Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow's Osama Bin Laden film)

Cork boy 55

Just in time for x-mas

ya get some.

Directed by:Kathryn Bigelow (hurt locker)

Starring:
Joel Edgerton
Jessica Chastain
Mark Strong
Edgar Ramirez
Jason Clarke
Chris Pratt

The film's December release date will also see it positioned for a run at the 2013 Oscars, which will be held the following February or March. "With the death of Osama bin Laden, this film could not be more relevant. Kathryn and Mark have an outstanding perspective on the team that was hunting the most wanted man in the world," Sony Pictures' Amy Pascal said in a statement made after Bin Laden's death.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jan/06/kathryn-bigelow-bin-laden-joel-edgerton



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/06/bin-laden-film-bigelow-adds-jessica-chastain-joel-edgerton_n_1188993.html

http://www.movieinsider.com/m8519/untitled-mark-boal-kathryn-bigelow-project/

WatchWolf

Sad Professor

The film is called Zero Dark Thirty and it probably won't be out here until early next year.

paddy kerins

Mark Strong playing Bin Laden? :pac:

Lionel Messy

If they make it all muslimy it could be good.

Technocentral

Lionel Messy wrote: »

If they make it all muslimy it could be good.

JP Liz V1

Teaser Trailer out

Gingervitis

This film seems to be creeping up under the radar as a possible best film of 2012. (only in that I've searched for threads on this with nothing showing up)
I know the charge could be made that because it's about the killing of Bin Laden, critics may be biased, but with a 100% rating from 26 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes and 98 from (admittedly only 9 reviews) Metacritic, this could be worth a watch. Worth noting that the film had to be rewritten when news of Bin Laden's death broke, which makes it a tad more impressive (if an easier "happy" ending)

Plus, Kathryn Bigelow has the directing chops, with no big macho names dominating the casting (Jessica Chastain is a welcome leading role)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EYFhFYoDAo4

Sad Professor

Merged.

Thread wasn't showing up in search for some reason. I had to use Google to find it.

Mickeroo

I'm looking forward to this, really enjoyed The Hurt Locker. I find it hard to see this as anything but a piece of propoganda but as long as it ends up being a good movie i couldn't care less.

Was this already planned before they supposedly got Bin Laden? I thought this wasn't started until after that had happened, pretty sure Bigelow wazn't even signed until after that at least.

Sad Professor

No, but Bigelow had been developing a Bin Laden film for years. Originally it was going to be about the Battle of Tora Bora in 2001. That project fell apart, then Bin Landen was killed and she was able to use all that research to write the script for this.

Mickeroo

Sad Professor wrote: »

No, but Bigelow had been developing a Bin Laden film for years. Originally it was going to be about the Battle of Tora Bora in 2001. That project fell apart, then Bin Landen was killed and she was able to use all that research to write the script for this.

Ah ok, well that has piqued my interest. I didn't realise it was a personal project for Bigelow, thought she was just nabbed because she was flavour of the month due to Hurt Locker.

Corholio

Thought Hurt Locker was one of the most overrated films of the past few years, couldn't believe it was Oscar nominated. However saying that, having seen the trailer, this has interested me more than I thought it would. Also it has Mark Strong, one of the finest actors working out there right now IMO.

rockonollie

Coming to a theatre near you.....to incite more and more hatred.

Mickeroo

rockonollie wrote: »

Coming to a theatre near you.....to incite more and more hatred.

Have you seen the film?

rockonollie

Haven't seen it yet........but regardless of whether or not its good, glorifying or even depicting at all the demise of Bin Ladin, and the torture of operatives to get info.....won't be very popular in the middle east.

dreamers75

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/in-zero-dark-thirty-shes-the-hero-in-real-life-cia-agents-career-is-more-complicated/2012/12/10/cedc227e-42dd-11e2-9648-a2c323a991d6_story.html

related sort of

indough

rockonollie wrote: »

Haven't seen it yet........but regardless of whether or not its good, glorifying or even depicting at all the demise of Bin Ladin, and the torture of operatives to get info.....won't be very popular in the middle east.

doubt theyll even get to see it there

MilanPan!c

Hope it's as good as Point Break!

Gamb!t

Saw it last night,very well made and worth watching.

jcsoulinger

Hurt locker was terrible, cant understand how it won the Oscar over Avatar, I would only watch this under the threat of death.

Technocentral

rockonollie wrote: »

Haven't seen it yet........but regardless of whether or not its good, glorifying or even depicting at all the demise of Bin Ladin, and the torture of operatives to get info.....won't be very popular in the middle east.

Bigelow is great at making pro American military propaganda, the US's answer to Leni Riefenstahl maybe, great article by Naomi Woolf about her here:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/jan/04/letter-kathryn-bigelow-zero-dark-thirty

callaway92

jcsoulinger wrote: »

Hurt locker was terrible, cant understand how it won the Oscar over Avatar, I would only watch this under the threat of death.

What, and Avatar was a classic?

Bullseye1

Personally I felt the Hurt Locker is totally over rated as is Avatar.

JohnnyRyan99

Have to say I loved The Hurt Locker and can't wait watch this.

Calibos

Hurt Locker is the only film I have ever turned off/walked out on in my 38 years on this planet though I was close for the Thin Red Line.

Bored......me........to..........****ing........tears.......!!!!

Mickeroo

Calibos wrote: »

Hurt Locker is the only film I have ever turned off/walked out on in my 38 years on this planet though I was close for the Thin Red Line.

Bored......me........to..........****ing........tears.......!!!!

I thought hurt locker was a great action movie and thin red line is my favourite war film ever made. It's funny sometimes.

FloatingVoter

Watched ZDT last night - far from American propaganda.

