This movie can be found in Netflix, Amazon Prime, Airtel Movies, Jio cinema and MX Player
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
RUNTIME: 2 Hours 37 Minutes
DIRECTOR: Kathryn Bigelow
War thrillers is no new business for Hollywood. In fact, a significant majority of what people call ‘ Evergreen classics of international cinema’ is owned by this genre. Platoon (1986), Inglorious basterds (2009), Schindler’s list (1993), to name a few, are just some of the gems in this genre. So, amid huge anticipation and expectations, Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial ‘Zero Dark thirty’, a war thriller based on the assassination of the dreaded Al Qaeda terrorist, Osama Bin Laden released in 2012 getting what could only be called an astonishing response. On one hand, it earned humongous box office collections ($132,820,716 cumulative world gross to be precise) and a very positive response from the audience and critics alike. What’s more, it even won an Oscar for ‘best achievement in sound editing’ done by Paul N J Ottinson along with 85 other wins and 173 nominations. However, on the other hand, it even found its place around various controversies, including allegations of partisanship, improper access to classified information, pro torture stance etc which makes this movie’s case all the more intriguing. So, is this movie really worth a watch? Let’s see.
Firstly, speaking of the performances, all the people involved have given complete justice to their respective roles. However, this is undoubtedly Jessica Chastain’s show for the most part who successfully delivers a solid, praiseworthy performance as Maya, the young, determined CIA operative who gives off several years of her life in the single minded and painstaking pursuit of the world’s most wanted terrorist. The grit, determination and pain she suffers through this journey is effectively portrayed by her, along with the help of several co actors most of whom do a wonderful job in spite of the limited screen time at hand. Some of the necessary mentions include Kyle Chandler as Joseph Bradley, Jason Clarke as Dan and Jennifer Ehle, as Jessica.
One of the biggest strengths of the movie are undoubtedly the locations chosen. The locations shot at are simply breath taking and extremely realistic. Be it the CIA Headquarters, the terrorist camps or Osama’s hideout, every single location chosen is perfect and immense detailing has been given in order to keep it that way. The detailing is very evident across various aspects of the movie such as the costume design of various characters, sound design (especially in sequences of raw footages of interrogation) etc which is quite appreciable. The raw and non-sensational treatment of the film makes it look extremely crude and realistic, almost feeling like a brief case study of the assassination at times. Another interesting fact about the movie is that, it is designed like a book with each heading hinting towards a new set of events about to take place. This interesting creative decision taken by the makers, gives room to categorise various events and portray maximum facts and plot points in the limited time frame in an effective manner. The movie also showed an extremely accurate depiction of the struggles law enforcement agencies have to undergo in order to succeed in their missions. The raw, brutal portrayal of terrorism in the movie deserves a mention too. The brainwashed, brutal killers are portrayed in the darkest light unapologetically and with appreciable depth as well.
Thirdly, the direction of the movie is quite praiseworthy. The camera department in the movie require a special mention as well. There are various impressive camera angles throughout the movie, especially the aerial shots, that help in gripping the audience to a large extent.
However, in spite of all the good points mentioned, zero dark thirty is certainly far from a perfect film and suffers from some demerits. Firstly, the music department certainly should have done a better job. The BGM is used in very few instances throughout the movie and it’s very forgettable as well. The use of BGM in thrilling sequences would have elevated the overall intensity of the scenes to a very high level. This unfortunately is also a primary reason why some crucial scenes in the film weren’t thrilling enough. Secondly, a lot of information in the movie is communicated only through dialogues between various characters which gets really overbearing, especially in the first half. The problem is, due to the thick magnitude of plot, a lot of characters, relationships and plot points are introduced frequently, but predominantly through dialogues only. Hence, it becomes really hard to keep up with so much information being discussed. A more graphic representation or a suitable alternative could have better gripped the audience and made it better understandable to the masses. Thirdly, the character depth in the movie, isn’t satisfactory enough. Since this movie is majorly plot oriented, due to the huge magnitude of the storyline and a limited screen time to offer, all actors unfortunately get to portray a very limited character arc. For instance, Maya in her relentless pursuit of the mission ahead, loses many of her dear ones. However, there is very little to no time spent in helping us understand how she kept herself emotionally stable or what she was undergoing psychologically. Things like these hinder the depth in the character writing to an extent. Finally, the climax sequence although well made for the most part, felt abruptly edited at times and the constant changing of colour palettes and frames became quite disturbing. Long tracking shots would have been a great alternative and would have made the entire action sequence much more riveting.
Hence, to conclude with, in spite of the demerits ‘zero dark thirty’ suffers from, and in spite of all the controversies surrounding the film, it is still a great one time watch that portrays a lot of information in a bold and raw manner. Yes, it’s certainly true that 2hrs37mins does feel a bit overbearing at times, but watching the film does a satisfactory job in educating the audience about the historic day to a respectable extent, due to its realistic portrayal. All in all, ‘zero dark thirty’ isn’t the average commercial action film you would want to watch when bored, but if you are a fan for authentic, raw films portraying dark sides of history, in as real a manner as possible, do not miss out on this one.
RATING: 3.5/5
