Zero Dark Thirty - Yeah, Like She Blended in Pakistan

Zero Dark Thirty

It took two hours of a two and half hour movie before the Navy Seals attacked Bin Laden’s compound. What happened during those first two hours? A meticulous orchestration of tension. The beginning scenes show torture and water boarding. News footage of Obama plays denying that Americans use torture. Are we just as bad as the terrorists? Of course not, we’re the good guys. The torture scenes were few, but what set the tension was the pursuit for Bin Laden that lasted years. The false starts, mountains of information, satellite surveillance, phone taps. There were also terrorist acts, some successful and some not.

The cast was great. Jessica Chastain played Maya the CIA agent with the flaming red hair (yeah, like she blended in Pakistan). She showed singular determination in her quest to capture Bin Laden. As a woman in a counter intelligence op, fitting in was a challenge. Was she a woman trying to act like a tough man or was she just a tough woman? In an opening torture scene she removes her balaclava to demonstrate her nerve. When asked to bring a pitcher of water for water boarding, she does so without hesitation; a baptism of sorts. In a meeting with her superiors she is relegated to the back of the room like a child. She lets her presence  be known by using a profane expletive. The boss liked it.

James Gandolfini played a spot on foul mouth Leon Panetta. Other cast members were formidable.  Jason Clarke plays the clinically cold blooded interrogator who has a Phd in God knows what. Kyle Chandler is the uptight station boss who pushes Maya for results and instead gets smacked down by Maya. Tough chic.

The raid itself was by the book. Interestingly the soldiers were never referred to as Seals. It was a bit anticlimactic since we all know the ending. Nevertheless, there was an impressive body count, with the Seals double tapping everyone, men and women. The only sign of a dead Bin Laden was a tuff of grey beard sticking out from a body bag.

The last scene shows Maya totally spent. When a pilot asked her where she wanted to go she did not answer. How do you fit back into the normal world when everything you did for the last several years was abnormal and probably illegal? 

But we are the good guys, right?

joe