Tell us what you thought of 'Zero Dark Thirty'
Kathryn Bigelow's embattled film goes wide this weekend
Jessica Chastain in "Zero Dark Thirty"
Credit: Sony Pictures
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At this point, anyone who hasn't seen "Zero Dark Thirty" -- which is the majority of the movie-going public -- has had to hear it chewed on and mulled over for well over a month. Critics awards and controversy have shrouded the film upon delivery to a wider audience this weekend, and it's turned up #1 at the box office as a result. But how about some reactions? When/if you get around to the film, and indeed, if you already have, cut loose with your thoughts on it in the comments section below.
Kristopher Tapley has covered the film awards landscape for over a decade. He founded In Contention in 2005. His work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Times of London and Variety. He begs you not to take any of this too seriously.
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2012-2013 OSCAR PREDICTIONS
UPDATED: FEB 25, 2013
Best Picture
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Adapted Screenplay
Best Original Screenplay
Best Cinematography
Best Costume Design
Best Film Editing
Best Makeup And Hairstyling
Best Original Score
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Best Sound Editing
Best Sound Mixing
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Best Animated Feature Film
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Login or create a HitFix account Login SignupLisa
January 13, 2013 at 2:32PM EST Reply to CommentI went Saturday morning - first showing in the reddest theater anyone can go to (suburban Houston, TX). It was packed and it went over like gangbusters. The audience clapped TWICE, once when OBL was shot in the face and the next time during credits. I thought it was very well-made (deserving of a directing Oscar certainly) but I liked Argo better. I prefer something more entertaining than "realistic". This one left me more disturbed than F-yeah! unlike the wing nuts I co-exist with who were all pumped up from it all. I can tell you the South is gonna love this movie.
meep I also saw a matinee yesterday. In Louisiana myself, but New Orleans, so more purple than red. There was applause once in my screening when Maya identified the body in the tent following the raid. Just to add even more "color" to the comment, as I sat through the end credits and theater cleanup had begun, a girl shouted to her mates "eeewww..dip cups...three in this row". Not only was Bigelow snubbed by the Academy, I'd go a bit further and say she was robbed. Superior in more ways than one in my mind to Argo, in particular, the more fleshed out supporting cast. Perhaps more a credit to the screenwriting, but Bigelow's strength of direction was viscerally felt throughout. And seeing other comments below, obviously, you and I were not bored.
January 13, 2013 at 3:21PM ESTChris138 I was wondering if people in my audience tonight were going to clap at the end, but it was silent. I don't think it was even Bigelow's intention to do that, where in Argo it was obvious that Affleck was going for that kind of reaction.
January 14, 2013 at 1:41AM ESTAmericanRequiem
January 13, 2013 at 2:33PM EST Reply to CommentThought it was great
Giga Thought it was boring as hell...dont see what the big deal is really
January 13, 2013 at 2:39PM ESTloyal_mehnert
January 13, 2013 at 2:52PM EST Reply to CommentFinal 25 minutes aside, ZDT crawls through its 500 minute runtime and wins the title for "Most Tedious Film of 2012." I pray Boal and Bigelow step away from the War on Terror for their next collaboration. A serious movie that's also seriously boring.
Danielle
January 13, 2013 at 3:09PM EST Reply to CommentI saw Zero Dark Thirty a few weeks ago I liked the movie probs to a Bigalow and the hole cast!
Stephen
January 13, 2013 at 3:13PM EST Reply to CommentThe movie was very thought provoking. Under Bush we didn't get Bin but the Bush administrations interrigation practices is what lead to the Intel and altimate death of the world's most wanted terrorist. Obama we thank you for saying yes. And as for the film bring on Oscar!
Matt In what way did torture lead to the info? She got the same info from the non-enhanced interrogation sessions.
