They immediately shelved the film they had been working on and redirected their focus, essentially starting from scratch. The interrogation scenes in the beginning color the entire tale, but they are necessary. It was released in theaters on December 19th, 2012. Most students of this subject admit that torture can lead to the truth. They may not even consider it a moral question. “Zero Dark Thirty,” which has already been named the film of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review, … Zero Dark Thirty is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. [78], Jane Mayer of The New Yorker, who has published The Dark Side, a book about the use of torture during the Bush administration, criticized the film, saying that Bigelow was, milk[ing] the U.S. torture program for drama while sidestepping the political and ethical debate that it provoked ... [By] excising the moral debate that raged over the interrogation program during the Bush years, the film also seems to accept almost without question that the CIA's 'enhanced interrogation techniques' played a key role in enabling the agency to identify the courier who unwittingly led them to bin Laden.[79]. In addition, CIA records did not show any involvement by the White House in relation to the filmmakers. Found insideThis particular genre interference concerns Zero Dark Thirty's trailer, and reflects the way trailers now find themselves re-cut, altered and 'rogued' by ... The film is in contention for a Best Picture Oscar, and it has already generated a whopping share of controversy. Zero Dark Thirty, the new movie about the CIA’s hunt for Osama bin Laden, premieres nationwide today. Glenn Greenwald, in The Guardian, stated that the film takes a pro-torture stance, describing it as "pernicious propaganda" and stating that it "presents torture as its CIA proponents and administrators see it: as a dirty, ugly business that is necessary to protect America. Zero Dark Thirty says: Using "enhanced interrogation techniques" — e.g., waterboarding, which simulates drowning — the CIA obtained information that led to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Maya doesn't know it yet—indeed, she won't find out for years—but this is the first small clue on the long trail to Abbottabad. [69] The CIA responded to Congressman King writing, "the protection of national security equities – including the preservation of our ability to conduct effective counterterrorism operations – is the decisive factor in determining how the CIA engages with filmmakers and the media as a whole. It stated that in June 2011, while giving a speech at a CIA Headquarters event honoring the people involved in the Osama Bin Laden raid, CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed information classified as "Secret" and "Top Secret" regarding personnel involved in the raid on the Bin Laden compound. Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Yes. The story of finding and killing bin Laden makes a good case neither for nor against torture. These four works present a challenge to the acting ensemble as well as to audiences, because in place of conventional action Chekhov offers a "theatre of mood" and a "submerged life in the text. In the film this moment is handled perfunctorily. Gibney doesn't see it that way. It appeared on 95 critics' top ten lists of 2012. More correctly, a pseudonym, what in Arabic is called a "kunya," a nom de guerre: Abu Ahmad al-Kuwait, the father of Ahmed from Kuwait. Is a very intense dramatic thriller that can be classified as one of the best of its genre. I think the moral question arises precisely because torture, or fear, can be an effective tool in interrogation. The President's National Security Advisor tasks the CIA with creating a plan to capture or kill bin Laden. [66] Two months later, the paper's columnist Roger Cohen wrote that the film was "a courageous work that is disturbing in the way that art should be". | Rotten (27). It was the site's best-reviewed film of 2012. The story of the CIA’s attempt to find Osama bin Laden in the wake of 9/11, Zero Dark Thirty is, in a number of respects, an example of cinematic realism. Originally conceived as a project about the battle of Tora Bora, Mark Boal completely re-wrote the script after Osama bin Laden was shot and killed. It took him five months and he was not paid for the re-write. See more » the informer is talking to Pakistanis in Arabic instead of Urdu When the CIA agents are blocked by two Motorbike gun men. Khalid Sheik Mohammed could not have known this either, but he certainly realized the man's importance. According to Metacritic the film appeared on 95 critics' top ten lists of 2012, 17 of which placed the