You know what’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy.™
Zero Dark Thirty.
A very good movie. A powerful reminder of where we were and where we are.
The movie begins with a dark screen. Movies usually open with explosions and poignant imagery. This film opens with a screen so dark, I wonder if the projector is broken. The theater is full of sound, and we are taken back to that fateful day; Sept 11 2001.
Do you remember where you were? Of course you do. You will never forget.
My mind fills the blank screen as I listen to a myriad of 911 calls made from people in the Twin Towers to their loved ones and to emergency responders. We hear radio reports of planes being hijacked and the aftermath of a world gone crazy.
It’s so simple, it’s truly a brilliant way to open up a film that begins on one of the most harrowing days in American history.
It would be easy to play news footage and make us all cry and squirm in our seats.
Instead the director lets our memories of fires, and dust and anguish fill the void, for almost a full minute.
Then the film fades in and we are over seas in the cradel of terrorism where being American means you are in danger.
The movie is primarily set in the American Embassy in Pakistan where a group of CIA operatives crunch data, listen to phone conversations, look for any clue that might lead to the 911 mastermind, Usama Bin Laden or UBL as the film has dubbed him.
The movie opens up in a black ops warehouse somewhere undetermined. It’s here that the CIA agents are torturing a courier with knowledge of UBL. They beat him, and then water board him in a scene that is so realistic, I feel like I am drowning.
The movie follows the painstaking dedication of one CIA operative and her 10 year hunt for Usama Bin Laden.
A high ranking belt way insider asks her in one scene; “what else have you ever done?”
“Nothing else sir.”
That’s it. She is a singular, dedicated mechanism trained to find and kill UBL.
The film is filled with a spider web of Alqaida members whose names are hard to say and harder to remember. The film showcases the bearded faces of terrorists in turbans all of whom look so similar to one another it is a wonder that the CIA can find anyone at all.
The film shows us dead end after dead end. The film reminds me of why they call it a war on terrorism.
There is a suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel and a terrible blast at an army installation where many are killed.
Zero Dark Thirty is a reminder of the terrorism war that wages after 911. We see double decker busses in England exploding killing dozens of people. We see political landscapes and public opinion on torture and terrorism shift in our own country.
We are reminded how awesome America is when we scene after scene in Islamabad or some other goat pasture city filled with chaos and corruption and filth.
The film reminds us that much of the Earth hates us because we are Americans.
Zero Dark Thirty forces you to remember back to that terrible day.
Where was I? What did I do? How did I react?
It was a film that reminded me that thousands of innocent people died and as a country we spent a decade going after the man who master minded it all.
The film was expertly made; “Intense” a friend would call it later.
It was intense, because we didn’t realize how hard tracking UBL was. We didn’t realize that he never used a phone, a credit card, or anything in a modern world that we take for granted, that would have us captured in 30 minutes by the CIA.
The movie documents couriers being tailed through filthy open air markets, showing the dedication of a small team of covert Americans with the sole purpose of bringing this mass murderer to justice.
Zero Dark Thirty is a film based on real events. But that means it has taken certain cinematic liberties. The movie is entertaining, but more than that it is a heartfelt gut check forcing you to remember those who died and why we must always be vigilant against a world that hates us.
It’s a long journey from 911 to now. Sometimes memories fade with time.
Zero Dark Thirty is a reason to remember why we fight so hard every day to be free.
And that is crazy.™