No other single event has changed the course of my life more than the attacks on September 11, 2001. Like many Americans, and others throughout the world, I was questioning my purpose in life. I was hosting game shows and telling jokes. What was my contribution to society? It felt like that unless I was a firefighter, cop, or health care professional, my life was a waste. This was an extreme reaction, but then again there was no air traffic for five days. So when I saw the news in the restaurant on May 1, 2011 I sat in disbelief. Maybe it was because I just finished moving for the fourth time in three and a half years. Of course I was tired, but I had a sense of relief. Osama Bin Laden was dead.
No other single event has changed the course of my life more than the attacks on September 11, 2001. Like many Americans, and others throughout the world, I was questioning my purpose in life. I was hosting game shows and telling jokes. What was my contribution to society? It felt like that unless I was a firefighter, cop, or health care professional, my life was a waste. This was an extreme reaction, but then again there was no air traffic for five days. So when I saw the news in the restaurant on May 1, 2011 I sat in disbelief. Maybe it was because I just finished moving for the fourth time in three and a half years. Of course I was tired, but I had a sense of relief. Osama Bin Laden was dead.
The trailer for Zero Dark Thirty was intense, but I had several concerns. Would they tell the story the right way, or would they Hollywood it up? Did this even happen, or is it some CIA cover story to hide the fact that Bin Laden is alive playing golf with George Bush Sr. and Bill Clinton on a Illuminati controlled private island that can’t be seen on radar? Conspiracies aside, I just wanted to see a good movie. I’m aware of how emotional seven comedy tours to Afghanistan, Iraq and, Kuwait makes me about this topic.
So let me put all this emotion and politics aside and just tell you what I thought about the telling of this story as a film. Zero Dark Thirty isn’t just about the actual raid itself, but the 10 years leading up to it. In fact, the actual raid is in the last 20 minutes of the film. Everything leading up to the raid is the team of people who tirelessly tracked a virtual ghost for the better part of eight years. This film shows what the CIA does and is led brilliantly by Jessica Chastain. It shows what had to be done to get the information, and I realize this is a hot button topic. Some might argue that this film is saying that torture is the reason that they caught Bin Laden and should therefore devalue the picture. First off, I don’t think the film says that. It does show that torture did contribute to getting some of the information. Now I’m not going to use this review as a platform to have that debate. It does depict in a matter of fact way that as the politics of the White House changed, so did the efforts to find Bin Laden.
So what I am saying is that as far as a film, I found it compelling. I was engaged the whole time in Chastain and the team of people who where involved in a decade long manhunt. Also watching Mark Strong navigate Washington DC backroom haggling was great. I love seeing how things actually get done. Kathryn Bigelow is a rock solid director and was a great choice to tell this story. I felt like I saw as much of the personal side of CIA and military types as you ever could. My experience with those folks is that they are pretty buttoned up. I remember having some nameless “OGA” (other governmental agencies) guy pierce my soul with a cold stare. When I met him at the base in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, I said I was one of the comics doing the show that night. He said with the smile of a trained killer that is five moves ahead, “I know who you are. There isn’t much that happens on this base that we don’t know about.” Jalalabad is also the base where Navy Seal Team 6 leaves on their mission to kill Bin Laden. I was there on April 26, 2006 to do a show. The next day we left and got caught in a 40-minute firefight in the Blackhawk helicopter that was taking us to Bagram. Just to give some perspective.
The only minor complaint is that the Seal team seemed a little too “jokey”. I’m no expert, but based on the special forces/seal types that I’ve met and the film Act of Valor, which was made by actual Navy Seals. They are a pretty serious group, especially when they are about to go neck deep in the shit. But this is nitpicking and it isn’t too annoying.
Overall this is a good film. If you can put aside whatever personal beliefs you have about this subject, you can enjoy a good film about a global manhunt. It has solid performances by the entire cast and is well directed. If this subject just gets you too mad, then this might not be the film for you. Either way my life was Palm Striked on a path that I never could of imagined and this film kind of wraps it all up for me a little bit.
Graham Elwood