movie review of 'Zero Dark Thirty'

          'Zero Dark Thirty'. Starring Jessca Chastain and Jason Clarks. Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Length of 157 minutes.



     When Osama bin Laden planned the bombings and airplane hujackings of 9/11, had he ever heard of Maya, the driven, totally-focused CIA female agent? Probably not, because if he'd have known of Maya, he might have scrapped all his develish plans right then and there.
     'Zero Dark Thirty' is a basically one plot film, in which Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, hunts down the man behind 9/11. When we first see Maya, she's shedding a face mask outside of a torture chamber. At movie's end, she sits in the hangar of a giant aircraft, and a tear finally runs down one of her cheeks. {I think it runs down her left cheek}.
     In between those times, that's to say for more than two hours-and-a-half, the movie ably directed by Kathryn Bigelow, whips us  through the U.S., Afghanistan, Pakistan and various other places. Suicide bombings, torture, by Americans no less, snipings, and just plain violence, litter the screen with bodies.
    Maya is tough. "Help me," a tortured prisoner near the movie's start pleads to her. "You can help yourself by being truthful," Maya shoots back.
     The head of the CIA played by James Gandolfini {based on the veteran Congressman Leon Panetta, I think} asks a room of mostly men who found Bin Laden's probable hideout. "I'm the motherf...er who found this place...sir," Maya says bluntly.
    Zero Dark Thirty is the military name for the darkest time of the night. And that's when the U.S. Navy Seal raid on Bin Laden's refuge in Pakistan takes place. This part of the film streches out for about an hour and ends with the rough and tough Seal crew finding and killing their prey. Kathryn Bigelow's direction and her and Mark Boal's script gives us a film that's part documentary, part drama.Maya stands out as a woman who can escape potential assassins as well as tussle with inflexible bureaucrats.
   It's based on a true story. So if you like war, violence, justice meted out to deserving victims, and total effort finally rewarded, then don't miss 'Zero Dark Thirty'.As for me, I enjoyed the film, but I'm going to see a violence-free comedy the next time I go to a theatre. I need a break right now from dying and death.'Zero Dark Thirty' had just a little too much death in it for me.