January 13, 2013 at 3:28PM ESTIbad
January 13, 2013 at 3:14PM EST Reply to CommentI think it's very uneven. A lot of the early part of the film, including the scenes of torture, probably worked more powerfully in an earlier draft written before Bin Laden was actually killed (this idea of the neverending fruitless hunt for a mythical thing). It seemed very apparent the point at which the rewrites started coming in and I'm not sure the two vestiges really meshed. Out of nowhere realizations of certain developments that led to the finale came across as Da Vinci Code-esque or even Scooby Doo stretches of jarring reasoning, which is probably rooted in sound facts but unconvincingly portrayed on film. The final raid itself was impressively done and Chastain's performance is remarkable, but I think it had been way oversold to me.
CaptainCanada The original movie was about the 2001 Battle of Tora Bora, so I don't think the early parts of the story are legacies of an earlier draft.
January 13, 2013 at 3:24PM ESTmeep Agreed regarding Chastain. She was excellent but the over-all film experience leaves a more lasting impression on me than her performance. (Still hoping she takes the Oscar from Jennifer, though. I don't believe Emmanuelle will do it.)
January 13, 2013 at 3:28PM ESTcarbo25
January 13, 2013 at 3:14PM EST Reply to CommentBest film of the year
goonrilla I just wanted 2 c sum blood or osama's face at least nd not his damn beard but overall the movie was decent
January 13, 2013 at 3:32PM ESTJPJones
January 13, 2013 at 3:32PM EST Reply to CommentMost ridiculously over-rated film I've seen in years - maybe ever. The torture controversy aside, I expected it to at least work on the level of a well-crafted a taunt, suspenseful cat-and-mouse thriller. But as others here have noted, it's just a tedious bore, wrapped in a heavy cloak of self-importance.
Bigelow was not snubbed - the film got more nominations than it deserved. Wes Anderson and Tarantino were snubbed - either of them is more deserving of a nomination than Spielberg and his Johnny Tremain take on American history.
Canon
January 13, 2013 at 3:33PM EST Reply to Comment7/10. It starts off brutal and strong and ends strong but everything in between drags on. A great story about the great man hunt, but a little too much dialogue.
CaptainCanada
January 13, 2013 at 3:38PM EST Reply to CommentI liked it. Structurally it does feel a bit like a movie pieced together from multiple sources based on anecdotes and individual episodes, as we follow the hunt across a decade. It does convey how mind-numbing it must have been to run such a search.
The raid is, as others have already said, the centrepiece of the film. It's remarkably tense, despite this being the part of the movie that people know the most about (including that none of the SEALS were killed).
Chastain was terrific, though I can easily see how Lawrence's performance, which is in role that allows for much more range, could win over it. Nonetheless, great dramatic acting. I liked seeing Chris Pratt in a dramatic part again (I still associate him primarily with "Everwood", despite "Parks and Recreation").
Andrej
January 13, 2013 at 4:28PM EST Reply to CommentI really appreciate the journalism behind it, but I would have liked it so much better as a documentary, I think. There is nothing evocative in this film -- not one emotion other than tortorous pain, military frustration and glimpses of disbelief at the end. Bigelow carries her narrative framings from The Hurt Locker (shit goes down -- talk -- shit goes down -- talk), but here it doesn't work as much as it did back then because we can't say it's a movie about Jessica Chastain's character. It's very much all about the mission, which for over two hours, goes on for far too long without anyone emoting outside of protocol.
And even if the climax is superbly executed, Jessica Chastain (or anyone we can recognize by name) are barely in it. And it's by far the best moment of the movie, but it goes on for nearly twenty minutes without any of the protagonists. I mean, if the movie was leading to this big scene, why don't they make it entirely from the point of view of the raiding soldiers instead?
It's a solid 3 out of 5 for me. Good performances, tremendous research and solid techs and crafts. But so dry and analytical it's nothing that couldn't been done as a documentary for a greater effect.
meep I liked that the SEALs were undeveloped. In reality, we can never know these soldiers...until they retire and write books.
