This movie is so damned good in an Oscar year of so many good ones.
Sasha Stone has been around the Oscar scene since 1999. Almost everything on this website is her fault.
Better late than never! Barbie was placed in Adapted at the Oscars but is in the Original Screenplay category here,...
Read moreThe Academy should take a bow this morning for bringing back the Oscars, restoring them to their former glory in...
Read moreThe Golden Globes went off well enough this past year that CBS has signed a five-year deal with the Globes...
Read more
So damned good?Huh?Didn’t we have a similar and a so damned good one last year already? —Fair Game (Valerie Plame played by Naomi Watts).
Mark F: The film is morally reprehensible, presenting the false idea that torture helped capture bin Laden and presenting no real argument against torture.
—
ABSOLUTE WRONG! Don’t make a comment like this until you have seen the film. The movie opens with a torture sequence, BUT THIS DOES NOT reveal anything regarding Bin Laden. It’s only when Jessica Chastain’s Maya and Jason Clarke’s Dan try a different approach and speak to their prisoner over humus, tricking him into believing he already revealed something to them (a technique used by interrogators), that he gives them the courier’s name that drives the movie.
What the torture sequence DOES DO is it raises issues with the U.S. post-9/11 program, the egregious war crimes supported by the Bush administration, posing the question: DID TORTURE REALLY DO US ANY GOOD? Zero Dark Thirty does not answer this, but instead provides an alternative that torture was not behind finding the vital clue. The only thing that can be seen as morally reprehensible is that the film fuses both sides together and leaves it up to the viewer whether it’s possible to distinguish one from the other. This is an admirable path on the part of the filmmakers, part of the power behind this intellectually-stimulating and at times disturbing movie, and evidence of why critics have called Bigelow perhaps the least sentimental (a necessity!) of our cultural custodians.
Yeah I hear what you’re saying, Alex. But that’s why I said “based on” and not “this is literally” what happened. And when I said real and right, I didn’t mean right or wrong, not in the least. More like if a filmmaker creates a world then what happens in that world should feel organic and real and right to the situation. I can’t think of another word for “right”…like it makes sense that Dan would torture someone else to get answers. I’m happy as a clam there is no political agenda. So if the characters don’t say torture is wrong, I’m fine with that. Because none of them, especially Dan, would say torture is wrong since its his job. Either way, I don’t think Bigelow, Boal and the rest even need to tell us what’s right and wrong. We can decide that for ourselves. But thank you for pointing out a couple things that I should’ve clarified.
So glad KB is telling these stories of today, most of her male counterparts are not. Credit Mark Boal as well. I wonder though, is this what she does or are there other colors in her palette? Still, I’d rather have these movies than not have them. Looking most forward to this of what remains unseen, The initial trailer is the best of the year, you can watch it and not feel you are being served the entire film.
Kane, you might want to be careful with such “terms” as truth and “realism”, as the only things that are based upon real facts are that there was such a female agent who was crazy about finding Bin Laden, and that the Seal Team 6 raided the compound. The rest, how exactly happened and what are the underlying, and might I add important, details is left to wonder since this is just a Hollywood production.
And if it’s “real and right”, then they should probably mention a small detail – that torture is wrong, especially when it’s extreme torture. And, oh, it actually wasn’t responsible for the final outcome of the mission. Yeah, minor details…
With the exception of the overly sentimental angelic kids choir music it’s an excellent trailer. Jessica Chastain is both forceful and very photogenic, the right choice for lead.
Mark F.
They have no obligation to present an argument against it. They’re not telling a story to appease you. They’re telling a story based on truth. And from what I understand Jessica Chastain’s character does show a hint of discomfort during the segment so you can take that and run with it whatever you like. I prefer a movie to feel real and right in the world they present, not preachy and politically or morally motivated to sway an audience.
That’s all irrelevant Mark F. The real news is how beautiful James Hetfield’s voice has become. Now do Master of Puppets.
