• ⇤
• ⇽
• ≡
• ⇾
• ⇥

movie review - Zero Dark Thirty

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-seven years and one million words

This is a fictionalized telling of the capture and execution of Osama bin Laden following the 9/11 attacks. It is what feels like a very authentic telling of the extremely difficult and lengthy process of finding the man (in Pakistan) by sifting through leads from countries throughout the world. These leads were often followed-up through capturing suspected participants in bin Laden's organization and then of course torturing them. The main character, a young CIA analyst stationed in the region, spends nearly a decade on this one task. The breakthrough occurs when they work out some missed information that leads to the insight that a case of mistaken identity. This out of the way, a great deal of police/intelligence work follows, and they eventually locate a single house that must contain bin Laden. There follows an extraction scene which is in keeping with the film's gritty realism but which frankly I feel could have been much less exhaustively depicted.

Over all, the story is very engrossing and the acting is superb. The sets feel very real and the evident tension of the entire thing was clear in the outcomes for the various characters. It is, of course, a miserably violent movie but none of it is what I'd call gratuitous. In fact, I feel like this is the only serious film I've watched in far too long.

Strongly recommended.