January 14, 2013 at 3:27PM ESTJJ1
January 13, 2013 at 4:52PM EST Reply to CommentI think there are brilliant moments throughout. I have no qualms with the torture scenes. The last 30 minutes are fantastic. The performance are very good and naturalistic.
That said, at over 150 minutes,l there were quite a few scenes that I felt could have been trimmed, truncated, altered, or whatnot to be more ...and I hate to say this word but ...entertaining. I often got very confused with the various names being tossed about and since I was confused, my interest went in and out through a large portion of the middle. So I found the movie uneven.
BUT, its obviously a good film, well crafted, intelligent, and I do think Bigelow should have been nominated.
My director noms would be Spielberg, Affleck, Bigelow, Hooper, and Mendes.
Manny The movie was neither here nor there. I don't get the hype behind Chastain's performance; she was much better in The Help. I fear that this film will bring retaliation from the enemy in its showcasing of the torture scenes upon Americans overseas.
January 13, 2013 at 5:54PM ESTJJ1 I also thought that while she was quite good here, she was better in The Help and most of the other 46 performances she had last year.
January 13, 2013 at 6:29PM ESTGL
January 13, 2013 at 5:39PM EST Reply to CommentI just saw it and I have to say, if you think it's boring than be mature enough to understand that you are not bored at the film but at the genre the film encompasses. Therefore also understand that I found this to be the most important film of the last 10 years. It's just that well shot, well edited, well acted, and WELL DIRECTED!
ifdjad "
January 14, 2013 at 12:08AM ESTI just saw it and I have to say, if you think it's boring than be mature enough to understand that you are not bored at the film but at the genre the film encompasses."
If by its genre, you're referring to its procedural nature, I must then disagree. Zodiac is a procedural as well, and utterly absorbing where Zero Dark Thirty is mechanical and lifeless.
Paul Outlaw Zodiac is not necessarily the film I'd pick to make this point, if I indeed wanted to make it, which I don't.
January 14, 2013 at 5:42AM ESTvalar84 Oh please. I loved Argo and like thrillers. But ZD30 is just plain boring, it's not a good movie.
January 16, 2013 at 12:36PM ESTWell shot? Shakycam to compensate a lack of actual action is NOT good cinematography.
Well edited? I went with my brother, I had to wake him twice... and this was an afternoon screening.
Well acted? Really not. I don't get the praise Jessica Chastain gets, I never felt any connection to her character, not when her friend died, not when she yelled at her boss, not when she said she was the Mofo who found the house. The best actor was the guy who played the interrogating agent at the beginning, and he quickly vanishes for most of the movie.
Well directed? Pff. See above.
RyloH
January 13, 2013 at 6:23PM EST Reply to CommentThe movie was well directed, great all star cast, but it left me a little cold. Maybe it's not fair to compare it to the Hurt Locker, but that film had much more humanity to me and I was much more invested in the story, but maybe that's because it was a story of our soldiers on the front line. I will say Jason Clark should have been part of the best supporting actor conversation, but his role is unsavory to say the least at times. I will say one moment in the film got snickers when it shouldn't have and that's when the solider was whispering Osama repeatedly.
Ric
January 13, 2013 at 7:17PM EST Reply to CommentThe best of the year for me!
It was gripping throughout while Argo was predictable in many stretches.
jason liang
January 13, 2013 at 7:26PM EST Reply to CommentZDT is a difficult movie to judge fairly. It lacks a common reference with other movies. It is not a documentary film but at first I wanted to judge it as a documentary, but it lacks a sense of poetry or irony which is what I appreciate in documentaries. As a narrative feature, it has trouble building any suspense or momentum; not only do we of course already know the plot's outcome but most people already know of the plot's main turning point, the suicide attack that killed several CIA agents. From some early critics' comments I had expected a movie that had clever ways to build suspense but there was none.