The film is morally reprehensible, presenting the false idea that torture helped capture bin Laden and presenting no real argument against torture. The film also wallows in the torture sequences for the first 45 minutes. I’m sure Dick Cheney will love it. See Glenn Greenwald’s review in “The Guardian.”
Shame on the critics for their positive reviews, and shame on you Sasha for not recognizing uncritical pro-government propaganda. Shame!
On Metacritic 0D30 has 1 so-so review from the Christian Science Monitor. The sentence it says, “By showing scenes of torture without taking any kind of moral (as opposed to tactical) stand on what we are seeing, Bigelow has made an amoral movie – which is, I would argue, an unconscionable approach to this material.”
Looks like torture is being heavily focused on when it comes to this film. Unbelieveable. Not every movie needs to have “moral centers”. Bigelow & Co. are showing the realism of torture and just what happens afterwards.
I must also add, even in a de-glammed role like this, is Jessica Chastain a mind-blowing beauty or what? Might be the most beautiful woman in movies right now, in my opinion.
I am so hungry to see this film. Such an amazing year in film – why all at once – Argo, Les Miz, The Impossible, Life of Pi and now ZDT – I feel spoilt – I want them all to win! Hopefully I’m covered there!!! LOL
@ Vince Smetana,
Yup, I was with it until the choir kids came in. Almost, I say almost sucked the air out of the trailer. Thankfully at this stage, very little will dissuade me from seeing it. I also think that it will be a hit. People will go for a variety of reasons and they will see in it what they want to see in it. Left/Right, Dems/Repubs, Libs/Cons, it’ll have something for everyone. And I don’t mean that they have cynically loaded it to appeal across the board. My sense is that the approach is neutral. This could so easily have been a Bruckheimer jingo-fest. But it ain’t, so it isn’t.
This is a much better trailer than anything the studio has put out thus far. Even with the kid choir singing a Metallica refrain in the background.
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’ll love the crap outta this film. Too bad it doesn’t open down here til next month.
It’s funny how this trailer is different, yet very similar. The same conversation being part of this trailer shows that either 1) there aren’t that many dialogues in it, or a big part of them are featured in the extensive torture scenes, or 2) a big part of the movie focuses on the action, and on the beautiful scenery and breathtaking cinematography, thereby representing the state of mind of the main character in a similar way to The Hurt Locker.
In either way, the movie would seem to be best trailer in the past few years, garnished with a very sexy, deadly and dramatic performance by Jessica Chastain – who would resist it?!
My Name is Corvo.
I speak like a man.
I think like a man.
I generalize like a man.
I rationalize like a man.
When a woman is doing her own thing but it looks like she’s playing on a male’s court. It doesn’t mean she wants to grow a dick. Writing her off because she’s being driven by stories that she wants to tell that just happened to have been told by men for the past 100 years doesn’t make her any less of an important female director.
Christ. I hope she wins the Oscar again. The misogyny during this season is overwhelmingly similar to the opaque racism during Obamas past two elections.
Ps. This is ultimately a film about an incredibly strong female. See the movie, Chucko.
Bigelow is a woman who shoots for men, like a man, because she would have liked to be a man. Did you ever ask yourselves why she won an Oscar and Jane Campion never did? It is obvious. Because men love thinking that women can be as good as them only if they behave in the same way, if they obey to the same principles. War, violence, adrenaline rushes, killing, exploding, hunting. Bigelow loves so much all this stuff. Her cinema shows an aesthetics of death. She believes in patriotism, she believes in honor, and traditional american folks love that, want to praise her for that. Her cinema stands on the side of domination, on the side of power. She is a director embedded. That’s why, in spite of her undeniable mastery in shooting, I don’t like her and I hope she will not win another Oscar. An american cinema symbolized by Bigelow would be an american cinema that withdraws into itself, that gives up speaking to the world.
I can’t wait to see this movie. Chastain looks just perfect. 🙂
That was a great, great, great trailer. It looks more mainstream focused than the ones before, but is a great trailer nonetheless.
That’s a great way to start the day.