Zero Dark Thirty (2012)- Movie Review

Zero Dark Thirty was directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by Mark Boal and released in 2012. The film focuses on the attacks of 9/11 which killed nearly three thousand people and changed the course of American history. Maya, played by Jessica Chastain is a CIA intelligence analyst who is the protagonist of the film. Zero Dark Thirty was both critically acclaimed and was highly controversial due to the theme of using violence during interrogation of the detainees portrayed in the film. During the time, the creators of the film were also bashed for gaining access to classified documents from the Government and presenting them in the film. The film discusses the themes of violence, war against terrorism, revenge, representation of female protagonists and feminism, patriotism, treatment of Muslims and torture which will be explored later on in this essay.

Zero Dark Thirty is a film with a documentary type approach about the decade long manhunt for Osama Bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist organization named al-Qaeda that organized a series of attacks on September 11, 2001, which left the world stunned and led the US to declare a war against terrorism. The film focuses on the major contributions of a headstrong CIA intelligence analyst, Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) in locating and ultimately killing the al-Qaeda leader. Zero Dark Thirty is directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, both of them who extensively researched the events of the attacks with the assistance of Obama’s administration and the CIA.  The film’s director Kathryn Bigelow had always been intrigued by events and subjects in the contemporary world. She does not specify the inspiration and the motivation for making Zero Dark Thirty but we can observe a pattern of action and political drama genres with a focus on racial and gender issues when we take a look at her filmography. She was an artist in her youth and then became a filmmaker with an artistic expression being her domain of interest. Like the film’s protagonist Maya, Bigelow does not entertain and delve into personal details of her life and is focused on her work. The events depicted in the movie are only partially accurate with some scenes and events being publicly refuted as authentic by the CIA. Though, in terms of techniques and factual representation the story remains true. 

The film begins with a chilling audio montage of one of the victims of the 9/11 attacks and cuts two years later in 2003 in Pakistan to the interrogation of Ammar, who is suspected to be a courier for Osama Bin Laden.[1] Here, the protagonist of the film, Maya is introduced witnessing the very graphic and brutal torture of Ammar but not turning away from the violence stating that the film is primarily taking a pro-torture stance.[2] Initially, Ammar does not provide valuable information but then reveals an important name to further the investigation, Abu Ahmed al- Kuwaiti who acts as another courier for Osama Bin Laden.[3] Soon, a link is formed between Abu Ahmed between Abu Faraj al-Libi also known as “number three” who played a pivotal role in organizing the attacks and, Bin Laden.[4] Ammar is then interrogated again and hints at another terrorist attack not specifying the date and the place.[5] Then we see that in 2004, twenty two people who were not Muslim being killed in Khobar, Saudi Arabia.[6] Maya then suggests that Ammar must not be aware that the attacks in Khobar were successful and plans to trick Ammar and convincing him the opposite to extract valuable information about Bin Laden’s ties and this proves to be effective.[7] Ammar introduces a few crucial names one of them being Abu Ahmed. [8]

At this point of the film it seems very clear that Abu Ahmed and Abu Faraj are the key to trace Osama Bin Laden’s location which Maya is aware of and she sticks to her strategy of finding the chain the couriers to locate Bin Laden. The film jumps forward to London in 2004 when another terrorist attack kills fifty two people and injures a several hundred.[9] Maya is shown interrogating a detainee in ISI Pakistan and asks him questions about the whereabouts of Abu Ahmed for which he has no answer.[10] The Pakistani police is successful in capturing Abu Faraj and he is questioned by Maya.[11] The most shocking piece of information that has come into light is that Faraj claims there is no person named Abu Ahmed leaving Maya completely confused and lost.[12]

The film cuts to September 20, 2008 in JW Marriott in Pakistan where Maya is meeting a friend from the CIA but another bombing kills fifty four people sparing Maya and her friend Jessica (Jennifer Ehle).[13]Then, Jessica gets a video recording in which Al-Balawi a mole, who is a Jordanian doctor turns on al-Qaeda.[14] Contrary to what the CIA believes Al-Balawi is a suicide bomber who blows up the CIA’s Afghanistan base killing Jessica and the others.[15] At this point, when Maya learns of the attack she personally swears vengeance on the al-Qaeda and it seems as though Maya is the heroine of the film set against to exterminate al-Qaeda.[16]