I was most disappointed in how little the movie revealed about CIA operations; all the terrorist attacks reference in the film are already known in mainstream news discourse. I was expecting Boals to be working with confidential memos; instead this screenplay drew its material from Newsweek. I've read the New Yorker article; I already knew "For God and Country" and "Geronimo." It was like watching a movie where I had already read the script.
ZDT fails if I were to judge it as a conventional movie. However it is an unique movie experience; almost like an acid trip, this movie is a rorschach test for the past 12 years of American culture. I watched it and I could reflect deeply on how 9/11 changed American thought. The viewer is no longer insulated from the War on Terror; what is most admirable about this movie is its portrayal of the current world where bourgeois values and sentiments are terribly obsolete.
ZDT wasn't what I expected it to be so in that sense it was disappointing. I was expecting it to reflect the more noirish aspects of counterterrorism; instead, the material it drew from was conventional; the plot was conventional; the direction of the action sequences (such as the final assault) was all too conventional. There were parts of the movie and the direction that worked for me and that allowed me to reflect on the past 12 years. The most admirable aspect of the movie is its embrace of postmodern filmmaking; there is an absence, lacking, waiting in the film that is akin to Waiting for Godot. Maybe I was waiting for Maya to say something or do something interesting, or turn into an interesting character, which never happened. In a movie where I already knew the fate of the largely absent antagonist, I kept waiting for a protagonist to show up.
I would rather award best picture to Homeland than to ZDT. ZDT is Homeland without Carrie Mathison, and since I am fond of Carrie, to me this is a flaw and not a feature.
Edwin Out of all the opinions I've read about this movie, yours is the one with which I've most agreed thus far. I feel like the most was almost so objective that it was alienating, except that unlike Beckett (whom you referenced), I'm not so certain that this was Bigelow's intent. More so, it just felt like there were a lot of opportunities that the movie passed on in order to adhere to a strict tone of objectivity, which I suppose is admirable in a way, but the end result felt less like journalistic filmmaking and more like a movie that was simply afraid to commit to any kind of artistic perspective. That's honestly a big reason why all the controversy surrounding it is so strange to me, because its depiction of torture is just that: a depiction. It doesn't take a stance on it, or for that matter, on anything else. It's undeniably an expertly crafted film, but I kept wanting it to close in on certain aspects instead of being so broad and objective. But again, that's just my personal preference getting in the way of an objective analysis; I wanted it to be artistic when it seemed to go out of its way at every opportunity to self-consciously avoid making any such artistic statement.
January 13, 2013 at 8:15PM ESTAnd as for the "Homeland" comparison, it's not really a fair one since "Homeland" has much more time to develop its characters and suspense over the course of a 12-hour season than "Zero Dark Thirty" does in a 150-minute movie. Still, you're right: having "Homeland" around does make it clear what "Zero Dark Thirty" could have been should it have taken a more character-based approach. But then, of course, we'd just have a condensed version of "Homeland," which probably wouldn't have been good. So on the one hand, I'm glad "Zero Dark Thirty" didn't go that way, because it would never have been able to avoid negative comparisons to the series in that case, but I'd nonetheless be lying if I didn't admit that, at several points during the movie, I found myself thinking that I'd rather be watching "Homeland."
Edwin That second sentence should read, "like the MOVIE was so objective that it was alienating."
January 13, 2013 at 8:16PM ESTjason liang I would frame the movie's lack of commitment to an artistic perspective as its rorschach quality. ZDT is not simply objective; it forces viewer interaction and engagement. If framed positively, ZDT is the opposite of totalitarian cinema. So that would make ZDT sound like an admirable cinematic achievement.
