Zero Dark Thirty: The Price of Justice

Kathryn Bigelow is one of the best directors in Hollywood. Not best "female director," just best director, period. The Hurt Locker proved this by earning her an Academy Award for Best Director, as well as snagging Best Picture. That movie was an in-depth portrait of soldiers in the midst of the Iraq war. Now with Zero Dark Thirty, Bigelow returns to the Middle East to chronicle the decade-long manhunt for Osama bin Laden.

Everyone knows how this story ends. But journalist and screenwriter Mark Boal (who also won an Oscar for The Hurt Locker) has used firsthand accounts with various intelligence and military officials to put together a narrative of the years leading up to that infamous SEAL Team Six raid in Abbotobad, Pakistan. What follows is an unflinching look at the ways and means of procuring both good and bad intelligence, chasing down leads, and dealing with political, moral, and ethical grey lines. The movie's heroine, Maya (Jessica Chastain), is a young CIA officer assigned to work with fellow officer, Dan (Jason Clarke), at the US Embassy in Pakistan in 2003. She accompanies Dan on numerous black site visits where they torture Ammar, a detainee who has links to Saudi terrorists. The movie begins with prolonged scenes of torture, including physical and verbal abuse, waterboarding, sensory deprivation, and worse. Despite this, Ammar won't provide any worthwhile leads. Only when Maya and Dan trick him and treat him with some kindness does he offer up the name, Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti. That one name becomes Maya's obsession for the next eight years.

Maya is convinced that Abu Ahmed is one of bin Laden's right-hand men and that finding him will lead to Osama. The movie follows her long search through numerous false leads, and her frustrations as other major terrorist attacks take place and she is still no closer to finding bin Laden. She narrowly escapes death in the 2008 Islamabad Marriott hotel bombing. The death of a close friend only serves to strengthen her resolve. Along the way she has to convince bosses and colleagues that she is on the right track, but everyone assumes she is chasing a dream. However, she finally tracks Abu Ahmed down to the walled compound in Abbotobad. The movie's final half hour is a tense, nerve-wracking, documentary-style look at the SEAL Team Six raid that finally validates Maya's relentless pursuit and ends the hunt for bin Laden.

People have been up in arms about the torture scenes in Zero Dark Thirty and whether the film assumes a pro-torture stance by suggesting that the use of torture and illegal detentions was vital in obtaining information to capture bin Laden. I don't think the movie assumes any stance - it is merely attempting to provide a narrative that is as close to the truth as possible, and like it or not, that narrative includes the use of torture. You could just as easily argue that the movie is anti-torture because the CIA officers in the movie don't get actionable intelligence until they treat Ammar well. The movie does chronicle the changing political climate, and the outrage once people discover what the CIA has been doing behind the scenes. The controversy around Zero Dark Thirty suggests that outrage will continue for a long while.

Setting aside the controversy, Zero Dark Thirty is simply a stunning movie. Jessica Chastain is a marvel; her face is a blank canvas and she turns Maya into an enigmatic character, fully in keeping with her CIA background. What is apparent is that Maya is a tough-as-nails woman who isn't afraid to create a stir in the male-dominated world of the CIA. She is single-minded and driven, and although her colleagues keep doubting her, she gets the job done. The supporting cast is equally fantastic and Bigelow's direction is impeccable throughout. The movie thrusts you into the narrative and forces you to experience multiple viewpoints. Every character turns the movie into a minefield of moral ambiguity because you get the sense that everyone is doing their job, but you don't know how they feel about it. In the end, they've killed Osama bin Laden, but at what cost? It is a disturbing, thrilling, and thought-provoking exercise in filmmaking.