There’s nothing flashy about Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty,” the movie that purports to tell the true story of how Osama Bin Laden was hunted for years, and finally killed during the now well known raid of his compound in Pakistan.
The film’s tone is almost government-like in its no extra frills narrative, which seems appropriate, given that the protagonist, Maya (Jessica Chastain received her Oscar nod for the role yesterday morning) is a good agent; skilled, no bullshit and completely driven. It is she who learns who Bin Laden’s reported courier is, and she who leads what sometimes feels like a big hulking machine (again, agency stuff) into action. Sometimes lurching forward on the heels of good intelligence, other times racing down dead end streets.
Much has been made about the somewhat graphic torture techniques—I don’t think they’re any worse to look at than “Slumdog Millionaire,” myself—and whether the United States used torture to gain Intel. If this recounting of the story is true, then we certainly did.
But I have always told anyone who would listen that movies should never be used in place of history, nor in place of fact. I say this without the single bit of anger or meanness. I love the movies, but they are, by their very nature, not completely “true.” The lighting, the make-up, the way years must be condensed into minutes—that’s just how it is.
The point is: does it matter how much is true and how much isn’t? Not to me. So, I liked this movie’s narrative, I had no problem with it deciding what it considers to be the truth, and because Kathryn Bigelow is such a skilled story-teller, I’m munching my popcorn at a furious pace and feeling high anxiety in my stomach. So far, so good.
Now at about two hours in comes the raid on the compound—and at this specific juncture, most of us have already seen video, satellite photos and even animated re-enactments of that fateful night. And here, Bigelow seems to stage the raid almost in real time—it’s about a half hour in and out of the compound. It’s thrilling to watch.
In retrospect, I’d say that Ben Affleck did the more skillful job of making a “Hollywood” movie about a real life event involving American workers abroad. There were more nail-biting moments, in part, because of Affleck’s willingness to use moviemaking “gimmicks” to keep the viewer’s attention and good posture. But Bigelow’s ballsy take on the story, among other sublime elements, makes “Zero Dark Thirty” one of the year’s best films.
Just don’t watch it in place of reading history and facts.