A film that manages to piss of both Democrats and Republicans using the same scenes but for different reasons is bound to be interesting. The relationship between Hollywood and Washington has a long history of symbiosis, and the Oscars can sometimes be a legitimation or criticism of direct parties or policies (see: winners speeches of Fahrenheit 9/11, The Hurt Locker, Milk…). The irony is that whilst most people believe that Hollywood is ‘liberal’, the films that it churns out as blockbusters (to fund the industry) are mostly highly conventional and conservative – full of family values, patriarchy, heteronormativity and gung-ho American-exceptionalism. What more could right-wingers want?!
Zero Dark Thirty is the story of the capture of
Osama Bin-Laden through the eyes of a feisty C.I.A agent (Jessica Chastain) called
simply ‘Maya’ – like she represents an apocalypse. The film is split explicitly into three main
chapters: Torturing people in order to
find Bin Laden; battling bureaucracy into action after they discover where he
is; and the final night vision action scene where they (literally) go in for
the kill. Depending on your age (in
relation to 9/11) and your interest in terrorist-porn (admit it, you watched
Homeland and felt like an insider) it is hit-or-miss on how much the build up
translates to ‘drama’ or ‘thriller’. If
you care about the intricacy of the politics of the mission, then this will
tick the box of Political Thriller. If
you care about the struggle of a female in a man’s world then it will feel like
a Drama. If you only care about seeing
Bin Laden’s brains blown out…you probably wont care about this film.
The acting is
great. The misé-en-scene is great. The script is great. But the film is somewhat boring. The action is too recent for it to be
historically of interest (I saw this film fresh with the memories of
end-of-2011 news programs recanting the same story and channel 4 documentaries
that were more factual and exciting.)
Much seems to have been
said about the gender politics of the film (including me above). A female character…? From a female director?!
It must have something to say about feminism!
I think this misses the point – the Oscar season this year is heavily
racial (Django/Lincoln/Argo/Zero Dark) it is hard to pick which film was the
most insensitive to its foreign hosts. I
heard that this film was being illegally smuggled into Pakistan and was being roundly
laughed at due to its depiction of the country as a 1950s sandy
shanty-town. I admit that I have not
been to Pakistan, but I imagine that it is nothing like what is presented in
this film.
Zero Dark is worth the watch simply to guess which scenes
pissed off which politicians. That
simple viewing exercise will teach you more about American politics than the
overall narrative does.
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