Geoff - 2/7/13
Zero Dark Thirty is a film about the hunt and ultimately the killing out of Bin Laden. You already know how this movie ends, but that doesn't stop it from being enjoyable. I found it interesting to learn that a young woman had so much to do with OSB's search. When I think of CIA Agents hunting down bad guys, I imagine standard Hollywood action hero types, not Jessica Chastain. Though I'm sure in reality the woman behind the character doesn't look like Chastain.
Zero Dark Thirty is directed by Katheryn Bigelow, who also directed The Hurt Locker and there is definitely a similar feel. As interesting as some of the facts are, the movie is actually quite slow until the final act when the Navy Seals actually raid OSB's compound. When that scene does finally show up, it starts out really exciting and really keeps you pumped up waiting to see Bin Laden get his.
Critics will all rave about how great Zero Dark Thirty is, just because they don't want to be labelled as "unpatriotic", but truthfully it's a good movie, not a great movie.
Rating - 2
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Chandler - 9/19/2013
I really didn't want to watch this movie when it was first released. It
just seemed a bit too soon, as if it was an exploitation film attempting
to cash in on a recent event. I should have known that Kathryn Bigelow
(director of The Hurt Locker) wasn't going to fuck it up.
Zero Dark Thirty begins with the chilling phone calls of victims during the 9/11 attacks. It then jumps right into detailed scenes of water-boarding and other interrogation techniques used on Al-Qaeda prisoners. Regardless of how you feel about the United States' torture policy (and its effectiveness), it's a pretty chilling depiction.
So the story is about how we found Osama bin Laden and the raid which ultimately killed him. From what I can tell it's a pretty accurate portrayal, in fact it was so accurate congress launched (and later dropped) an investigation to see if the filmmakers had access to classified documents. I appreciate the attention to detail and facts, even if some characters are tweaked (mostly because we don't really know who these people are).
The raid on Osama's compound is an awesome piece of film-making. Having read up on various accounts of the raid, Bigelow managed to re-create the event in shocking detail.
Basically... this is the best of the 2013 Best Picture Nominees, and a much better movie than Argo.
Zero Dark Thirty begins with the chilling phone calls of victims during the 9/11 attacks. It then jumps right into detailed scenes of water-boarding and other interrogation techniques used on Al-Qaeda prisoners. Regardless of how you feel about the United States' torture policy (and its effectiveness), it's a pretty chilling depiction.
So the story is about how we found Osama bin Laden and the raid which ultimately killed him. From what I can tell it's a pretty accurate portrayal, in fact it was so accurate congress launched (and later dropped) an investigation to see if the filmmakers had access to classified documents. I appreciate the attention to detail and facts, even if some characters are tweaked (mostly because we don't really know who these people are).
The raid on Osama's compound is an awesome piece of film-making. Having read up on various accounts of the raid, Bigelow managed to re-create the event in shocking detail.
Basically... this is the best of the 2013 Best Picture Nominees, and a much better movie than Argo.
Rating - 3
