Written and directed by “The Hurt Locker” Oscar-winners Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow, “Zero Dark Thirty,” the title of their subsequent war film, is military lingo for 12:30 a.m.—the time that SEAL Team Six’s stealth attack on Osama bin Laden’s hidden lair in Pakistan took place.
Following the 9/11 destruction by terrorist organization al-Qaida that killed 3,000 Americans, newbie CIA agent Maya (Jessica Chastain), along with a committed group of fellow analysts, begins a 12-year, no-stone-unturned, workaholic, investigative siege to track down bin Laden’s whereabouts.
Boal and Bigelow’s exhaustive slicing and dicing of details ensures that the tale they’re telling feels rock solid. Working from declassified files, public records, and interviews, Boal’s journalistic background is palpable. But, this being a screenplay, he also ramps up the engaging storytelling aspect. The result is riveting.
Spies
The above refers to the film’s treatment of how information was squeezed out of al-Qaida detainees at CIA black sites via “enhanced interrogation,” which includes starvation, stress postures, waterboarding, and locking prisoners in tiny cages.
Maya is visibly rattled by the interrogation process, in stark contrast to seasoned, thoroughly desensitized colleague Dan (Jason Clarke), who brings new meaning to the phrase “not afraid to get one’s hands dirty.” This is best illustrated when he allows a small caged monkey to grab a scoop of his ice cream cone with its filthy paws, and then absent-mindedly licks it himself.
Maya, however, starts to rethink the whole process, especially when it becomes apparent that one detainee will say whatever he thinks they want to hear, to avoid the pain. She convinces Dan that empathy with the prisoner might actually get better results. Which it ultimately does.
Maya then begins putting together these various puzzle pieces that eventually lead to Abu Ahmed—bin Laden’s most-trusted courier. As she begins to home in on her main target, Maya runs into endless setbacks and delays by agency bureaucracy and collegial skepticism, as well as ending up, herself, on the al-Qaida hit list.
Warriors
Patriots All
“Zero Dark Thirty” is really best viewed as eye-opening transparency in regard to the inner workings of how the Central Intelligence Agency dealt with one of America’s most crippling blows. This is not flashy Hollywood entertainment such as the recent treatment of Tom Clancy’s “Without Remorse.” This is memorable cinema, grounded in earnestness, respect, and painstaking integrity by filmmakers who hope to shed light on the matter.
What stands out the most (in addition to Jessica Chastain’s brilliant performance) is the portrait of the normally mildly maligned (also often portrayed as supremely sneaky and up to no good) CIA—as a bastion of patriotism. Intelligence gathering is, after all, the head that directs the limbs (the military) to carry out missions. It’s conjecture, then, to extrapolate that since spying is in and of itself intensely devious, it therefore attracts a particular kind of colder, more ruthless patriot. After all, the professions of warrior, spy, and assassin are all linked, and all are war-fighting elements. But “Zero Dark Thirty” restores faith that we’re all on the same page when it comes to defending our nation.
As for what Chastain pulls off acting-wise, she manages to make Maya—who is exceedingly mule-headed and not an inherently likeable individual—likeable. One gains immediate respect for her talent, integrity, and determination, and her outsized chutzpah is also endearing. When asked by the CIA director (James Gandolfini) who she is (since she piped up in a meeting of clearly much more important people), she replies “I’m the (expletive) who found this place, sir!” The director, charmed, seeks her out at lunch and tells her that she has a flair for the work.
All in All
“Zero Dark Thirty” is a painstaking, journalistic portrait of the events, as mentioned. It’s one of the great cinematic procedurals—but also a gripping thriller of the highest caliber.
The film doesn’t do a victory dance over bin Laden’s death, and no one is more conflicted in the end than Maya, who spent 10 years hyperfocused in search of a symbol. When the actual, pathetic, frail human is finally dispatched and Maya heads home, sitting alone on the giant, empty, military transport plane, the pilot remarks, “You must be pretty important.” Then you can see the weight of the inner conflict settle on her. Because after a decade of incredible effort and strain, none of the violence of humans has been alleviated whatsoever.
This Memorial Day 2021, if you watch “Zero Dark Thirty,” keep in mind that there’s a designated wall located at the main entrance of the CIA’s headquarters, which was created in 1974. It displays a star for each agency member who died in the line of duty. Spanning the CIA’s 72-year history, there are now 130 stars, honoring the CIA’s continuing fight to help keep America safe and free.
