Oscar Watch: "Zero Dark Thirty"
Zero Dark Thirty
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing
Zero Dark Thirty is a tricky film to review. It's sort of a very unbiased, inside look at the workings of a high profile CIA operation. Everything from the dirty (waterboarding) to the sad (suicide bombings) to the ultimate goal. I think Bigelow succeeded in showing what a manhunt on this scale is like, and the stresses with the people involved. And even more than that, the conviction and fortitude needed to pull it off, and the ability to take huge risks despite the odds.
The center of this movie is not the actual hunt itself, but Maya (Chastain), who portrays such a strong-willed character, willing to go against all odds and follow her beliefs, that without her, bin Laden may never have actually been killed. The movie is long, but it details the whole process almost, and how one small lead led to the big goal.
The much-ballyhooed torture scenes are rather unnerving to watch. You feel bad for the victims, even though you realize later they were not revealing all that they knew. Still, the waterboarding was quite bad, and drowning must be terrible, so simulating it for torture just looks horrible. The film definitely had excellent sound; I still get confused every Oscar season between mixing and editing. A quick wiki search, and editing is the person who chooses the sounds, the mixing is how it all comes together. The final scene, the invasion of the home in Pakistan, was insane. The sound there was stellar, and amplified the scariness of the scene. And you felt like you were basically there, in the dark, trying to find the goal. It was filmed very well.
Overall, I enjoyed this film much more than her last work, The Hurt Locker. It'd be more deserving, I think, of best picture than that film. But there's better choices out there, from Lincoln to Les Miserables to even Django Unchained. But this is a good movie, and the length makes up for it with the mission at the end.
Nominated for: Best Picture, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Sound Editing
Zero Dark Thirty is a tricky film to review. It's sort of a very unbiased, inside look at the workings of a high profile CIA operation. Everything from the dirty (waterboarding) to the sad (suicide bombings) to the ultimate goal. I think Bigelow succeeded in showing what a manhunt on this scale is like, and the stresses with the people involved. And even more than that, the conviction and fortitude needed to pull it off, and the ability to take huge risks despite the odds.
The center of this movie is not the actual hunt itself, but Maya (Chastain), who portrays such a strong-willed character, willing to go against all odds and follow her beliefs, that without her, bin Laden may never have actually been killed. The movie is long, but it details the whole process almost, and how one small lead led to the big goal.
The much-ballyhooed torture scenes are rather unnerving to watch. You feel bad for the victims, even though you realize later they were not revealing all that they knew. Still, the waterboarding was quite bad, and drowning must be terrible, so simulating it for torture just looks horrible. The film definitely had excellent sound; I still get confused every Oscar season between mixing and editing. A quick wiki search, and editing is the person who chooses the sounds, the mixing is how it all comes together. The final scene, the invasion of the home in Pakistan, was insane. The sound there was stellar, and amplified the scariness of the scene. And you felt like you were basically there, in the dark, trying to find the goal. It was filmed very well.
Overall, I enjoyed this film much more than her last work, The Hurt Locker. It'd be more deserving, I think, of best picture than that film. But there's better choices out there, from Lincoln to Les Miserables to even Django Unchained. But this is a good movie, and the length makes up for it with the mission at the end.
posted by DarthDooku at
8:21 PM
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