film at No. But can we? The abuses became such a scandal that the Bush administration itself halted the use of coercive methods in 2004. Ultimately, it is the work of a dedicated female operative (Jessica Chastain) that proves instrumental in finally locating bin Laden. [25][26] Some parts of Chandigarh were designed to look like Lahore and Abbottabad in Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden was found and killed on May 2, 2011. Osama bin Laden is dead, which everybody knows, and the principal facts leading up to that are also well-known. This companion volume to Reel Men at War takes a look at how women have been portrayed in war films, from silents of the 1920s to films of the twenty-first century. |, September 7, 2017 The website's critical consensus reads, "Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliantly crafted, Zero Dark Thirty dramatizes the hunt for Osama bin Laden with intelligence and an eye for detail. Jessica Chastain and Harry Gregson-Williams at the Cocktail Reception Presenting The Crescendo Award. The word "torture" itself is pejorative, in that it equates keeping a prisoner awake with the most sordid practices of The Inquisition. * The raid itself involved four helicopters, two Chinooks and two Black Hawks, not the three Black Hawks shown. In this broader sense, Zero Dark Thirty is remarkably true. In fact I wouldn't even be as kind to call it merely OK or middling. [38], New York Times critic Manohla Dargis, who designated the film a New York Times critics' pick, said that the film "shows the dark side of that war. Everyone understands the rules of this game. | Rating: 9/10 | Fresh (275) As was the case with The Hurt Locker (2008), where the central figures were US soldiers in Iraq, Bigelow concentrates in her latest work on how exhausting and difficult it is to be a victimizer. Versions of the following lecture were given annually as a lecture at New College of Humanities, on the Applied Ethics course taken by all third years, between 2013 and 2017. This is presumably because if the opposite were true, then the hunt's successful outcome might lead weak minds to conclude that torture has been proved effective. Good police work did it, the film says, and it aims to show (in the circumstances) what good police work amounts to. it didnt come across pro-torture or against it so in that regard wasnt a propaganda piece unless like me you dont believe the guy is even dead and is instead swanning it somewhere living in a 5 star beach cabin paid for unknowingly by the american tax payer. In either case, real or fictional, torture creates a context. Cinemark [29][30] "Jessica Chastain" gives the audience a great performance as "Maya" along with "Chris Pratt", he give a splendid performance as well. The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Osama bin Laden, leader of terrorist network Al-Qaeda, after the September 11 attacks. But Denby faulted the filmmakers for getting lodged on the divide between fact and fiction.[42]. The segment on "Zero Dark Thirty" in Frontline's report, from filmmaker Mark Kirk, includes a few misleading details of its own—including, most obviously, a severely truncated, spliced-together clip of Ammar's tortures and a mash-up of Maya watching interrogation footage while verbally demanding information from a detainee, which in fact come from two distinct … Copyright © Fandango. (The title is spy-speak for "half past midnight," the time of bin Laden's death.) Directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, “Zero Dark Thirty” has grossed $88 million at the box office and received the top prize from the New York Film Critics Circle. [82], Journalist Steve Coll, who has written on foreign policy, national security and the bin Laden family, criticized the filmmakers for saying the film was "journalistic", which implies that it is based in fact. Ammar is bloody, filthy, and exhausted. It is two years later. In fact, the film depicts an attack in Khobar that happened in 2004. Some came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well. ", In the script, referring to the frustrated Daniel, the scene closes with the words, "Once again, he's learned nothing.". We’ve all heard ... (that’s pretty straightforward) went on to say, “After watching Zero Dark Thirty I am simply amazed at the critical reception it’s received. But it was. In a May 2007 Atlantic story entitled "The Ploy," I detailed the clever and essentially nonviolent interrogation of a detainee in Iraq that led to the successful targeting of al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. (See Torture Memos, The Torture Report.) Bigelow and Boal had initially worked on and finished a screenplay