Zero
Dark Thirty
Kathryn
Bigelow's "Zero Dark Thirty" has arrived at The Tropic. Already it is
a near iconic tale in our culture about the hunt and capture of Osama bin
Laden.
The
protagonist, a CIA agent named Maya, is apparently based on a composite of two
real agents: Alfreda Bikowski and Michael Anne Casey. Although I can't vouch
for how true the film is to actual events, the suspense and apprehension is
undeniable. Not since Alan Parker's "Midnight Express" have I felt so
anxious. The construction of the film, its theme and current impact has much to
do with our fascination with the daring resourceful female agent in "The Silence of the Lambs" as
well as our love for James Bond.
Jessica
Chastain is excellent as CIA agent Maya. She is a hammer of red flames driven
by the hunt with a single goal in mind: bin Laden. She is both more human and
more adaptable than any Terminator machine. Maya is shot at in her car. In one
especially jolting scene she is bombed. She emerges stern, resolute and almost
bemused by her infinite and dangerous search. When asked by CIA director Leon
Panetta (played by James Gandolfini) what else she has done in her career, she
says blankly, "Nothing. I've done nothing else." For Maya it is a
program that is hard wired within and it is a role that would make Jody Foster
jealous.
"Zero
Dark Thirty" is no true story snoozer.
Despite its two and a half hour running time, it is as riveting as any
espionage thriller with enough twists to rival Robert Ludlum or Ian Fleming.
The
oft-mentioned torture scenes, although
unsettling and queasy by the very
depiction of water-boarding, felt rather tame by comparison to TV's
"24", Tony Scott's "Man on Fire" or DePalma's "Scarface".
More nerve-wracking by far is the helicopter trip into the mountains or the
Navy SEALs confronting the bin Laden compound clustered with ten year old
children. A SEAL's lime green glow stick is both a creepy harbinger and a
symbol of hope and diversion.
What
begins in tone to seem like propaganda, builds in anxiety to show the hunt for
an evil man in all its labyrinthine questions and utter frustration. This is as
much of an existential film of suspense as it is a film of a woman on a mission.
By the end of the film as our hero flies alone, physically overwhelmed on a
military plane, she seems as much Franz Kafka as Clarice Starling or Jason
Bourne.
"Zero
Dark Thirty" is a compelling work for giving us an unflinching look at
current events in a glib Bond-like format.
Write
Ian at redtv_2005@yahoo.com
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