Written by: Mark Boal
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler
Rating: [4.5/5]
Symbolic victories gravely matter when communicating a sense of strength to the masses. An attempt to score points that overshadow all of the smaller defeats those in power want erased. In some ways, the search for Osama in Laden represented this in the largest manhunt in United States intelligence history, and the journey there creates a disturbing, treacherous, and morally dubious experience that Zero Dark Thirty presents warts and all.
Following the horrific events of 9/11, the CIA ramps up their search for all of the members of the terrorist group involved and eliminated them. This includes horrific torture techniques such as waterboarding to get answers from individuals who have them. This puts Maya (Jessica Chastain), an analyst for the agency, in a place of moral conundrum as she does what it takes to find bin Laden.
Nothing about Zero Dark Thirty can be described as pleasant where we watch in detail how the CIA coerced and tortured individuals under the righteous indignation of stopping a terrorist threat. A situation where they continually cross and erase the lines of decency in order to get the answers they need. They would argue it came as part of their prerogative to get revenge for the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, but as we sit through these scenes, the stripping away of another person’s humanity does begin to lose sight of the basic rights any individual has. Therefore, this film perpetually sits in this gray area as seen through Maya where she obviously feels uncomfortable with the methods displayed but acknowledges she needs the information that can be utilized in order to enhance her search.
Centering this story on the manhunt for Osama bin Laden displays the years-long struggle of working on morsels of information where it began to raise questions of the validity of the search’s continuance. As the film jumps in the timeline years at a time, one can only imagine what happens in between what we see in the scenes captured in this film showing the sheer desperation Maya feels with this search. Years and years of her life are consumed by this singular objective and as we see through the narrative, she begins to stand alone in the importance of it continuing even if others believe more pressing concerns matter. For Maya, this search means everything because she still believes that Osama bin Laden could strike again even if gone dormant for many years, but one has to imagine it may fall into the sunk cost fallacy for her personally. However, when looking at the bigger picture, taking out bin Laden symbolizes a victory against the essential face of terrorism to Americans. Personally, I’ve never known the name of any other terrorist as a child other than bin Laden, and hearing about his death truly resonated when the news broke. It felt like a moment in American history, which continues to support why Maya remains obsessive in this manhunt.
All throughout the film, we have moments of grave tension that leave you on the edge of your seat. Moments where you feel Maya and others she works with will finally make a big break in this search and get the information they need only for it to be snatched away from them in a heartbreaking manner. A continual pressure builds throughout this film that does not quite relent as the walls feel like they are closing in around Maya. It combines the obsession she has with this case in addition to the time horizon and budget restraints occurring around her that only continue to add to the pressure. It makes the need for a strong lead actor all the more important to capture this feeling, which we undoubtedly received with Jessica Chastain.
A particular scene transpires in the film where Chastain’s Maya meets with some colleagues for some nourishment and they comment on how she looks terrible. Truly a silly thing to say because the makeup team could only do so much to make Chastain look in rough shape, but she does nail the anger and anxiousness that came with the role given to her. Seeing how she shifts from the first torturing scene where she can barely stomach what she sees all the way to what occurs later in the film shows someone who comes to grips with the acknowledgment of the tactics needed to get her answers. This journey gets tiring and you can feel this vitriol simply through the faces she makes and all of her expressions. Her finest performance to date and one that displays her exceptional talent.
Crafting a film such as this one for Kathryn Bigelow demonstrates her penchant for putting together viscerally enthralling stories in ways many others cannot. This comes as no surprise but this film also serves as a bit of a parallel in the way Bigelow had to serve as a pioneer as a woman in a male-dominated industry and get things done much like Maya. In most major scenes throughout the film, Maya sits as the only woman in the room and must make her presence known to ensure she gets the credit she deserves. Bigelow undoubtedly had to deal with the same nonsense and in the case of her success and Maya, it works out quite well.
Delivering a plethora of thrilling sequences throughout an arduous journey, Zero Dark Thirty caps it all off with a third act for the ages in how it leaves your fist clenched in addition to a stunning final shot that truly sums everything up here for Maya. The film challenges in presenting the harsh reality of what it took in order to score this symbolic victory of taking out one man. Years and probably billions spent in this effort, this film presents it all as a matter of fact and leaves you with the decision of whether or not you deem in appropriate or worth all of the harm that transpired in its wake. Undoubtedly effective and truly something that stays with you far after the final credits roll.
Films with Josh 