centered on the December 2001 Battle of Tora Bora, and the long, unsuccessful efforts to find Osama bin Laden in the region. I heard that a woman was there on the night of the raid as one of the CIA's liaison officers on the ground – and that was the start of it." [74], In June 2013, information came out about an unreleased U.S. Defense Department Inspector General's office report. An examination of the documents showed no evidence that classified information was leaked to the filmmakers. We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future. That came years later, when the CIA was finally able to connect the pseudonym "Ahmed from Kuwait" with a real person, Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed. "[39], Richard Corliss's review in Time magazine called it "a fine" movie and "a police procedural on the grand scale", saying it "blows Argo out of the water". Žižek proposed that if a similar film were made about a brutal rape or the Holocaust, such a movie would "embody a deeply immoral fascination with its topic, or it would count on the obscene neutrality of its style to engender dismay and horror in spectators." . Indeed, those who have accused the current administration of rolling out the red carpet for Bigelow and Boal in the hopes of hyping its role may be surprised to find that the president, whose participation was central throughout, has been almost completed edited out. It can be simply about telling the truth. 'Zero Dark Thirty' was supposed to be a 'Moby Dick'-like chronicle of the hunt for Osama Bin Laden until real-life gave the film a surprise "happy" ending. [24], Parts of the film were shot at PEC University of Technology in Chandigarh, India. It shows the unspeakable and lets us decide if the death of Bin Laden was worth the price we paid. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. "[77], Journalist Michael Wolff slammed the film as a "nasty piece of pulp and propaganda" and Bigelow as a "fetishist and sadist" for distorting history with a pro-torture viewpoint. ... [T]he truth is that multiple streams of intelligence led CIA analysts to conclude that Bin Ladin was hiding in Abbottabad. Key planning sessions that happened in the White House Situation Room, chaired by President Obama, are depicted as having happened at Langley with CIA director Leon Panetta. R (Language|Brutal Disturbing Images|Strong Violence), Mystery & thriller, But torture was in the room when that semi-fact was delivered up, and belongs in any truthful telling of it. And we are failing. But it has also been attacked by some viewers as a false version of the story that effectively advocates for the use of torture. The title is a good place to start. Forgot your password? Hollywood's "true story" aims only to color safely inside the lines of history. She is asked where she wants to go and begins to cry. Found insideLife Undercover reads as if a John le Carré character landed in Eat Pray Love." —The New York Times Amaryllis Fox's riveting memoir tells the story of her ten years in the most elite clandestine ops unit of the CIA, hunting the world's ... Maya's tough-minded, monomaniacal persona, Boal said, is "based on a real person, but she also represents the work of a lot of other women. True. DETROIT is shaping up to be an intense, jarring and enlightening recreation of a dark … Coll said the facts about him were different from what was portrayed in the film, which suggests the detainee will never leave the black site. There are two ugly interrogation scenes in the opening minutes of Zero Dark Thirty that haunt the rest of the experience, and that have come to haunt critical reception of the film itself. I have already noted the dramatic failure depicted in the opening scenes with Ammar. [41], The New Yorker film critic David Denby lauded the filmmakers for their approach. ", "The Art and Politics of 'Zero Dark Thirty'", "Cover Story: Kathryn Bigelow's Art of Darkness", "9-11 victim's family raises objection to Zero Dark Thirty", "9/11 families upset over "Zero Dark Thirty" recordings", FAREED ZAKARIA GPS The Myth of America's Social Mobility; How Accurate is 'Zero Dark Thirty'? The limited release of Zero Dark Thirty grossed $417,150 in the United States and Canada in only five theaters. [13], Republican Congressman Peter T. King charged that the filmmakers were given improper access to classified materials, which they denied. Found inside – Page 7... genre, visual style, and reception history and speaks in more detail to the ... Black Hawk Down (2001), The Hurt Locker (2008), and Zero Dark Thirty ... It was a mistake for those involved in the film to suggest that Zero Dark Thirty is "journalistic," and to have touted their access to SEAL team members and CIA field officers. Found inside19 S. Coll, 'ZeroDark Thirty: Afilm directed byKathryn Bigelow', New York Reviewof Books,7 February 2013,pp. 4–6. 