Yup, this past week as part of my 'Watch Everything Nominated for Oscars' this year I actually went and watched Zero Dark Thirty in theatres.
My review of this kinda requires some forwarnings:
1. I am not American. I strongly got the impression that this film is sort of geared towards Americans.
2. I had no idea until after seeing the film that there's controversy about the torture/interrogation scenes.
3. I have seen nothing else that Kathryn Bigelow has done. Nothing.
4. I don't know what's been embellished for film and what legit happened in RL or was spoken of in the book.
Let's begin.
I remember reading somewhere that there are two kinds of films - those driven by character, and those driven by story. Character driven films are like 'The Avengers' because the plot is just 'Loki wants to take over Earth' and we just pay attention to how the characters interact and play with one another - we remember Tony Stark/Bruce Banner, and the Black Widow/Hawkeye interplay.
Zero Dark Thirty I can safely say is a story-driven film.
Sure, the character of Maya (Mya?) should theoretically be a character I should find appealing, especially because for the ENTIRE film there is NO hint at her being a love-interest. NONE. Which I think is a great thing for the film (it also passes the Bechdel test as statement of fact; I don't think a movie is good or bad whether or not it passes this test, but it's a nice sticker on their nametag, so to speak, so long as the qualifier of 'The two don't speak about a man' doesn't apply when any conversations cover Osama bin Laden) especially because there are literally two women in this film as characters: Maya, and her friend (who is only in it for half the movie) and that's IT.
This makes sense for this film because I can completely understand how the CIA and a lot of the military is still a boys-club, again as a statement of fact.
As a Canadian I can say I didn't get the real impact of this film. I was young when 9/11 happened, and (as a compliment to the actors) I truly got the impression that everyone involved in the search for bin Laden took 9/11 personally, and that was what was driving them. Rightfully so, I suppose, or else they wouldn't keep working at it for 10+ years.
There was also a good job of the film to introduce the process-and-follow-through of the giant web of information, suspects, and informants involved in this search. I kept up with 80% of it, and not having immersed myself in the media and history of this whole story, I call that a compliment.
The film itself is not beautiful - it has good camera work but doesn't have any gorgeous cinematography. I guess in a film like this it's not very necessary; having a shot you'd keep as a wallpaper on your computer draws you out of the mood this film sets; it's not supposed to show off grand vistas and the like. You're not supposed to have your breath taken away, you're supposed to be holding it because who knows what could go down next. Whether it was story-intended set up or not, there are a few scenes that impress how dangerous working with this case (is?) was, and so it's better if the audience isn't pushes away. There was some fun camera work involving night-vision-goggles near the end of the film that I enjoyed at first, but was a little trying as it went on.
I will say for pacing that I got bored. Yup- after hour 2 I just sat back and looked around; I knew what was happening was probably very important to impress that working on this case after a presidential election where Obama was to be Commander in Chief would mean many different struggles for Maya and her team, but they had lost me.
For acting, it was 8/10. I could outright frame the two scenes (the only two!) where Maya is in a head-on shot where she's foaming-at-the-mouth angry or relieved-and-crying that are just trying so hard to be the Oscar-nominee-sequence like in Wayne's World. It has no element of narm in it at all, it's just obviously framed that way just in case Jessica Chastain get's an Oscar nomination from it.
For the interrogation/torture sequences they weren't super shocking; maybe it was because it was a film that I assumed it was 'Movie Land' actions? As things went on between interrogatee and interrogator the steps and theories behind the actions done were explained to the audience by themselves, so I still have no real sure opinion on it. Maybe because it wasn't as much an asshole move as the photos from Guantanamo were, or Bigelow chose to avoid the more graphic-bloodthirsty scenes? I'll have to rethink this in the future.
I think Zero Dark Thirty covered this era in American history well, for being the only film to cover it that wasn't a documentary (which could be saying something). I do wonder if it was nominated for Best Picture just because it relates to 9/11. Zero Dark Thirty is a good film, don't get me wrong, but is it a great one? Is it worth Best Picture?
