The C.I.A’s acting director Michael J. Morell has criticized ZERO DARK THIRTY, claiming it exaggerates the role of coercive interrogations in producing clues to the whereabouts of the leader of Al Qaeda.
He told C.I.A. staffers in a memo that the the film “creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Laden. That impression is false.”
Whatever. ZERO DARK THIRTY opened at a handful of major city theaters on December 19 and set box office records while providing ongoing controversy for the media to devour.
ZERO DARK THIRTY from the directing, writing and producing team of 2009’s Oscar winning THE HURT LOCKER—Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal—finally platforms out to the rest of the country this weekend.
Yes, it’s the story of the greatest multi-year manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man—EVER! Along with his ultimate capture and elimination.
Yet the key focus of the film is on one young secret operative, Maya, who seems to hold the key to Bin Laden’s whereabouts even though it takes time to convince her superiors. She’s played in convincing C.I.A. fashion by Jessica Chastain.
Bear in mind though that this is a motion picture Drama-Thriller!
Translation: Not a documentary or Non-fiction drama.
This is a DRAMATIZATION of the epic story of the manhunt for Bin Laden during the post 9/11 landscape.
And about those torture sequences?
They’re definitely part of the proceedings as the film labors through a parade of terrorist interviews with Maya going from timid onlooker to tough as nails man hunter.
If nothing else, the movie provides us with a small window into alleged C.I.A. practices. You can make up your own mind whether they are right, wrong—or RIGHT-On.
When watching the film, just remember acting director Morell’s claim that “whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved.”
The motion picture has been nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Actress (Jessica Chastain) and Best Original Screenplay but was snubbed in the Best Director catagory.
Two hours and 37 minutes of ZERO DARK THIRTY, co-starring Jason Clark, Joel Edgerton, Edgar Ramirez, Kyle Chandler and James Gandolfini opens citywide and raises 4 out of 5 tense fingers.
JACK GOES TO THE MOVIES: Friday’s at 6:40 a.m. on KMBZ Fm & Am / And anytime on Time Warner Cable’s K.C. ON DEMAND, Channel 411 / And throughout Nebraska on NEBRASKA ON DEMAND.
Nothing quite like a little waterboarding and jumper cables from car batteries to the nipples in the morning to work up an appetite for lunch. Smells like… victory.
In 1985’s Rambo First Blood Part II the unimaginably evil bad VC tortured Rambo. Now in 2013 we are the “good guys” torturing people in movies.
Good point Balboni.
Do you think the end justified the means in the death of Osama?
No.
And I think you meant ‘alleged death’, right Chuck?
I mean, nobody was allowed to see the alleged body being dumped in the ocean, right?
Here is the last bit of an excellent review in “The Pitch” by Sicinski.
“Does Zero Dark Thirty tell us that torturing our enemies is OK? It has often been said that the 9/11 attacks, which bin Laden helped organize, resembled some sort of horrible real-life Hollywood action movie. If it was necessary to track and kill bin Laden, and if it was equally necessary to perform unsavory acts to do it, it is perhaps even more necessary that those acts and that killing be depicted in a Hollywood movie. Bin Laden may have dictated the terms and form of the response to his actions. He made his “movie.” And now we have made ours.”
I like Butler’s review too, but this kid nails it pretty well imo.
No diss Jack, your reviews are thumbnail by design and I like that too.
🙂
Hey Chuck,
I agree. My web reviews are like McDonalds. Think of them as McRev’s. For fast consumption.
Hope you enjoy them.
I do.
🙂