After sometime, Maya’s coworker tells her that Abu Ahmed was travelling under a fake name called Sayeed which leads her to another hint.[17] She deduces that the detainee that thought Abu Ahmed might be dead must be mistaken as one of the eight brothers of Ahmed’s because all of them look identical.[18] After some arrangements that included gifting the then Kuwaiti price a Lamborghini, Dan (Jason Clarke), a senior officer in the CIA gets the phone number of the mother of the Sayeed family.[19] The CIA in Pakistan track the caller that leads them to a house in Abbottabad, Pakistan and soon after, Maya’s identity is revealed and she is attacked by gunmen and is called to Washington.[20] Then, months after the potential house of Osama Bin Laden is discovered; Maya insists to raid the compound in Abbottabad.[21] President Obama orders a team of Navy SEALS on May 2, 2011 to raid the house.[22] Maya is sure that Osama Bin Laden is hiding in the compound which is proven to true when one of the Navy SEALs is finally successful in killing the al-Qaeda leader.[23]

Zero Dark Thirty is a film that is predominantly told through a feminist perspective as it fullyrecognizes the efforts of Maya leading the operation without sidelining the contributions of her male counterparts. There are several instances in which Maya is shown to be emotional, exhausted, threatened but not depicted as weak for being the above mentioned. While discussing the theme of feminism and the role it plays in the film; there is an influence of feminist ideologies of assertiveness, professionalism and autonomy on the character of Maya to an extent where it does not overwhelm the film or oversimply it to make an overtly political statement. When the film was released in 2012, despite being released in the 21st century, women were underrepresented in films as protagonists compared their male counterparts and if they were it was mostly to support their male characters in the film. Considering this, it was a surprise that a character like Maya was not only the lead in Zero Dark Thirty but was shown as a character that was a brilliant CIA analyst with no personal history explored and yet was portrayed as vulnerable human who is invaluable to the investigation. There are quite a few controversies surrounding the film like the treatment of Muslims pre and post 9/11 dating up to 2019 which has undoubtedly been worse after the attacks, the debate over torture and the uproar against waterboarding and other investigation techniques in America and whether or not these techniques effectively aid the process of interrogation in the real world which will be discussed later in the essay. With the addition of how important these issues are, and how they are relevant in today’s world along with situation of The United States before and after the bombing and attacks of 9/11, the response of the countries of the world, how 9/11 shaped the relations of the US with the rest of the world and common public’s fear and anxieties in the US and the policies introduced in the aftermath of 9/11 and the treatment of Muslims and how and why it shaped after the terrorist attacks of  9/11which will also be discussed later in this essay.

Kathryn Bigelow is one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed directors. She was born in San Carlos, California on November 27, 1951. She studied at the San Francisco Art Institute and moved to New York City after getting a scholarship.[24] She was initially interested in painting but later switched to filmmaking after much contemplation.[25] She recognized painting as an art form which was restricted to a target audience and wanted to reach out to more people which is why she decided to study filmmaking and got her Masters degree in film theory and criticism from Columbia University in 1979.[26]  Her first full length feature film was The Loveless in 1981. Bigelow then directed mainstream films like ‘Point Break’, ‘Blue Steel’, ‘Strange Days’ and got more recognized as a director. Her widely respected film The Hurt Locker qualified for the 2010 Oscars and got excellent reviews and ratings from several critics. She is the only female filmmaker to receive an Oscar under the category of Best Director for ‘The Hurt Locker’.[27] She makes films that are thrilling, mainstream, violent and valid to contemporary events and time, and has been heavily criticized for the use of violence in her films.[28] Nonetheless, Kathryn Bigelow has proved to be an auteur in the filmmaking industry and her contributions and techniques of filmmaking are commendable and cannot go unnoticed.

Zero Dark Thirty was a controversial film and a lot of critics unabashedly lambasted it although, some gave it the due credit it deserved.  The film caused quite a stir and became a topic of discussion because of its unique style of filmmaking, a strong protagonist, gripping and thrilling sequences, emotion, patriotism through fulfilling duty and most commonly- the use of enhanced interrogation techniques according to the CIA or simply torture. Several if not all reviews believed that Maya’s personal life, her motives and her values were not explored in the film and yet the film managed to keep her character captivating because of relatable values of morality, loss, revenge, dedication towards work and attaining justice.[29] Reviews also say that the reason this film is critically acclaimed is because of the fact all people agree that there is a degree of satisfaction and an end to horrors of terrorism to an extent when Osama Bin Laden is executed and that it makes the audience hopeful towards the successful eradication of terrorism one day.[30] Whereas, some reviews urged the audience to deeply think about the ethics behind countering terrorism even if the film does not suggest so.[31] Critics questioned the portrayal of duty and wrote that inhumane treatment of Muslims during interrogation was masked behind patriotism.[32] There was a clear distinction between the CIA and the terrorists and the movie encouraged the viewers to blatantly think of the CIA officers as good and the techniques they employed as salient to vanquish terrorism. Nevertheless according to all the reviews, the critics are of the opinion that the film does deserve credit because the protagonist, Maya is a woman who shows perseverance, is intelligent, does not comply with male coworkers not due to rebelliousness but to stand up for the cause she genuinely believes in, makes calculated decisions in order to help the investigation and is a headstrong woman with a singular mission.