20 Coll, 'Zero Dark Thirty'. Screenwriter Boal said that while researching for the film, "I heard through the grapevine that women played a big role in the CIA in general and in this team. The story about the 11-year hunt for Osama bin Laden also made hit lists of a different sort: Politicians and protesters believe the film … [53], Writer Boal has stated his interest in making the original film on the 2001 Tora Bora hunt for bin Laden that he and Bigelow conceived. Zero Dark Thirty cuts to the bone with a mission of sheer professionalism and searing focus. The intricacy of bin Laden's extraction at the hands of the Navy SEAL team was especially interesting to watch, and was supposedly very truthful in its depiction. [43] He believed the "opening scenes are not great filmmaking", but Ebert thought Zero Dark Thirty eventually proved itself with the quiet determination of Chastain's performance and a gripping portrayal of the behind-the-scenes detail that led to bin Laden's death. [34], Electronic Arts promoted Zero Dark Thirty in its video game Medal of Honor: Warfighter by offering downloadable maps of locations depicted in the film. Drama, I don't know if that's true, but I'll accept it for argument's sake. Jessica Chastain stars as Maya, a fictional CIA intelligence analyst, with Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Reda Kateb, Mark Strong, James Gandolfini, Kyle Chandler, Stephen Dillane, Chris Pratt, Édgar Ramírez, Fares Fares, Jennifer Ehle, John Barrowman, Mark Duplass, Harold Perrineau, and Frank Grillo in supporting roles. Found insideThis volume is a primer on Freudian psychoanalytical dream interpretation. [37] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale. It is too late to stop the Saudi attack, but Ammar offers them a name. But tactics, priorities, personnel, and even administrations changed over those years. [51], Zero Dark Thirty was released on DVD[52] and Blu-ray Disc on March 26, 2013. He sees the subject of torture as "one of the great moral issues of our times," and views this story as one that could have made a strong argument against the use of torture. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. In a tie-in to a one-man show that will be touring the United States in Fall 2010, a comedian offers a charming, funny memoir about first love, denial, sleepwalking and the perils and pitfalls of being ... himself. July 27, 2017. Those who now say that torture played no role in Qhatani's revelations argue that he offered the information before the rough stuff started. "[76] Emily Bazelon said, "The filmmakers didn't set out to be Bush-Cheney apologists", but "they adopted a close-to-the-ground point of view, and perhaps they're in denial about how far down the path to condoning torture this led them. This no doubt comes as a shock to Bigelow, whom I have never met, but who has been described to me as the kind of gentle soul who "would stoop to lift a snail off the sidewalk.". The real life "Maya" may have been even more lovely and tenacious, but she was just one of many officers and analysts focused on "Ahmed," in an agency that never stopped regarding him as an important lead. When it comes to establishing and maintaining tension, there wasn't a better American genre picture released this year. I do not know the answer, although the reluctance of the current professedly anti-torture administration to explore and punish past abuses may suggest such practices were not altogether useless. "[60], The distributor Columbia Pictures, sensitive to political perceptions, considered rescheduling the film release for as late as early 2013. Reality, after all, is messy and only rarely lines up neatly enough for a two-hour script. I'm with Morrell on this. [31], National security expert Peter Bergen, who reviewed an early cut of the film as an unpaid adviser, said at the time that the film's torture scenes "were overwrought". |, October 27, 2020 | Top Critics (74) The Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association's award for Best Director was given to Bigelow, the second time the honor has gone to a woman (the first also being Bigelow for The Hurt Locker). Zero Dark Thirty was nominated for five Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards: Best Picture, [20] Bigelow has explained that "it's a military term for 30 minutes after midnight, and it refers also to the darkness and secrecy that cloaked the entire decade-long mission."