
Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty is a Righteous Good Time
Zero Dark Thirty opens with Jason Clarke's character Dan telling a detainee named Ammar (a composite according to the movie's screenwriter Mark Boal), "You lie to me, I hurt you." He goes on to knock him down, forces him to endure simulated drowning, and forces him inside a small box. This is all done with workmanlike simplicity and the scenes do not offer any musical cues or obvious directorial techniques to guide the audience to any emotional response. Kathryn Bigelow, the director, trusts her audience enough to come to our own conclusions about these enhanced interrogation techniques that produced information that ultimately led to finding Bin Laden.
This early scene also introduces us to Maya (Jessica Chastain), watching the torture of Ammar and ordering Dan to continue. We follow her for the next 156 minutes as she doggedly pursues every minute piece of information that might lead the US to the capture of Bin Laden. The character is presented as a quiet, friendless workaholic whose singular vision was the driving force behind capturing Bin Laden. Chastain infuses Maya with a quiet, unrelenting determination that both scares and awes the viewer. Maya is an ordinary woman tasked with an extraordinary job and it hits the viewer that all of the people shown on screen are people just doing a job.
The film ends with the intense siege of Bin Laden's hideaway in Pakistan by the Navy SEALs (the two most recognizable faces are Joel Edgerton and Chris Pratt) and the scene is claustrophobic and intimate. Bigelow switches between the green of night-vision goggles and regular film, highlighting how much of a team effort Bin Laden's final takedown was. Bigelow has a real talent for making large-scale action feel contained and intimate; it's almost disheartening how pathetic an end the most wanted criminal in the world came to; all of the work, all of the death, all of the compromised ideals-ended like this?
Get Top Stories Delivered Weekly
Recent Redhawk Review News Articles
Discuss This Article
GET TOP STORIES DELIVERED WEEKLY
FOLLOW OUR NEWSPAPER
LATEST REDHAWK REVIEW NEWS
RECENT REDHAWK REVIEW CLASSIFIEDS
OUTSIDE THE LINES
- The Tooth Fairy Is Now Taking Calls
- Easy Sweetpotato Minestrone Soup—California Style
- A National Opportunity To Address The School Closure Crisis
- Online Learning Made Better
- What Blood Cancer Patients Need To Know
- Uniformed Services Members: Help Protect Your Family With...
- Social Engagement
- Let’s All Cheer For The Plant And Flower Of The Year
- 5 Tips To Save Time (And Sanity) This Holiday Season
- EdChoice Public Opinion Tracker New Poll Shows Parents...
FROM AROUND THE WEB
- BookBites: Meet Characters and Journeys You Won't Soon...
- Let's Set An Amazing Education Record This School Choice...
- BookBites: Four Intriguing Reads to Start the New Year
- Money Management for Kids Pays Off in Adulthood
- BookBites: 4 Books With Stories and Lessons to Guide Us...
- School Choice: Because Not Everyone Belongs in a STEM School
- 3 Tips for Winning at Weight Loss this New Year
- American Heart Association Issues Call to Live Fierce
- Stream The Office Exclusively on Peacock January 1
- Make Money Management Your New Year's Resolution
COLLEGE PRESS RELEASES
- GEN.G ANNOUNCES FIRST ANNUAL GEN. G FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP RECIPIENTS
- PHARRELL WILLIAMS LAUNCHES BLACK AMBITION
- We Need College Students Leadership to Stop the Spread of COVID-19
- Earn tokens for sharing and discussing scientific articles
- Quicken is bringing financial wellness to major U.S. universities