January 14, 2013 at 4:45AM ESTI could give ZDT all sorts of generous readings:
"ZDT should be renamed 'Missing Carrie Mathison.' A movie that hinges its plot, theme and direction on details constrasts starkly with a protagonist (Maya) that is no more than a spectral abstraction. Maya is not a character; she is a plot device, a stand-in, a presence, a Foucauldian protagonist 'function.' She stands out like a cartoon drawn on a photograph. Perhaps Boals should have named her Jessica Rabbit. Was this the intent? After all, the movie's main theme is about the price that we as Americans paid to fight the War on Terror, to 'bag' Bin Laden: the price of our souls. Maya is a shell; this is what a character without a soul looks like, having struck her Faustian deal and forfeited her soul somewhere between the 10 to 20 minute mark. The most surprising thing about Showtime's "Homeland" is how often it engages viewers on the level of religion and soul. On "Homeland," there are fanatics on both sides. ZDT is by contrast a much darker interpretation of 9/11's traumatic impact on Americans."
Logan
January 13, 2013 at 7:35PM EST Reply to CommentStunning. Chastain surpassed her performances last year in Tree of Life, Take Shelter, and The Help. Deserves to win this year's Oscar. And yes, Bigelow was robbed. Should have had a Cinematography nomination, too.
SJG
January 13, 2013 at 7:39PM EST Reply to CommentI thoroughly enjoyed the film and I liked the fact that it was "procedural", "dull", and "cold". I don't think it was trying to be artsy or intellectual... it was simply conveying the mundaneness of this type of work. It would have been cheapened by being "entertaining."
I thought it was weird that a substantial number of people got up and left from the viewing I was at. I'm from a pretty solidly Republican area where there's still a strong liberal streak, and I don't know if people leaving were conservatives who thought it seemed liberal or liberals who thought it was too conservative, or if it was just people who thought it was boring and decided to leave. But lots of people did just that.
As for Oscar... I'm firmly in the camp of people who think Kathryn Bigelow UNAMBIGUOUSLY deserves to have been nominated for this film, and I don't know if it's sexism or politics or backlash against THL or what, but I don't believe that she was excluded for no reason. If directors weren't voting for her to be nominated, I feel like it can only be because they were deliberately excluding her for some reason.
And Chastain... I went in expecting to come out supporting her for Best Actress. But, as wonderful as her performance was, I do have to give the advantage to Lawrence. I haven't seen any of the others, but in a Lawrence v. Chastain showdown, I have to grudgingly hand it to the SLP gal.
Edwin There were several walk-outs at my showing too, and I also couldn't really tell why they were leaving. The area I live in is very much purple, so it's hard to say. I will say that the walk-outs didn't happen during the torture scenes, so my guess is that it wasn't out of protest of a perceived pro-torture message.
January 13, 2013 at 8:23PM ESTAlso, I agree about Chastain vs. Lawrence. There are two big advantages that I see Lawrence having. Firstly, the character Lawrence plays gets to express much more of an emotional range than the one Chastain plays (who is arguably a mostly static character). Secondly, based on the nominations, they obviously like "Silver Linings Playbook" more, and Best Actress looks like the best place to award the movie if they're only going to give it one Oscar.
daveylo Not sure how you can support Chastain or Lawrence if you haven't seen all five performances, which all have their strengths. This is the first year in which I think four of the five deserves to win.
January 14, 2013 at 11:30AM ESTSJG I just meant that of the two I've seen, I would have to give it to Lawrence. I don't have any idea if she deserves it more than the others. But since many seem to have concluded that one of the "it-girls" is going to win (not that I would know or even agree), I'd give it to Lawrence.
January 14, 2013 at 5:48PM ESTLucky
January 13, 2013 at 8:20PM EST Reply to CommentSurprisingly, the last 30 minutes were really tedious to me, and although the rest of the movie felt kinda repetitive (some big discovery takes place. Jessica Chastain suffers silently in her office. Repeat), I loved it. Bigelow should've been nominated for sure.
Funny thing. In my theater, as the movie ended, people didn't get up from their seats right away. As I was getting out, I went past an older couple. They waited for the cast names to roll. Once they saw it, they muttered "Jessica Chastain", and then they got up and left. I don't blame them for wanting to know who she is, she was amazing.
