Zero Dark Thirty

[Falldise]

Comes out in big release tomorrow. I am going to see it and fired up. Word is its the best film of 2012. I noticed everyone is protesting it because of the torture scenes. Whats up with that? They should be upset that we tortured people, not that the movie showed that we did....

Thoughts?

[MotherFucker]

I'm looking forward to seeing it. Really, the only people I've seen protesting it is a few politicians who say the waterboarding scenes are inaccurate and they're worried about how it might mislead the American people about how the info about UBL was obtained.

It's a movie ffs. Of course it isn't going to be entirely accurate. This is the same chick who directed The Hurt Locker afterall.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Saw it a couple weeks back (brother in law works in Hollywood and gets all the "for your consideration" Oscar screeners). It's really good; although Jessica Chastain might not be the actress I thought she was after "Tree of Life" the rest of the cast is great.

As for the torture issue, I think Bigelow and Boal have hurt themselves by describing the movie as both the authoritative version of how it all went down but also invoking their artistic license to do what they want. They'd be better off saying they don't really know what happened but they want to make the viewer question their own attitude toward torture- if you were previously for it, does this depiction change your mind, and vice versa. That was certainly the effect on the group of people with which I watched the movie.

[PNWbrit]

I noticed everyone is protesting it because of the torture scenes. Whats up with that? They should be upset that we tortured people, not that the movie showed that we did....

Thoughts?

I'd bet anyone upset about the characterization of torture as being effective are also upset about the torture itself?

[Hott Butt Mud]

I liked this movie. Way too long though.

[Diamond Joe]

"The Week" magazine just named this movie the best film of 2012.

(Although not sure why, considering it came out in 2013..)

It edged out Lincoln and Argo, which were both excellent movies.

(The Week generates their top 10 rankings by weighting the end-of-year Top 10 lists of 40 print and web publications including the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Denver Post, Los Angeles Times, New Yorker, New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer, Salt Lake Tribune, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, etc, etc, etc.)

Sounds pretty legit to me. Going to see it tonight - cheap movie night!!!

[Andyski]

Not nesrly as good as Hurt Locker. It was solid, but underwhelming.

[MakersTeleMark]

It didn't really do it for me. I didn't really feel that engaged at all. The torture scenes were what they were, and the plot/hunt didn't really feel like it carried any emotional momentum.

[Hott Butt Mud]

It didn't really do it for me. I didn't really feel that engaged at all. The torture scenes were what they were, and the plot/hunt didn't really feel like it carried any emotional momentum.

I think (for me personally) this was a good thing. Hollywood didn't go in and fuck around with the story and make it all 'Hollywood', ya know?

[The Reverend Floater]

I thought it was pretty good, considering what it was. Having read a few books now on this whole mess, it seemed to be fairly in line with what I've read. I was impressed they included the after the fact double-tapping of the wife in the compound more than I was impressed by the torture admissions. The torture wasn't that bad to me and if you think we and our "allies" aren't doing that even more often than the movie alluded to, you're probably pretty naive. From what I've read, countries like Jordan, Saudi, UAE and others make that look like a panty raid.

Some discrepancies:
1. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has admitted that the helos used were prototypes or stealth. The movie acknowledges this as fact. Not sure what the truth is but the tail rotor in the news didn't look traditional from the little i know about helicopters.
2. They didn't even touch on the fuel debacle that happened after the raid...they had to refuel the remaining helicopter according to No Easy Day.
3. In the movie, Maya is manning the radar or monitoring of Paki airforce. No fucking way they had some CIA agent, accomplished or not, involved in the actual execution of the mission. She was likely sipping beers, shitting her pants in anxiety at that point.
4. I liked the inclusion of the bombing of the Jordanian doctor. Shed some light on some seriously stupid moves.
5. Maya, from what I've read, is a very devout Christian and not the type to be cussing nor talking about getting laid like she did in the movie.
6. No fucking way she had lunch with Penetta in the CIA cafeteria.. Did she? Seems a little far fetched that the Sec of Defense is palling around in the Langley buffet.
7. My amigo who is retired Dev Group commented on the attitude of the Seal Team during prep and at the mission being pretty damned casual in the movie. Sure they're pretty rugged dudes who kill people like I kill sperm in my shower drain but they knew what this mission was and the gravity involved.
8. No mention of the to-scale mockup they built of the compound in Virginia to practice the raid over and over and over. I thought that was a pretty cool part of No Easy Day and was surprised they didn't even mention it.
9. Finally, and maybe most important, from what I've read via news outlets and also in No Easy Day, they were a hell of a lot more certain he was there than they portrayed in the movie. They weren't 100%, but they had a much better idea than the movie let on. I doubt the WH nor Pentagon would have pulled such a ballsy raid based on the intel they had in the movie.

