Zero Dark Thirty: a Review

Loghan Minier

English 106

Tivey Hornberger

Zero Dark Thirty: A Review

It has been nearly twelve years since the attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. Zero Dark Thirty, a new action film, is the first of its kind to thoroughly define the top secret events leading up to the shooting and killing of al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden. This nearly three-hour-long movie goes in depth to show its audience reasons why this operation was so lengthy—information that we, as American citizens, wanted to know a long time ago. Although Zero Dark Thirty efficiently describes this historically significant incident, it does so with mediocre acting and a superficial want to connect with the audience.

The movie begins with an unpredicted torture scene involving an al-Qaeda linked detainee and Dan, a seemingly cruel CIA agent who proves to be quite the warmhearted comic as the movie progresses. Shortly after, the movie’s main character, Maya, played by the fresh-faced Jessica Chastain, is introduced. It is revealed to the audience that Maya is a rookie agent that has been diligently working the past two years on the bin Laden case. Maya does not take well to the grotesque and uncomfortable torture scenes, and that is very evident, but that does not stop her from wanting answers. It takes some time for Dan and Maya to get the detainee to talk. Tricking Ammar, the detainee, into revealing the name of a courier, Abu Ahmed, to bin Laden is the first big lead in Maya’s case.

After this the movie sort of turns into a blur of sequential events that either leads or misleads Maya in the right direction. During the movie, many supporting characters tell Maya that she looks aged and worn down, but really remains pale and perfect over nearly a decade where the survives various mishaps like the Marriott Hotel bombing in Islamabad, a personal attack by several terrorists one day leaving her complex, and the death of her good friend Jessica, who died in the monumental Camp...