Intense.  But that’s what you’d expect from the Director of Best Picture winner ‘The Hurt Locker.’  ZDT attempts to add an even more human and inhumane aspect to the equation.  It’s a thought invoking and exhausting journey in the tenacious pursuit of America’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden.  I liked it, I didn’t love it.  Does the Academy have it right?  B-

Now, I’m not going to go all political here and question the legality or merits of torture to obtain information for our governments purposes.  Does the film glorify the interrogation program?  I would say no.  These characters aren’t to be celebrated for their tactics, and there’s a great amount of story depth dedicated to letting that be known to you.  There’s a conflict, but an understanding of what they deemed to be a necessary means to an end.

That being said, if these accounts are ‘based on true events’ as we’re led to believe, then ZDT is the 10 year intelligence operation anchored by Maya (Jessica Chastain, The Help) intent on bringing the mastermind of 911 to his untimely end circal May 2011.  Maya is driven for reasons we’re never told, save for a fuzzy conversation about how and why she was recruited by the CIA directly out of high school.  Stationed in the Middle East, and surrounded by an analyst team which includes field Ops teams, her brash and thorough insight help weave together the movements and location of Bin Laden.

What I loved about the film was its recall effect.  Bombings related to Al Qaida were redrawn in the ten year span in which they happened starting from 9/11/01.  Attacks by air, sea, and land it was all well re-accounted and recreated.  Military tactics and precision on both sides were visceral, you have to take your hands off to the training the actors received and the ex-military that consulted.

To say you will be exhausted at its conclusion would be an understatement.  You feel the ten year plight here, and its squeezed rather well into two and a half hours.  There are solid performances, but none, including Chastains’ for me are worthy of the statue.  She seemed vacuous, devoid of development – we knew nothing about her.   The cinematography was good, as you’d expect, but I could feel the bombings in “The Hurt Locker,” ZDT was just shock and awe by comparison.  Hey, wasn’t that a military campaign too?

Zero Dark Thirty is rated R for strong violence including brutal disturbing images, and for language.  Running time 2 hours 37 minutes.