worked in favor of the character. I don't know exactly how much was true, but the whole idea was that no one really put faith that this tiny woman had the inner strength to lead the charge against the most wanted man in the world. The rest of the supporting cast was good, from Chris Pratt & Joel Edgerton as two of the SEALs, to Mark Strong & James Gandolfini as high-ranking CIA officials.

The biggest problem I had was the length. It was long. Very long. During the first two acts, I almost forgot it was the bin Laden movie. So much went into the search for ten years, finding lower level al Qaeda members, capturing or killing them, hunting down higher-ranking members, piecing together information and intelligence, trying to convince superiors that leads were worth following. There were times that everyone was so focused on the clues that you had to be reminded what the end goal was.

I felt there was an interesting choice in terms of the image of bin Laden. Once the SEALs break into his compound, the viewer only gets short glimpses, the camera never rests to focus on his face. Quick cutaways, out-of-focus shots, a cellphone flash washes him out. These techniques reminded me of the real-life decision to bury him at sea, and to not publish any of the death pictures; it kept it from being gratuitous, kept him from being a martyr.

"United 93" was an incredible movie, but one that I don't think I would ever watch again. The emotions were too strong, and to relive it is just not something I'd want to do. Conversely, I would watch "Zero Dark Thirty" again. "U93" ends bleakly, because at the time there was really no ending. With the finality of bin Laden's death, "ZD30" is like the last movie in a fictional series.

 

 

On the [Celluloid Hero] scale, "Zero Dark Thirty" gets a 7 out of 10.

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