Why I Loved Zero Dark Thirty.

Along with some great friends (Dani and Carrie, TS, and the Commish), my wife and I enjoyed Kathryn Bigelow’s latest masterpiece. The Oscar winning director of The Hurt Locker produced yet another war themed masterpiece. The film focuses on the 10 year journey of CIA operatives as they track down and ultimately capture Osama Bin Laden. Tapping into what makes Homeland amazing; Zero Dark Thirty shows us the nitty gritty work that goes into these manhunts. The film is intense and emotional. You feel the brutality of torture, the hope of leads, the despair and agony of terrorist attacks and the intensity of the greatest manhunt in history.  The cast of the film is quite excellent. Jessica Chastain (the Debt) stars as Maya, the stone cold CIA agent who was responsible for capturing OBL. She has no friends, no life and no respect for anyone standing in her way. For all these reasons, the audience will love her. She reminded me of a Carrie from Homeland, less the craziness. The supporting cast includes, Kyle Chandler (FNL) as the CIA Director on staff and Jason Clarke (Lawless) as a CIA Operative.

The film will have you enthralled the entire time you are watching. Bigelow is a master story teller and makes us feel like we are on the journey with Maya as she tracks down OBL. Despite some early torture scenes, the film is less gory than advertised and the torture scenes themselves are not as gruesome as you may think.

In this pretty awesome film, the true star and shining moment is the final act, also known as Operation Geronimo.  Commencing at 12:30 am or Zero Dark Thirty (sorry but apparently people didn’t know this) the final operating to take over a compound in a city called Abadabad, is a riveting piece of filmmaking. With no music whatsoever, Bigelow let’s the operation shine. The entire theater held their breath as the Seal Team 6 did a room by room search of the compound. Insanely accurate and done beautifully on-screen, the final operation was everything I expected and more.

In summary, this film is excellent and will definitely be in consideration for the Best Picture Academy Award. See this film!!!!!!!!!!

Sex: Very Brief Male Nudity

Violence: Some Torture and Graphic War Scenes

Language: Plenty Of Cursing

Drugs: None
Rated: R

Run time: 157 minutes
Grade: 4 Stars