Zero Dark Thirty is absolute thrill-ride starting from the very first shot of the movie till the last shot. Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Noel are one of the very few genuine creators in the cinema industry. Hurt Locker was a masterpiece. The amount of research and authenticity that the visionary director dedicated in the creation of this visual ecstasy is unbelievable. The writing of Mark Noel is crisp and flawless. The originality and the depth of the screenplay, story and acting is amazing. The facts and figures are mind-blowing. The skeleton of the movie is comprehension on some basic factors that are very much in relation to the tragedy that happened in the past. Everyone has anger, frustration, agony, pain and helplessness in their heart since the attack of 9/11 happened. There are limits to the tolerance of negativity. When the acts of pessimism rise to their peak, the counter attack has to be equally strong. The manhunt that continued more than a decade is gruesome. It took millions of man-hours, sacrifices of lives of many soldiers, billions of dollars of economy and dedication of many talented agents to complete the mission of killing the most wanted terrorist in the history of mankind. This paper focuses on the critical review of the movie with various analytical points like method of direction, acting, visual authenticity, motifs and analysis of psychology of the film.
Let’s start with the first shot of the movie. It starts with the blank screen with distinct background voices coming from the day of the 9/11 attack. A woman dials 911 for an emergency, and the conversation between the operator and the victim approximately two minutes is the highlight of the scene. The use of authentic conversation of the calamity is very clever to give a jump-start to the coming two hours of the story. People should know what they are going to witness with the gentle reminder of the tragedy. The sound without any visual forces the viewers to imagine the horrid moments of the 9/11 attack. The victims and their families of this terrible act of terrorism are worthy of justice. America is the superpower of the world. World’s oldest democracy, economical capital, strongest military command, potential natural resources are some of the best strengths of America. It used to be the safest place to thrive in the world until the 9/11 attacks that shocked the country. World Trade Centre were pillars of American economy. Until the attack, nobody could even imagine that such catastrophe was possible. If strongest country like America can be the target of terrorism in such fatal manner, then no country in the world is safe. It is a question to the Oval office about the integrity of the American land. The only answer to all these questions was the search and execution of OBL.
Coming to the title of the movie, ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ Considering the mission to encounter of Osama Bin laden was in-between 12:30 in the midnight to 2:30 a.m. In the standard military operational language, time after the dark and before dawn is ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ It is a jargon in the military language. But the title is very appropriate for the purpose of the movie. Under a lot of duress, the mission became operational, the time of the mission was one of the legendary moments in the history of America.
The movie centers the character of Maya, who is very determined to hunt down OBL (Osama Bin Laden). She spends a decade of her life in the pursuit of one man. She goes through a lot of ordeals, suffering and duress to achieve even the slightest hint of the target. She witnessed a lot of torture of the detainees during the period of the interrogation. She saw and tolerated things that no woman should voluntarily tolerate. She loses one of her friends in the process, following one lead. She goes to depression and rises again. In one of the scenes, the director asks her about her other contribution to the agency apart from hunting OBL. Her reply to this question was, ‘Nothing.’ She is expert in only one thing, and that is to capture or kill OBL. She makes it her mission in life to pursue only one thing. It is like she never had anything else remaining in her life apart from her aim. She has no time for family, love or socialization. She denies going back to Washington and decides to stay in Pakistan thinking that she is not going to get OBL by staying in the D.C. She is highly motivational character. Even the chain of command relies on her expertise due to her seamless persuasion. She is focused and fearless. Her visual confirmation of OBL’s body convinces the world that OBL is finally dead.
Character of Maya is the symbol of patriotism and relentlessness of American spirit. In one of the sequences, she keeps writing over the office glass of her boss about the number of days the action has not taken place even after possible confirmation of OBL’s location in Abbottabad. This show her frustration to finish what she started. She briefs the team of special operatives in Area 51 about the mission details of OBL’s location. She insists on the soldiers that she is sure of OBL’s location, and she would like them to kill him for her. She convinces the director of the joint army about the accuracy of the information about OBL’s presence in the house in Abbottabad. Where all the other officers were 60% sure of the information, she said that she was 100% sure that OBL is there. That is the result of her ten years long research and efforts to understand and breakdown the web of uncertainty.
A huge part of this movie is the interrogation and torture of the detainees. There were some gruesome and intense torture scenes in the initial sequence of the movie. They were very authentic and realistic in presentation. However, the movie is all about the truth and portrayal of the events as they happened. It is all about facts. Any person who is in association with OBL is a possible person of interest, and torturing a suspect to gather the information is a necessary part of the process. Any kind of lead can be of huge importance in the tight situation like this where everything at stake. So, according to the benefits outweighing loss perspective, the tortures are justifiable.
The movie is a chain of significant segments or events that paved the path of the eventual discovery and execution of OBL. For example, the Saudi Group, the Human error, The Tradecraft, etc. These events were key pieces of facts that lead to the killing of OBL. The Saudi Group is the group of detainees who are in association with OBL’s organization. These are the people either working directly with OBL or as a freelancer. They take orders and execute them with perfection. After 9/11 many of such suspect were in the custody of USA for interrogation. The Saudi group is the only way to come remotely close to OBL. Many of these foot-soldiers work as messengers of OBL. Some of them are sleeper cells that are operational on the command of their superiors only. Their main aim is to kill as many Americans in the foreign countries as possible through terrorist attacks. The suicide bombing in the Camp Chapman was the most horrid of all the attacks. It is the constant effort of the ‘Jihadists’ to kill American people by becoming the object of sacrifice. Their destructive belief in these kind of nonsense makes them terrorists. The scene of suicide bombing in Camp chapman was very realistic and creative.