DylanS
January 13, 2013 at 11:42PM EST Reply to CommentFirst and foremost, I came into this film with somewhat lower expectations than most, even with the critical praise. I thought the "The Hurt Locker" was an effective, well acted action thriller, but I thought Boal's script was lacking and I never got why it so many people think it's such a masterpiece. Fine film, but very conventional.
With "Zero Dark Thirty", I had many of the same problems with Mark Boal's abilities, or lackthereof, as a screenwriter. There's nothing wrong with the journalist aspects of the movie, as some others have criticized, that's not what i'm talking bout. It's his inability to build a narrative. He just kind of piles scenes where things happen on top of each other, it never felt like the movie was actually moving to me.
The highlight of the film for me was Jessica Chastain's performance, she's incredible, as is the usual for her, but this is one of the best performances I've seen her give. She manages to make Maya a compelling central figure even though we no virtually nothing about her as a person.
From the supporting cast, Jason Clarke, as many have said, is also very good. I thought some of the more famous TV names that show up (Kyle Chandler, James Gandolfini) took me right out of the movie. It felt like weird casting. Also, Mark Strong, who I usually like, shows up for like one scene and he felt completely over the top to me. In a film that was trying to create a sense of real world authenticity, he also took me out of the movie with his inappropriate scenery chewing. In smaller roles, I liked Jennifer Ehle, Mark Duplass, and Joel Edgerton, the last of those is a great actor who's so underutilized here, but is nonetheless a good screen presence during the raid.
The raid itself is very well done, technically speaking. The sound work and the editing are top notch, totally oscar nom worthy.
Bigelow's direction is, as with "Hurt Locker", fairly conventional. But I appreciated her attention to detail.
JJ1 I agree with a lot of this
January 14, 2013 at 12:53AM ESTRichardZ
January 14, 2013 at 12:18AM EST Reply to CommentAs a whole, it the movie held up pretty well. Too here's nothing particularly interesting with Maya a person other than she's persistent and NEVER wrong.
I don't even know why Dan, Jason Clarke, came off a person even more than Maya--but he did.
Liked the score and the sound mixing/edit.
Didn't care for cinematography.
I don't think Bigelow was snubbed.
Chris138
January 14, 2013 at 1:48AM EST Reply to CommentI liked the film a lot. It's a colder experience than I expected, and not as constantly suspenseful in the same way that The Hurt Locker was (part of that is probably because that film was about soldiers on the ground), but I still thought it was quite an experience. I sort of appreciated how cold the film was, because I think it's pretty objective about what's happening. There were some things I saw that my conscience thinks is immoral, but Bigelow doesn't take sides which I appreciated. And I thought Chastain was outstanding, she is such a versatile actress. I haven't seen Riva or Watts yet but Chastain is my current favorite for the Oscar. I also thought Jason Clarke did exceptional work. I'd definitely like to see it again sometime down the line.
Dave B
January 14, 2013 at 2:35AM EST Reply to CommentI saw the film today, and thought it was great, as was Chastain.
However, maybe someone can explain something to me. The controversy is the water-boarding scenes. Critics have said that it shows the CIA gaining intel from that form of torture (which did not happen in real life). As an old leftie, of course, I don't approve of such methods. But with that said, I didn't see in the film that they got any info from the water-boarding... intel they got was from one-on-one moments, the more humane interrogations. So, did I miss something? I don't want to start a political feud over this, just, did I get it right? Not sure I totally comprehend the controversy.
Still have to give the edge to Lincoln for Best Film, even with the near-snub at the Golden Globes.
toycanon I am not sure if I am getting it right either but it seemed to me that the name Abu Ahmed was dropped as a consequence of the torture of the fear of it. I am sure detainees knew the consequences of not providing information whether they were tortured or not as one of them says in the movie. Hey, if extreme interrogation techniques were not usefull, why were they used?
