Zero Dark Thirty

[Acker79]

It would be interesting if there was a Pakistani film version made giving the other side of the story about how the ageing,feeble and increasingly irrelevent Osama Bin Laden was tracked down by the use of torture and ultimately murdered for " resisting arrest " by hiding behind his wife in his own house. I wonder how many Oscar nominations that would get ?

As far as I know, the issue for pakistan isn't about bin laden being killed, it's the embarrassment that they didn't know he was there/they were caught lying about him not being there. If they did want to look at it as America being wrong for killing him, they wouldn't need to paint it as "being shot for resisting arrest", when they can simply question the legality/morality of killing him without giving him a fair trial.

Anyhoo, for the Pakistan view of the film: Zero Dark Thirty: the view from Pakistan | Film | The Guardian

 

[Gordon Bennett]

I saw it on Friday. It was pretty good and I thought the final 30 minutes quite gripping in an oddly understated way, which given that everyone knew the outcome, was no mean feat by the Director. I didn't think the torture scenes were over played and as someone who doesn't really go in for the Tarantino style gore-fests I didn't have too much a problem watching them - they were fairly matter of fact and came across as a means to an end. The film doesn't really go in for character development but then given the subject matter that probably isn't really the point of the film anyway.

In a lot of ways the film holds a mirror up to how America has operated in the past, how it operates now, how the public/politicians have reacted to it and asks the viewer to make up their own mind about it all and (without giving anything away) what should happen in the future or at least that last point was what I took from the very last scene!

 

[Stat Brother]

Just back from it:-

I really enjoyed it.
It's certainly not a propaganda film.
Peter Griffin is the head of the CIA.
Really nicely paced, always a good sign when the film doesn't feel as long as it is.
A fair bit of poetic license, but again nicely judged.
I want my beard back.
One of the bombs had me jumping out of my seat.
The torture played out well, surely nobody is so naive to think it doesn't happen.
The last act is a triumph (not in the usual American way)
Why do you have to be all 'stealthy' when you have just crashed a 'copter in the targets back garden?

 

[Stat Brother]

Peter Griffin

James Gandolphini