The biggest hope for Maya was to get the lead of Abu Ibrahim, who was the personal messenger of OBL. However, due to the fragile human error, the family name of Abu was lost in translation. Due to this the chain miscommunication and misunderstanding started which wasted a lot of time of the agency. After the suicide bombing in Camp Chapman in Afghanistan, her assistance brought the file on Abu Ibrahim to Maya. Presumed dead, Abu Ibrahim was allegedly alive under the family name of Sayed. Sayed was still working as the messenger of OBL. However, Maya was unaware that this five years delayed trail of evidence was so huge that it will lead them directly to the shelter of OBL.
During the investigation, there were many terrorist attacks which can associate to stringent efforts of OBL’s organization to spread panic in the western countries. A city bus attack in the London is one of them. The enveloping of these terrorist attacks in the movie is crafty work from Bigelow. Especially, the attack on Marriott Hotel in Pakistan. The visual work is very realistic in the scene. Scenes like these takes the viewers by surprise. It makes them think again and understand the life of an agent on duty. As a matter of fact, there was one attack directly on Maya’s car. Fortunately, the bullet-proof car saved her. Such disparate attack showed that she was getting close to her target. Pakistan is a country with the majority population being Muslim. It is a neighbor to countries like India, China, Afghanistan, Iraq and few other Arab countries. Pakistan was a part of India before the British liberated India; dividing it into two countries. Since 1947, Pakistan and India are under conflict pertaining to many critical issues like terrorism and border conflicts. Coincidently, Pakistan knowingly or unknowingly turns out to be the country harboring and sheltering the biggest terrorist on earth. Attack on a diplomatic officer of foreign country staying at the embassy is an act of unnecessary aggression from the host country. A scene from the movie passively points the fingers toward the issue about the heat rising with the expedition of the manhunt for the global terrorist.
After getting a much-needed break in the form of finding out that Sayed can be a link to come closer to OBL, Maya was back on her feet. She tracked down Sayed from the crowded market in Islamabad with the help of the tech team. She had to fight with the superiors to get a small tactical team to canvas the area where Sayed used to contact his mother. Starting from the call center from various cities of Pakistan till the burner cell phones, finding a single person in a large country is not a small task. But her determination never ceased to push her boundaries. She found her target, along with the jackpot named OBL. OBL was not hiding in any cave in the deep mountains; he was right under everybody’s noses in Pakistan.
All these Intel were not enough to prove that OBL was a resident of the fortress in Abbottabad. Her strong instincts and confidence about the location of OBL were not enough. Finding proof of his existence was not walk in the park. However, the real excitement was the scene where the director general held the meeting to brief the current scenario about execution of the mission to find and kill OBL. She was present in that meeting invisible to all the superiors. The director general didn’t even knew her. Amidst all the probable data and insufficient Intel, she blasted her opinion to the general stating that OBL was there 100%. Her fearlessness and frustration about her efforts and failures were clear and evident in her voice. That scene makes the viewer skip a heartbeat.
Finally, the mission is a go. The briefing is in Area 51 where the most silent and deadly choppers are ready with the fine teams of soldiers ready to execute the mission. She gives the briefing about the mission details. The mission hours are ‘Zero Dark Thirty.’ Both the assault teams are on their way with the deadliest choppers flying below the radar between mountains. The originality and sense of realism shown in the direction of the action sequences of the raid are magnificent. The use of night vision, shaky cameras, realistic fire fights and use of plastic explosives to breach the gates of the mansion is dynamically smart. The attitudes and operational etiquettes of military on the ground is very authentic. The professionalism and discipline of army soldiers are substantial. The teams starts to clear every floor of the building executing every possible threat. Execution was very precise and spontaneous starting from Sayed and his wife till all the male members of the house. The main target OBL took one bullet to the chest and many other over the body afterwards. The sensibility of militia to spare the female and children out of harm’s way is noticeable. Once they confirmed the possible jackpot, the only thing left to do was to evacuate for final confirmation from Maya.
When the body bag arrived at Maya, it took her 20 seconds to confirm it was OBL. She had mixed emotions with the success of this mission. The person responsible for more than 3000 people’s death was now lifeless in front of her. Her life’s purpose is complete now. It seemed like she had nothing else to do now. A ten year long service and efforts of her to find this man, and now she is suddenly jobless. That is why she goes back to the plane and cries her heart out. She is sobbing in the plane because she knows that she tasted salvation in the form of death. When someone desires something with true passion and dedication, the emotions that flow at the end of the accomplishment of that goal are unimaginable. Maya had something like that in her mind.
The directorial kills of Kathryn in the climax parts of the movie are noteworthy. When world’s strongest free country is under jeopardy, all the agencies are under a lot of pressures to carry out the orders. The duress and unfriendly environment of foreign land and constant fear of impeding death are daily companion of the agents in the field. Under these kind of horrified situations, the dedicated soldiers and agents follow the orders and discharge their duties with high competency. This patriotism is amazing in American people. Maya is one such example of true American hero.
However, the attacks of 9/11 were the darkest hour of the history of free world. It divided the time into pre 9/11 and pot 9/11. All the security protocol were a subject to reform after these attacks. The attacks were a futile attempt to break America, which obviously failed when OBL’s search and execution completed. Zero Dark Thirty is the tribute to those men who lost their live in the process.
References
KAKUTANI, MICHIKO . "Bin Laden’s End, From the Beginning." http://www.nytimes.com/. 3 Mar. 2012. 23 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/04/books/manhunt-by-peter-l-bergen-about-the-bin-laden-killing.html?_r=0>.