[21]. "Zero Dark Thirty" uses drama to tell the story of the terrorism that has been happening to "Americans" for the last 10 years. These are no actors; these are real recorded people caught up in the middle of the atrocities of 9/11. [40] Calling Zero Dark Thirty "a milestone in post-Sept. 11 cinema", critic A. O. Scott of The New York Times listed the film at number six of the top 10 films of 2012. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. It set a limited-release date for December 19, 2012, well after the election and rendering moot any alleged political conflict. The Ethics of Torture and ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Samuel Beckett’s ‘Breath’ Pat Barker’s ‘Regeneration’ Ian McEwan’s ‘Atonement’ Julian Barnes’s ‘A History of the World in 10 1/2 Chapters’ Sebastian Faulks’s ‘A Week in December’ A.D. Miller’s ‘Snowdrops’ Shakespeare’s ‘Sonnet … He does not deny that torture is part of the story, although he uses different words to describe it: "Some [information leading to bin Laden] came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques, but there were many other sources as well," he wrote. Other detainee intelligence connects courier traffic by Abu Ahmed between Abu Faraj al-Libbi and bin Laden. The Republican national convention party platform even claimed Obama "has tolerated publicizing the details of the operation to kill the leader of Al Qaeda. Refrain from viewing it as historical record and you won't leave disappointed. [4] Zero Dark Thirty earned various awards and nominations, with the nominations in categories ranging from recognition of the screenplay to its direction and editing to the cast's acting performance. Critics continued their rapturous reception for the true-story CIA thriller, giving it … Examines the mission that killed Osama Bin Laden and describes previously unreported missions that illustrate the life and work of a SEAL and the evolution of the team after the events of September 11. Denson said that Leon Panetta, three days after Osama bin Laden's death, seemed to say that waterboarding was a means of extracting reliable and crucial information in the hunt for bin Laden. [91] Critic Andrew O'Hehir said that the filmmaker's position on torture in the film is ambiguous, and creative choices were made and the film poses "excellent questions for us to ask ourselves, arguably defining questions of the age, and I think the longer you look at them the thornier they get". I argued then, before the revelations of Abu Ghraib and other scandals, that the use of such morally repugnant tactics may yield important information and may even be morally compelling in certain rare circumstances, but that it ought to be banned and that interrogators who practiced it should do so only at risk of being disciplined or prosecuted. The worldwide manhunt for the terrorist leader occupies the resources and attention of two U.S. presidential administrations. | Rating: 4/4 Neither they nor their questioners could have imagined that "Ahmed" would end up sheltering bin Laden in Abbottabad. She boards a military transport back to the U.S., the sole passenger. After watching Zero Dark Thirty I am simply amazed at the critical reception it's received. Found insideThe news did much to boost President Obama’s first term and played a major part in his reelection victory of the following year. But much of the story of that night, as presented to the world, was incomplete, or a lie. Zero Dark Thirty: Terror, Torture, and Tradecraft. [58][59] Sony denied that politics was a factor in release scheduling and said the date was the best available spot for an action-thriller in a crowded lineup. [27] Parts of the film were shot in Mani Majra. Author Greg Mitchell wrote that "the film's depiction of torture helping to get bin Laden is muddled at best – but the overall impression by the end, for most viewers, probably will be: Yes, torture played an important (if not the key) role. It removes any doubt that war criminals ran this country for seven years". [33] The score, performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, was released as a soundtrack album by Madison Gate Records on December 19, 2012. [Zero Dark Thirty] is one of the great cinematic procedurals ever made. [75] He identified the unit that conducted the raid as well as naming the ground commander that was in charge. [35], On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 302 reviews, with an average rating of 8.60/10. Zero Dark Thirty was listed on many critics' top ten lists. Within these limits the film is remarkably accurate, and certainly well within what we all understand by the Hollywood label, "based on a true story," which works as both a boast and a disclaimer. Found insideIt was not a large affair: a reception desk, a bullpen for admin and ... our own Washington headquarters down my neck since zero dark thirty this morning. The question of whether "enhanced interrogations" work is separate from whether they're moral—a distinction Kathryn Bigelow's film, but not all of its critics, understands. ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Notches Three More Awards From Washington D.C. Area Critics. [90] Filmmaker Michael Moore similarly said, "I left the movie thinking it made an incredible statement against torture", and noted that the film showed the abject brutality of torture. Torture is presented as part of this story, something Maya accepts. The SEALs gain entry and kill a number of people in the compound, including a man whom they believe is bin Laden. All rights reserved. "He doesn't know we failed," Maya says. "I love reporting, so being on a big story is really exciting to me," said Boal, a former war journalist, of his scramble to write a new script after the event. Gripping, suspenseful, and brilliantly crafted, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, Impeachment: American Crime Story: Season 3, Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space: Season 1, American Horror Story: Double Feature: Season 10, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier: Season 1, Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms. | Rating: 3/5 |. One high level agency official told me, "You could write a book about how we [did it]." A familiar Mark Strong style updated with a new direction. This book is your ultimate resource for Mark Strong. Here you will find the most up-to-date 160 Success Facts, Information, and much more. First Light Production, 87 Fearless Women Movie Heroes Who Inspire Us, April 26, 2020 "Zero Dark Thirty" uses drama to tell the story of the terrorism that has been happening to "Americans" for the last 10 years. Maya is a CIA analyst tasked with finding the al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. May 07, 2016. The key interrogation that focused the CIA's attention on "Ahmed" concerned Mohammed al-Qhatani, whose relentless months-long ordeal was detailed in a particularly gruesome Wikileaks disclosure and prompted the Defense Department to rewrite its guidelines for interrogation—part of that overall course correction in 2004. Found insideId. The CIA reviewed the script of Zero Dark Thirty (Columbia Pictures, ... See Carl Hulse, Years Before His Bipartisan Luster, Ol Rough Reception for Gates ... |, February 12, 2021 Found inside – Page 53... situates both the viewer and model within the frameworks that deny a hospitable reception to difference. Zero Dark Thirty similarly claims to illuminate ... Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Editing and Best Film Editing. Found inside – Page 190Nonetheless, the reception of both films shows important parallels. Though many critics were outraged about what they perceived as Zero Dark Thirty's ... He is a passionate artist, and makes films that are shaped by his convictions. Here it is: Mark Duplass! This book is your ultimate resource for Mark Duplass. Here you will find the most up-to-date 67 Success Facts, Information, and much more. Indeed, in a letter protesting Zero Dark Thirty to Sony Chairman Michael Lynton last month, they claim to have reviewed "six million pages" of intelligence records, which may help explain why Congress has such a hard time getting anything done. |, April 12, 2021 The book concludes with a survey of the alternatives to criticism based on interpretation and, finally, with the proposal that a historical poetics of cinema offers the most fruitful framework for film analysis. The statement is repeated shortly thereafter by another agency bureaucrat; in both … Electronic Arts donates $1 to nonprofit organizations that support veterans for each Zero Dark Thirty map pack sold. These have been ably documented by, for one, Alex Gibney (a prominent critic of Zero Dark Thirty) in his stirring documentary Taxi to the Dark Side, and by tenacious journalists like Seymour Hersh and Jane Mayer, not to mention by the candid and devastating snapshots of depraved American military jailors. This is all in the first minutes of the movie. The work that leads to Abbottabad in the second half of the film unfolds as dramatic detective work in the office and the field, and ends with a faithful and detailed reenactment of the raid on the Abbottabad compound. But pure storytelling is not always about making an argument, no matter how worthy. A case manager that liked the Abu Ahmed lead shares with her an interrogation with a Jordanian detainee claiming to have buried Abu Ahmed in 2001.
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