January 14, 2013 at 5:21PM ESTThose who criticize that part of the film's content missed the point. It was done. Would we have done it? I understand that some prisoners were even turned over to other countries where torture is far more common and more intense and who knows what came out of that. The reality is that much of the story of how they found UBL is still a CIA secret and no one knows it including a bunch of senators and pundits.
Vince Smetana
January 14, 2013 at 4:16AM EST Reply to CommentAmazing, complicated, mature, intense. Best film of the year. But, thanks to a loud, moronic contingent of the AMPAS, it won't get a fair shake. Oh well. Seldom do they ever get it right.
toycanon
January 14, 2013 at 10:52AM EST Reply to CommentZero Dark Thirty is the best movie of 2012 and then some. I cannot imagine how much of it was even shot. The visual detail is amazing. It is a disgrace that Bigelow is not nominated for the Oscar. It is a gripping drama that shows how obsession and moral compromise is often required to achieve a great end. This is another example of how a film that tackles controversial subjects and that does not feature likeable heroic characters and a clear happy ending is slighted. Truly great art breaks the rules and challenges audiences instead of pandering to them and Zero Dark Thirty is exactly the sort of movie that should win the Oscar. All to often it is the Forest Gumps, the Chariots of Fire, the Kings Speech that wins. Simple movies about likeable characters overcoming the odds and triumphing in the end. Maybe the Maya character needed to have a stutter.
Django2012
January 14, 2013 at 7:21PM EST Reply to CommentAn amazing and genuinely moving film. Should DEFINITELY win Best Picture, no doubt about it. My only small complaint is that I wished they showed the footage of the 9/11 attacks, which may have added some "realism" or "context" to the film. Other than than negligible complaint, it was an extraordinary film that deserves your $12. Jessica Chastain gives the performance of the year, male or female, and MUST take home the Best Actress Oscar...
Chris138 I actually like that she didn't show the 9/11 attacks. That would have felt cliche and like several other post-9/11 movies who repeatedly show the same footage. Instead, by hearing the voices, it lets the viewer imagine their own memories and feelings of confusion and fear on that day. At least that's my take on the matter.
January 14, 2013 at 9:37PM ESTDjango2012 Yeah I'm not saying that the cell phone call was bad in any way, I think I was just expecting them to show the towers being hit you know. Those people on the phone calls were truly terrified, and maybe that was the best way to capture the intensity, rather than the news footage of 9/11. either way would have been fine.
January 14, 2013 at 9:42PM ESTJeremy
January 15, 2013 at 4:16AM EST Reply to CommentMy full review is here: http://moviemanifesto.blogspot.com/2013/01/zero-dark-thirty-terror-torture-and.html
Simply put, I think it's easily the most important movie to reach American theatres this year, as well as one of the most fascinating explorations of the intelligence-gathering business I've ever seen.
Robert
January 15, 2013 at 1:10PM EST Reply to CommentThe last 25 minutes were thrilling. The rest of the film was oddly structured and paced, and strangely not engaging. I was more intrigued reading New York Times articles about the hunt for Bin Laden than watching this film. I also don't get the hype for Jessica Chastain in this film--she was fine, but not compelling. Like an earlier commenter I thought of Zodiac midway through the film--another procedural/manhunt that was all the things ZDThirty is not--suspenseful, engaging, thrilling.
Bill
February 22, 2013 at 5:34PM EST Reply to CommentI have just returned from the theater where I watched this flick. It was very booooring. At least before the 2 hour mark. I guess I should stay home and read a phonebook. Nominated for Oscar? Wtf?
ButtNaked
March 5, 2013 at 6:32PM EST Reply to Commentzero dark thirty was awesome... it was like watching one of those English murder mystery shows.. the actual raid is only a small part of the film, dont listen to the critics, have a look, its great, as is Django (masterpiece, bit weird toward the end).. Lincon was boring beyond belief..... the conspirator was a much better civil war era movie. Les Mis was OK, and I havent seen Argo ;-)