There are reasons behind the attacks of 9/11 and al-Qaeda had motivations that they hoped to achieve after the attacks. According to Louis Menand, an American critic, the attacks of 9/11 were caused by the bullying attitude of the United States. Noam Chomsky, another American critic, philosopher, linguist and a political activist too is of the opinion that America is a “global bad guy.”[33] This means that the US had conflicting values and attitudes that were strikingly different than that of the countries that follow the Islamic ideology which ultimately channeled through globalization led by the US. Slavoj ?i?ek, a Slovenian philosopher says that, to comprehend the horrific event of 9/11 it should be done by directly relating it to the ideologies that are against global capitalism. [34]  Another cause of the 9/11 was hostility between the Arab world and the US. Al-Qaeda believed that even though America at the forefront was an ardent supporter of democratic ideologies yet, openly favoured the nations that were more orthodox. [35] The media in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria and other countries had quickly passed on anti- American sentiments and regarded America’s military involvement in Saudi Arabia and the consequent Gulf War, sanctions passed in Iraq, and the support of Israel as key trigger points to plan the attacks. The US repeatedly interfered with the religious activities in Mecca and Medina which are considered to be the holiest pilgrimage sites for Muslims, this inevitably hurt the religious sentiments of al-Qaeda. Religion plays the most important role to differentiate the West and the Islamic world with their ideologies being in stark contrast to each other causing belligerence.

The Muslim population has been a minority and yet has been in the US for more than a century.[36] A very large immigrant population arrived in the US after the Civil War and World War II including populations from the Middle East. Since then Muslims have settled in America and established a peaceful life economically and personally.[37] Hate crimes against Muslims rose after the events of 9/11 and their lifestyle drastically changed. The next generation of American born Muslims tried to merge with the mainstream American cultures and values even though their previous generation of Muslims in America did not wish to get involved.[38] Following the years of Bill Clinton’s regime there were policies and acts passed for the purpose of countering terrorism that further sidelined the Muslims from Americans.[39] Finally after 9/11, there was strong demarcation between the Muslims and the Americans in the US. Data shows that the hate crimes against Muslims has multiplied five folds since 2000 however, in the following years the situation has become more steady.[40] The reason for this is the Muslim community in the US has been a minority and there is a direct association of hate and terror with those who practice Islam.

The event of 9/11 stunned the US and has been regarded as a trauma to both the nation and its identity. This is because when al-Qaeda attacked it did so to violently challenge the American ideologies. [41] America is an immigrant country and instead of celebrating differences, 9/11 scarred the US and left it devoid of the ability the appreciate various cultures. [42] American multiculturism was at stake when the American identity was at stake. To counter this, people began to hoist the American flag, put up American artworks and slogans of patriotism as a response while some of them did this to express resentment and anger. [43] The American public started to stand for a “colour blind society” denouncing the differences of identification such as African Americans, Asian Americans and so on and simply categorize them as Americans with one language and one flag. [44]

Human rights violation continued not only for Muslims in their day to day lives after the 9/11 but also enhanced for the detainees in the Guantanamo Bay, a detention camp made by the US military to prosecute war criminals. There is scrutiny related to the practices followed by the military towards the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It was however proved that detainees were abused in Guantanamo Bay from 2002 to 2004.[45] People have argued that detainees have been tortured extensively and inhumanely treated. [46] There are also been arguments about the breach in habeas corpus which is a human right.[47] Another instance where the American military was seen violating the prisoner’s human rights was  during the war in Iraq in Abu Ghraib. A series of photographs were released and shocked the public not due to it’s vile and dehumanizing nature but due to the feeling of patriotism and unremorseful pride of the American military during the sadistic torture. [48]

There was a drastic organizational change post 9/11 to ensure national security. USA passed The Homeland Security Act of 2002 to curb the threat of international terrorism through carefully reforming the intelligence division and to specifically look into this division the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act or IRTPA was passed in 2004.[49] Although these acts were not as effective as the Government hoped they would be and the 9/11 Commission was intricately listed down the existing weaknesses and shortcomings of the US Army, Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard. Keeping this in mind in 2004 IRTPA was passed. Again in 2015 a vision was formed by acknowledging the changing times of the 21st century and implemented crucial structural and organizational improvements.

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