Chronicling the ten-year man-hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
* * *
Time to start believing the hype. Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal have succeed in turning an event we all know the outcome of, into one of the most tense and intense pieces of cinema ever. It's so good in fact that I kind of wish this film could exist in a political vacuum where people could put aside questions of torture and due process, and just marvel at the sheer might of the filmmaking on display. Sadly there is no vacuum to be found when you are dramatizing a true story, during Oscar season, near an election, featuring events that occurred as recently as one year ago. People are going to bring all kinds of baggage to their interpretation of this film no matter what, but for me it's all about watching Maya's face in that last shot. It's all right there. If the emotions on her face cannot convince you of the filmmakers' sympathies, then nothing will. Like John Ford's The Searchers before it, Zero Dark Thirty is a film destined to be debated for years to come.
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