The second I heard about this movie, I was determined to see it. Military movies are typically not my forte, but I knew this would be the talked about movie of the year. And when it finally hit wide release, I managed to get a few of my friends to see it with me.
It's definitely not a strictly "shoot 'em up" style movie. Yes, and be prepared for spoilers, the last thirty minutes of the movie is like that. But the first two hours are like a detective movie. You follow this woman's chase. And yes, there are things that get blown up in the first two hours so it's not a total waste for everyone expecting an action-filled adventure.
Aside from feeling a rush of American pride after this movie, I also felt empowered as a woman. This was a movie directed by a lady -
Kathryn Bigelow. And, the main character is a woman. But, she doesn't find Osama bin Laden by being a woman. Her gender is not a plot point. And I really respected that.
As for the torture, those scenes were incredibly hard to watch. I don't think that Bigelow was a "torture apologist" or that was the point of the movie. I think the message was, "Hey, this happened. This is how they got information." The agents in the movie complain that they were no longer able to torture. However, one of the men responsible for the hardest to watch torture scenes states in a meeting that he knows how the information is obtained and he gives it at 60% chance of being true. Which, to me, seemed like a condemnation of the methods used to obtain the information.
Zero Dark Thirty was incredibly well directed. It didn't feel like a long movie. And I bet you anything that it was better than The Hobbit. Sorry, Bilbo.
Labels: movies, recommendations
