Zero Dark Thirty

In posts long overdue I present to you Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty

This film came with a lot of hype, and considering its premise is based around the hunt for Osama Bin Laden that's not a surprise. The main complaint was the use of torture scenes in the film's first half hour. We see our protagonist Maya (Jessica Chastain) arrive at a detainee centre in Pakistan where she watches Dan (Jason Clarke) use waterboarding, depravation and humiliation in his interrogation of a detainee with ties to Saudi terrorists. Was it difficult to watch? Absolutely. Was it a shock to consider that the US used torture during their hunt for Bin Laden? Definitely not.

Bigelow, who is so far the first and only woman to win an Academy Award for best director (don't even get me started), returns from the high of The Hurt Locker with this dark, compelling story about Maya, a CIA agent who spent ten years focussed on tracking and killing Bin Laden. The film starts off on a dark note with torture, then takes it's time to slowly unravel the frustration, the lies, the losses and gains as Maya tracks America's most wanted man. There were a few scenes in the middle, particularly the ones featuring CIA agent Jennifer, that seemed a little unnecessary (I'm still not certain why she was baking a cake), but overall the film had a great pace and kept the focus where it needed to be, on Maya.

Chastain's performance is flawless. She incapsulates the pain, struggle and compromise necessary to do the job she does. The film depicts her as lonely but that never seems to bother her. I think for people who dedicate their lives to such tasks the true loneliness comes after their missions are completed. It was so refreshing to see a film about military conflict highlight a woman, and not in a sexually objectifying way like so many do. My main complaint after The Hurt Locker was that the film had been so male-driven. It's not that I think female filmmakers have to make 'women's' stories, but for a filmmaker as fearless as Bigelow is I was anticipating a film like Zero Dark Thirty.

This film is not for everyone. It's not a feel good, happy Hollywood tale. It's dark and gritty. People get tortured, people die. If you don't mind violent images and Hollywood taking liberties with war history then I highly recommend it. The last 30 minutes of the film are explosive with some of the best action sequences I've seen on screen. Performances are natural and compelling and it wont be a surprise if Chastain takes home an Oscar. The Academy have outdone themselves this year by robbing Bigelow of a Best Director nod in favour of five male directors (Although Ben Affleck is notably missing from the list too). I'm not worried though. As long as Bigelow keeps making films the way she does change is inevitable. She's redefining what it means to be a female in film, perhaps a position she's not comfortable with, but a necessary one nevertheless.