Zero Dark Thirty

There are two narratives about the location of Osama bin Laden. The one that you’re most familiar with is that UBL is hiding in a cave in the tribal areas, that he’s surrounded by a large contingent of loyal fighters. But that narrative is pre-9/11 understanding of UBL. The second narrative, that he’s living in a city, living in a city with multiple points of egress and entry, access to communications, so that he can keep in touch with the organization.You can’t run a global network of interconnected cells from a cave.

There’s a belief in some circles that Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty has absolutely no point of view about its subject matter, that it’s a cold film which plays out like a series of vignettes.  This is an incredibly shallow read, however, of the material which often explores the grey areas of morality but very consistently has a perspective, established in the immediate opening scenes.

Ammar (Reda Kateb), a detainee being held at a so-called “CIA black site” who happens to be the nephew of Khalid Shaikh Mohammad (the mastermind of the WTC attacks), is questioned and then tortured by covert operators.  Among them, a seasoned interrogator, Dan (Jason Clarke), and the green recruit, Maya (Jessica Chastain).  “When you lie to me, I hurt you,” says Dan.  Ammar is subjected to waterboarding, a form of torture that has raised much controversy in recent years.  These words become a refrain that is part of a routine designed to wear down the detainee’s resistance.  But Ammar doesn’t budge, and on May 29, 2004, in a high profile assault, a group of terrorists murder foreign nationals at the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.  Ammar, however, is cut off from the world and doesn’t know this.  At Maya’s suggestion, the interrogators reverse course.  Through humane treatment and a bit of social engineering, Ammar gives up the names of several individuals, including Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti—Osama bin Laden’s courier, whose real name is reportedly Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed (Tushaar Mehra).

Written by former journalist Mark Boal, Zero Dark Thirty intrigues not through action sequences or high drama but methodically walks us through the many clues leading to the most wanted terrorist in the world.  The act of intelligence gathering, as told by Ms. Bigelow and Mr. Boal, is much more complicated than simply beating a confession out of someone.  One of the principles of triangulation is to eliminate what one finds to reduce the number of possibilities down to that which is conspicuously absent.  Detainees who dismiss al-Kuwaiti’s importance seem to be misdirecting, downplaying the importance of an individual every one of them has heard of.  Later, when the CIA monitors al-Kuwaiti’s cell phone calls, Maya notes that he never discusses missions and never makes calls from the same location.  This deliberate effort to evade pattern recognition is referred to by the CIA as “tradecraft”.

When it comes to Hollywood tradecraft, we can imagine a dozen or so clichés that might have played out with another director at the helm.  Most notably, Osama bin Laden and the raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, would have taken center stage for most of the film’s 157 minutes.

Here, the director doesn’t give us filler in between expositional scenes.  Maya is introduced as a naif, but both she and Dan become desensitized.  Dan begins to think he needs something else to do, to be “normal again.”  Maya plunges deeper into her work.  Ms. Bigelow accomplishes something few Hollywood directors have:  Maya and her closest counterpart, Jessica (Jennifer Ehle), spend most of their time talking about work.

The women in this film pass the Bechdel test with flying colors.  Save for one throwaway line in a conversation between Jessica and Maya, the purpose of which is to illustrate Maya’s intense focus on her work, their discussions and their lives do not revolve around their relationships with men.  These are self-contained characters with purposes and motivations all their own.

The film deftly handles the subject of a woman working three times as hard just to make it in a man’s world.  There aren’t any monologues about how difficult or overwhelming it is… as I’m proofreading this, my wife suddenly had the image of Dolly Parton in 9 to 5 pop into her head.  Like most sexism in American culture, Maya’s obstacles to being taken seriously are all in the undertones of the film.  Consider Bradley’s interim replacement, Tim (Daniel Lapaine). Leaning back in chair, feet on desk while he takes a personal call, he very quickly acquiesces to a request she puts forth, “I’ve learned from my predecessor that life is much easier when I don’t argue with you.”

That isn’t to suggest the film is bereft of any kind of bonding, but it happens in places you don’t always expect.  Maya develops strong, if at times antagonistic, working relationships with her male peers and superiors including the station chief in Islamabad, Pakistan, Joseph Bradley (Kyle Chandler).   In a single shot we see the flip-side of the abrasive Bradley, forced to leave the country as his family’s lives have been threatened. In the same scene, Maya’s reaction demonstrates that she’s capable of empathy.

As subtle as the subtext of the film, neither the cinematography or the music get in the way of the storytelling.  In Paul Greengrass’ United 93, a spiritual cousin to Ms. Bigelow’s film, handheld closeups are odiously abused.  Unnecessarily jarring movement in service of neorealism is far more reserved here, as is Alexandre Desplat’s score. Given that the thirty-eight minute mission is reconstructed almost in real time, entire stretches of the DEVGRU raid on the Bin Laden compound are unsettlingly quiet.

The film relies cleverly on silence to punctuate several moments of terror which I won’t spoil.  That some viewers will sense dread filling the air—the characters none the wiser—doesn’t controvert the emotional impact.  The action lies somewhere in the middle, framed on one side by fear and on the other by exhaustion.  There’s no party.  No ticker tape parade.  A decade draws to a close, Maya’s relief beset by uncertainty.  Earlier in the film, Director of Central Intelligence Leon Panetta (James Gandolfini) approaches Maya after she and a team had pitched the raid to senior staff, whose timetable had been escalated to keep Pakistani ISI from getting wise.  Panetta asks Maya, a twelve year veteran of the CIA recruited straight from school, what else she has worked on for them.  Maya replies, “Nothing.”

Zero Dark Thirty • Dolby® Digital surround sound in select theatres • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 • Running Time: 157 minutes • MPAA Rating: R for strong violence including brutal disturbing images, and for language. • Distributed by Columbia Pictures.