Eugene weekly., January 10, 2013, Page 21, Image 21

MOVI ES
BY MO LLY TEMP LETO N
CHASING TERROR
Worldwide manhunt for bin Laden seen through Bigelow’s human-sized lens
ZERO DARK THIRTY: Directed by Kathryn Bigelow. Written by Mark Boal. Cinematography, Greig Fraser. Editing, William
Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor. Music, Alexandre Desplat. Starring Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong,
Kyle Chandler and Joel Edgerton. Columbia Pictures, 2012. R. 157 minutes. 00001
W
ithin a minute of Zero Dark Thirty, I was in tears. Director Kathryn
Bigelow doesn’t pull punches, and the film’s dark-screen open is no
exception: It leaves the images to your imagination as the audio gives
you scared, horrified, frantic voices. I assume these are re-creations of
audio from 9/11. If they’re not, I don’t want to know.
I’ve seen a similar tactic used before, to equally devastating and
difficult effect, in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s segment of the short film collection
11’09”01. Iñárritu cut from a dark screen, with audio from or describing 9/11, to scenes of
bodies falling from the towers. I saw that film in Australia, where I’d temporarily moved
in 2002, and a year after I’d stood on a street corner in Manhattan trying to comprehend
what was happening two miles away.
I tell you this not to play some sort of I-was-there card, but because I don’t know that
Bigelow’s choices will have the same effect on everyone. I don’t know where you were,
how you felt, whom you knew. But I know that even as the tears started, I was aware that
this was one hell of a play, a forceful reminder of what kick-started the story told in Zero
Dark Thirty. Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal return, again and again, to devastation
and pain, to London in 2005, to hotel bombings and cars exploding. And, controversially,
to torture, which comes early and is shot plainly, with close-ups of a detainee’s tired,
helpless face contrasting horribly with Dan (Jason Clarke)’s mild expression.
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Zero Dark Thirty is not a pro-torture movie, not anymore than it’s a pro-war movie. It will
be seen as such because we all see movies through our own filters, lenses built of experience
and expectation. The story Bigelow and Boal tell is an ugly one, brutal, disconnected,
horribly human, but what makes the film such an exceptional piece of work is the way they
center it in the quietest moments: CIA analyst Maya (Jessica Chastain) half watches a mute
monitor as a car stops sideways in front of two other vehicles, then explodes. Scenes with
detainees aren’t softened by musical cues from Alexandre Desplat’s precise score. Maya and
two colleagues silently watch TV as Obama says that America doesn’t torture. Are they
wondering what it is they’ve been doing? Is theirs a moral or practical conflict? How do
these things — the president’s ideals, and the reality on the ground — relate?
Maya is at the center of Zero, but she’s the eye of the hurricane, not the heart. Coolly
forceful and singularly focused, Maya zeroes in on one name as the key to finding Osama
bin Laden. Not all her colleagues believe her; she doesn’t care. She cares about her work,
and about the slight friendship she builds with fellow analyst Jessica (Jennifer Ehle). By
making the film about Maya — enigmatic, a problem-solver, driven but rarely passionate
— Bigelow and Boal make it human-sized, not a worldwide tale about a manhunt but a
consideration of the factors that lead to any success. Human error, obsession, intuition,
instinct, horror, pragmatism: These are the things that led to bin Laden.
And then what? What happens when the hunt is over? Where I most forcefully depart
from those who would use Zero Dark Thirty as a political tool is at the film’s close, after
the climactic operation and the stunning shots of black helicopters flying into Pakistan. No
one triumphs. There’s very little satisfaction. Everything still happened — the loss, the
pain, the destruction. But one piece of it is done. ■
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MOVIES 12
CLOUD ATLAS R
12:15, 4:05, 8:15
END OF WATCH R
11:55, 2:20, 4:45, 7:25, 9:50
FRANKENWEENIE (3D) PG
12:20, 2:30, 7:45, 10:05
FRANKENWEENIE (DIGITAL)
PG
5:15
HERE COMES THE BOOM PG
12:05, 2:25, 4:50, 7:35, 9:55
HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA PG
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HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA
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DRIFT PG
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LOOPER R
12:40, 3:55, 7:00, 9:35
THE PERKS OF BEING A
WALLFLOWER PG-13
12:10, 2:40, 5:00, 7:40, 10:00
PITCH PERFECT PG-13
12:35, 3:50, 7:10, 9:45
ROBOT & FRANK PG-13
12:25, 2:35, 4:55, 7:05, 9:20
TAKEN 2 PG-13
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Assistive Listening and Captioning System Avail
ZERO DARK THIRTY [CC,DV] (R)
Fri. - Sat.(1145 315) 700 1030
GANGSTER SQUAD [CC,DV] (R)
Fri. - Sat.(1130 205) 445 730 1015
THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK [CC] (R)
Fri. - Sat.(1215) 415 715 1000
A HAUNTED HOUSE [CC,DV] (R)
Fri. - Sat.(1230 300) 515 745 1005
THE IMPOSSIBLE [CC,DV] (PG-13)
Fri. - Sat.(1205 310) 640 930
TEXAS CHAINSAW IN REAL D 3D [CC/DV] (R) ★
Fri. - Sat.(1210 235) 505 740 1010
PROMISED LAND [CC] (R)
Fri. - Sat.940 PM
PARENTAL GUIDANCE [CC,DV] (PG)
Fri. - Sat.(1135 200) 430 705
DJANGO UNCHAINED [CC] (R) Fri. - Sat.(1135 305) 635 1020
LES MISERABLES (CC/DV) (PG-13)
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JACK REACHER [CC,DV] (PG-13)
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THIS IS 40 [CC,DV] (R)
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THE GUILT TRIP [CC,DV] (PG-13)
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THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY [CC,DV] (PG-13)
Fri. - Sat.(230 PM) 615 PM 955 PM
IMAX: THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY 3D
[CC,DV] (PG-13) ★
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LIFE OF PI IN REAL D 3D [CC,DV] (PG) ★
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LINCOLN [CC,DV] (PG-13)
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Adv. Tix on Sale HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS
GANGSTER SQUAD (R)
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TEXAS CHAINSAW IN REAL D 3D (R) ★
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PARENTAL GUIDANCE (PG)
Fri. - Sat.(110 350) 640 915
JACK REACHER (PG-13)
Fri. - Sat.(120) 420 730 1020
THIS IS 40 (R)
Fri. - Sat.(100) 410 710 1010
ZERO DARK THIRTY (R)
Fri. - Sat.(1215 335) 700 1020
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY IN REALD
3D (PG-13) ★
Fri. - Sat.(1245 PM) 930 PM
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY (PG-13)
Fri. - Sat.500 PM
GANGSTER SQUAD (R)
Fri. - Sat.(115) 415 715 1000
PARENTAL GUIDANCE (PG)
Fri. - Sat.140 430 700 930
LES MISERABLES (PG-13) Fri. - Sat.(100 PM) 420 PM 740 PM
DJANGO UNCHAINED (R) Fri. - Sat.(130 PM) 500 PM 830 PM
Times For 01/11 - 01/12 © 2013
eugeneweekly.com • January 10, 2013
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