Anyhow...a good, entertaining movie that wasn't totally Hollywood...just probably not spot-on, either. Definitely recommend it but don't bring the kids or weeping liberal types.

[funkendrenchman]

Loved it. For me, one the top five movies of the year... along with Argo, Lincoln, and Silver Linings Playbook. There have been a lot of 2 hr 40 min movies recently and this was the easiest to watch. I didn't want the movie to end. The killing scene was intense and had my heart beating a little faster. Solid "A" movie.

[Jumper Bones]

1. To the best of my knowledge, nobody has admitted that the helos used were prototypes or stealth. The movie acknowledges this as fact. Not sure what the truth is but the tail rotor in the news didn't look traditional from the little i know about helicopters.

Definitely stealth, not sure if they're prototypes or operational...but if you think about it working while nobody knows you're there is one of the SEAL's larger missions (from what I understand it's rarely about brute force), so some sort of transport than can insert teams unobserved would make sense right? We've made stealth helicopters before (RAH-66 Commanche being a known program) and a bunch of other stealth stuff, so some sort of insertion helicopter and/or STOL transport aircraft would make sense.

2. They didn't even touch on the fuel debacle that happened after the raid...they had to refuel the remaining helicopter according to No Easy Day.

I didn't know this was a debacle, I read Owen's book too - forward area refuelling points (FARPs) are pretty normal, and in this case it was extremely helpful to have the two MH-47 Chinooks standing by - after the loss of the first helo obviously another ride was needed, plus the Chinooks having more payload capacity was certainly useful for all the intel stuff they discovered and seized. Remember the first Blackhawk was overloaded for the thin, unexpectedly hot air, which is why it crashed in the first place...and while they had been burning fuel (and shedding weight) waiting for the teams to do their work, I don't imagine the available payload margin was all that high. Anyway in the movie they never bothered to have the additional helos be Chinooks, just regular MH-60 Blackhawks, which wasn't accurate. Given the capacity, it's too bad the SEALs didn't know about the tail rotor on the other side of the compound...would have been nice to maybe have found a way to stuff that inside one of the Chinooks, and not leave a sophisticated business card behind.

3. In the movie, Maya is manning the radar or monitoring of Paki airforce. No fucking way they had some CIA agent, accomplished or not, involved in the actual execution of the mission. She was likely sipping beers, shitting her pants in anxiety at that point.

Exactly, looks cool for the movie I guess. As for Panetta, remember back then he was director of the CIA...the departure of Robert Gates had the President shift Panetta from CIA over to SecDef, and Petraeus from CENTCOM to retire to go to the CIA to replace Panetta. And then Paula Broadwell...

Question for your DEVGRU buddy - is 'Mark Owen' really a shunned guy in the community now that he wrote the book? Other military guys (not Navy guys) I know say so, but according to him his team buddies encouraged him to do it. I'm just curious.

[The Reverend Floater]

Question for your DEVGRU buddy - is 'Mark Owen' really a shunned guy in the community now that he wrote the book? Other military guys (not Navy guys) I know say so, but according to him his team buddies encouraged him to do it. I'm just curious.

Not at all, from what I've heard when that book came out. He's a pretty well respected soldier and an all around good dude from what I understand.

[DickMerkin]

I can't speak to its accuracy, but I did enjoy it. A bit too long, if they coulda shaved 20 mins. it would have been a good idea.

Don't go in looking for an "Action" flick...think more Docu-drama.