Zero Dark Thirty

Oscars watch:  This is the fifth film nominated for Best Picture (correcting the fact that there are nine nominees this year, not ten, as I stated earlier). And the ceremony is only around the corner - four more films to go.

I was in Los Angeles, during my joyous U.S. holiday, when Osama Bin Laden had been found and killed. A week later, I was in New York, visiting the site where it all began. I’m not a New Yorker, I’m not an American, and I don’t know anyone who lives in New York, but when I saw the photographs of the people who died on that day, and some of the wreckage that had been preserved at the Visitors Centre on Ground Zero, my heart just sunk, as the rooms were eerily, dead silent.

I was almost fifteen when the two planes crashed into the Twin Towers – I had learnt of the news on the morning of the 12^th, as it occurred in the middle of the night, Australia time – I was having breakfast, getting ready for school, and I was confused as to what was being shown on TV. At first, I thought it was just the one plane that accidently crashed into the World Trade Centre being shown over and over again. But then my mother pointed out: “it was deliberate”. Deliberate? It was then, I realised, that there were two planes, two buildings, two blazing clouds of smoke. Why did these people hijack these planes, and crash them? Who would be that crazy to do that? That day, I learnt a new word: terrorist. I’d heard this word before, from movies and shows, but I had never really seen such real, evil acts of terrorism being played over and over again. It was also the first I had heard about Osama Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the attacks, a man who became the most recognisable criminal in the world, but no one could find him.

Nevertheless, that day came. Travelling through the U.S. during this triumphant time was bizarre, but only for a moment. The night before, I was watching highlights of the White House Correspondents dinner in our hotel room, laughing at Seth Meyers’ jokes on Donald Trump. Then, the next day, Osama Bin Laden is dead. Being at Ground Zero in New York was surreal. I stood there, looking at posters stating congratulatory praise for the Obama administration, and remembering what I had seen on the news ten years earlier. I couldn’t believe that this place was a ghost town covered in mountains of ash. But New York has recovered, perhaps not fully, but it has certainly rebuilt itself.

It took nearly ten years to find Bin Laden. And in those ten years, many of us had carried on with our lives. I was busy growing up, getting educated, doing a little bit of travelling, while, an undisclosed unit was trying to track down Bin Laden.

As you may know, Kathryn Bigelow’s, Zero Dark Thirty, is about the search for Bin Laden. It’s a three hour film that takes us from 9/11, to the London bombings, to the discovery of Bin Laden’s secret compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and then, the raid and killing of the most wanted man in the world. Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a C.I.A. agent who spends most of her waking hours looking for Bin Laden. Throughout her ten year journey, she finds potential leads that get turned down by her superiors, she loses friends, she witnesses the tortures of suspected Bin Laden couriers, and through all this time we are never given much insight into who she really is: Family? Friends? Love life? Home? Her adult life is consumed by Bin Laden. An obsession for revenge. And we can really feel her obsession and determination.

One of my favourite films in the last few years is The Hurt Locker, in which Bigelow made her historic win (first female to win) as Best Director at the Oscars in 2010, as well as winning for Best Picture. What I loved about The Hurt Locker was that it’s a great character-driven story, a psychological look into these three different soldiers (played by Jeremy Renner, Anthony Makie and Brian Geraghty). Zero Dark Thirty is also a war film, but Bigelow steers it into a different route. She focuses heavily on the events, rather than the characters. But this doesn’t feel like a setback for the film because the performances are excellent. I wouldn’t be surprised if Chastain wins Best Actress at this year’s Oscar – although she is up against some tough competition. Jennifer Ehle, who plays Maya’s friend and diligent colleague, is always charming. Aussies, Jason Clarke and Joel Edgerton are exceptional – although, the latter had a minor, but significant role. And Kyle Chandler (who also stars in another Best Picture nominee, Argo) is excellent as Maya’s superior.

Zero Dark Thirty is not a simple film. It’s a very suspenseful voyage with convoluting information which, initially, is unsettling to take in. The first half of the film is indeed convoluting – it assumes that we have followed this story thoroughly from news outlets, and have prior knowledge of the notable figures involved. Understandably, there is ten years’ worth of information to scurry through, which, most of it is manageable to watch, but, there are so many characters involved, that at times, it’s hard to follow who’s who. But the real suspense of the film is the last third, when Maya pushes her superiors to look into the compound at Abbottabad, which she, on a hunch, suspects Bin Laden is hiding in. The raid sequence is undoubtedly intense. It’s a lengthy scene that is skilfully shot with tasteful handheld camera movement and low lighting, which is also aided by night-vision shots. The set of the three-story compound is a replica of the original and was built as is – which means, without the use of a studio, where traditionally, each floor would have been constructed separately – creating a claustrophobic atmosphere, as well as a good visual aide of the maze-like home which is well-guided by quality camera movements and shots.

I had read, prior to viewing Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Bowden’s Vanity Fair article, ‘The Hunt for “Geronimo”’, which is an in-depth account of the infiltration of the Abbottabad compound. The article also goes into the choices and the possible outcomes – discussed by Obama and his administration, the C.I.A and the Navy Seals – about how to go about the raid if the compound is to be Bin Laden’s hiding place. This article gave me a clear view of the operation, and in some way, helped me grasp the story of Zero Dark Thirty (which was written by Mark Boal, who also wrote The Hurt Locker).

There’s no surprise that there has been controversy about this film, particularly the tactics of torture and the supposed misuse of classified information, which Bigelow and Boal had access to. This is certainly an emotional story, and the very last shot of the film gives us a vague insight into what Maya has accomplished personally. And whether you believe the conspiracies surrounding the death of Bin Laden or disagree with the methods of torture, you have to remember that this is a film. A film that does its best to give a fairly accurate portrayal of real events. A film about dutiful characters who are trying to track down a powerful, murderous criminal. So when you see Zero Dark Thirty, leave the propaganda bullshit behind, and just watch the film (or not).