On May 2nd, 2011, ten years after the attacks of the World Trade Centers in New York City, Osama bin Laden was shot and killed by a US Navy Seal team. Ten years of a seemingly fruitless manhunt lead by the CIA finally concluded with the surprising discovery of a compound in Abbottabad that was both the living place and deathbed of one of the most despised men in history. Though America and much of the world celebrated, they soon discovered killing this man did not solve all their problems. In the movie Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow uses cinematic elements to tell the story of one woman’s search for bin Laden that represents not only her journey, but that of the country as a whole.
Zero Dark Thirty follows the journey of young CIA officer Maya who is assigned to the case straight out of college. Originally, Bigelow paired with Mark Boal to write the script of the unsuccessful search for UBL, or bin Laden, but in the midst of preparation, it was revealed UBL had been captured and killed. Frantically, Boal began rewriting the script completely in order to factor in this new circumstance that completely altered the plot of their previously designed movie. Similarly, many in America had written off ever finding UBL. Those who personally lost loved ones in the 9/11 attacks struggled to accept those deaths may go unavenged, but upon discovery of the news, struggled to rewrite the way they interpreted their history. For many, it allowed them to finally put away the previously open-ended era, as Boal was able to seal off an open-ended film.
However, in the conclusion of the film, Maya boards a private aircraft plane sent for her specifically and is asked by the captain where she would like to go. Maya, fresh from her decade long anticipated success, sits in silence, while one tear falls. Bigelow frames her in medium and close up shots, not shying away from the raw emotion as is her typical style. For audience members who expect rejoicing from the woman who worked so tirelessly and with such complete conviction, this ending is somewhat unsettling. Many leave unsatisfied even though the main goal was obtained. In conjunction to this, America soon found itself in a dilemma after the death of UBL- what next? By creating this uneasy tension of an unfinished story, Bigelow reflected the national feeling of uncertainty after focusing on one goal for so long. Her close up shots furthermore represent the close scrutiny of international eyes, waiting and watching to see what the great America’s next move would be.
Another interesting choice Bigelow made was the decision to have a woman play the main character and driving force behind the operation. While many women did work on this project, and there is one specifically similar to Maya in that her entire career was focused on this single goal, there is no conclusive evidence that a single person was behind the end goal at all. While this is a commercially made film created in the intention to make money and therefore had to be dramatized, Bigelow could have easily cast a huge list of A-list actors to collaborate to achieve the profit she needed, but instead chose the recently rising Jessica Chastain to play the single lead role. Her fellow cast mates are all of various accord, though no huge names dominate the feature. In doing this, Bigelow not only pushes forward her belief in the strength of females as the first female to ever win the Best Director category Oscar, but also the image of women picking up the pieces post 9/11. Though many women died that day, the men to women ratio was 3:1. This left many women to rebuild the lives they lost, and so it makes sense to have a woman avenge those deaths in a way.
In a relatively short amount of time, Kathryn Bigelow surged to the top of the directing lists with her daring style in genres appealing to predominantly males. Her cinematic style creates a rawness so few scripted films are able to achieve. Though Zero Dark Thirty stirred quite a load of controversy upon its’ release through the exploration of torture methods not necessarily used in the factual investigation that occurred in real life, it called attention to the film as a whole and brought more people forward to ponder the actions of America in a world without bin Laden as a scapegoat. Like everyone felt after leaving the theatre, what next?
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