![\"zerodarkthirtyposter\"](\"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/zerodarkthirtyposter.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nDirector: \u00a0<\/strong>Kathryn Bigelow Z<\/span>ero Dark Thirty<\/em>, the cinematic dramatization of the manhunt to kill Osama Bin Laden, is a film that comes laden with baggage.\u00a0 Prior to the film’s release, there was a lot of negative press drawn towards Kathryn Bigelow’s film, its portrayal of torture and whether it wrongfully implied that the use of waterboarding lead to the critical information that identified Bin Laden’s whereabouts.<\/p>\n Having seen the film firsthand, I’m a little unsure if those critics interpreted the film correctly or if they saw it all.\u00a0 There is a strong focus on the torturing of detainees in the opening act of the film, but the information is largely unuseful.\u00a0 It is only when a high ranking captive bluffs too hard in an exchange about the knowledge of Bin Laden’s courier Abu Hamed, does the investigation gather any real traction.<\/p>\n The real eye-opening thing about this film to me is that it feels categorically the opposite to what I was lead to believe it was.\u00a0 To my eyes, this is a film that is bereft of military jingoism and propaganda.\u00a0 Instead the CIA operatives are made to look cold, calculating and frighteningly casual in their disregard for human rights as they track down ‘UBL’.<\/p>\n Jessica Chastain plays Maya, a CIA operative who joins the investigation in 2003.\u00a0 She befriends another operative named Dan, played by Jason Clarke, who spends his days torturing a man named Ammar in an undisclosed location.<\/p>\n Are we supposed to sympathise with Maya and Dan?\u00a0 I’m not so sure.\u00a0 Dan is already emotionally hardened and morally bankrupt.\u00a0 He views Abu Ghraib and Gitmo as inconveniences and gives the following advise to Maya:\u00a0 “don’t be the one left holding a dog collar when the oversight committee comes.”\u00a0 He clearly views torture as dirty but necessary work but I don’t think that means Kathryn Bigelow expects the audience to agree.<\/p>\n Maya herself is defined almost entirely by her work.\u00a0 Friendless and devoid of any hobbies or humour, she has this particular exchange with a CIA leader late in the film:<\/p>\n “Have you done anything else noteworthy in the CIA?”<\/em> And that’s her in a nutshell.\u00a0 So single minded in her work is Maya that when she is caught in a hotel bombing in Pakistan, she emerges unscathed but then strolls out of the building completely ignoring the people who are hurt around her and in need of help.\u00a0 Get Bin Laden is the prime directive.<\/p>\n The search for Bin Laden is messy, tiresome work and by the middle of the decade, most high ranking officials have lost hope and run through the motions.\u00a0 From no higher a source than George Bush: “I don’t care where Bin Laden is.”\u00a0 Maya, however, retains a steely resolve to track down the man.<\/p>\n
\nWriter: \u00a0<\/strong>Mark Boal
\nCast: \u00a0<\/strong>Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt<\/p>\n
\n“No.\u00a0 I was recruited out of highschool and all I’ve done is investigate Bin Laden”<\/em><\/p>\n