We get torture scenes, US intel looking like naive idiots and an inevitable ending.

Well made and well worth a watch. I think she has a chance of picking up best director again.

pixelburp

Calibos wrote: »

Hurt Locker is the only film I have ever turned off/walked out on in my 38 years on this planet though I was close for the Thin Red Line.

Bored......me........to..........****ing........tears.......!!!!

If you went into Thin Red Line expecting gung-ho ww2 action, then I'm not surprised you might have been bored to tears. Whatever else Malicks film can be claimed as, action-entertainment it most certainly isn't

Hurt Locker was exactly the same thing - both films are explorations of humanity during times of war - or as is often the case, the lack of it - not celebrations of conflict or thrills & spills.

NinjaK

Watched it last night, thought it was good but not that amazing like the reviews are saying. The first hour to hour and a half is a bit boring imo, should have been a 2 hour film. Ive seen a documentary on the bin laden killing and I have to say I probably enjoyed that more:pac:

Calibos

pixelburp wrote: »

If you went into Thin Red Line expecting gung-ho ww2 action, then I'm not surprised you might have been bored to tears. Whatever else Malicks film can be claimed as, action-entertainment it most certainly isn't

Hurt Locker was exactly the same thing - both films are explorations of humanity during times of war - or as is often the case, the lack of it - not celebrations of conflict or thrills & spills.

Hmmmm. Very reminiscent of certain quarters defense of Prometheus. "Oh, you obviously expected something akin to Camerons Aliens not an exploration of the deep philiosophical themes of humanity and its genesis............" etc etc

No, I didn't expect wall to wall bombastic action, I understood the themes fine thankyou, but badly paced, badly executed, badly characterised, not as innovative and original as they think overly pretentious films generally bore me.

e_e

What does pretentious mean in regards to Zero Dark Thirty/The Thin Red Line?

Just curious, I've never understood that criticism.

Mickeroo

e_e wrote: »

What does pretentious mean in regards to Zero Dark Thirty/The Thin Red Line?

Just curious, I've never understood that criticism.

Not to mention the Hurt Locker, its a very straight forward entertaining film. Pretentious couldnt be further from the truth.

Technocentral

e_e wrote: »

What does pretentious mean in regards to Zero Dark Thirty/The Thin Red Line?

Just curious, I've never understood that criticism.

That word is used a lot by people who don't understand its meaning, "The Thin Red Line" is an awful film but its not pretentious, it has a completely straight forward narrative and characters. A lot of Godard's films such as that shiite Rolling Stones one could be describes as such for example, but not the likes of "The Thin Red Line".

saintsaltynuts

It was o.k. Two and a half hours long felt like it dragged a bit.It easily could have been trimmed to An hour forty-five minutes would've made the film better i think.

pixelburp

Calibos wrote: »

Hmmmm. Very reminiscent of certain quarters defense of Prometheus. "Oh, you obviously expected something akin to Camerons Aliens not an exploration of the deep philiosophical themes of humanity and its genesis............" etc etc

No, I didn't expect wall to wall bombastic action, I understood the themes fine thankyou, but badly paced, badly executed, badly characterised, not as innovative and original as they think overly pretentious films generally bore me.

I never implied any such pretensions to philsophy, relax: it's not exactly uncommon for Hollywood to misrepresent its movies during promotion & I've certainly spoken to many people who mistakenly thought Thin Red Line / Hurt Locker were action films at heart, and were frustrated by all the downtime. Hell, I still see the latter being promoted as such around the place.

That said, as has already been mentioned I don't think 'pretentious' means what you think it does - can you elaborate on what annoyed you about it? I think it got a little over-hyped - but sure that comes with the territory of film - it seemed like an otherwise solid, simple narrative to me, well crafted & a 'realistic' portrayal of the rigours of war.

muletide

Really enjoyed this movie.

I actually enjoyed the first half, nice slow burner with a couple of wtf moments. Also found the torture scenes genuinely difficult to watch

Thought it portrayed the different approaches the CIA had to undertake after the spotlight was turned on torture & rendition very well.

But I think what made this movie was the way the actual raid was covered. Too many movies would go for the gung-ho approach whereas in this it portrayed the seal team as acting in a measured, steady, and professional approach. There were probably only 10- 15 shots fired in total which would be realistic for a low-key attack on a compound containing three combatants.

My main gripe: Bert Macklin, FBI, was miscast as one of the seal team leaders. Very hard to take him seriously and his comedic effect was out of sync with the approach to the whole raid and the hunt for OBL.

Overall - a very enjoyable and insightful movie with an excellent leading cast. Will probably go to the cinema to see it again when it comes out.

johnny_ultimate

Always felt the Hurt Locker got a bit of a raw deal as the result of the inevitable 'Oscar backlash'. I thought it was an intensely involving and well put together film. Of all the more recent 'award winners', I'd rank it very highly indeed. I certainly am a little baffled it could be considered boring - I haven't seen since its cinema release, but it constantly provided a stream of tense, compelling setpieces.

The Thin Red Line, on the other hand, is all out fantastic, and like all Terence Malick films I think accusations of pretension are off the mark. There are few filmmakers so absolutely sincere, thoughtful and indeed unpretentious. Its slow and meditative yet, but seeing that in the cinema a year or so ago was one of the most involving, beautiful big screen experiences of recent times.

Zero Dark Thirty? The discussions occuring online are fascinating - huge levels critical acclaim on one hand (probably the best reviewed mainstream film in recent memory), and the impassioned arguments about its ethical dilemmas on the other. One thing's for certain - it will most definitely be worth watching and talking about, and I look forward to it.

FloatingVoter

The Hurt Locker - imo boring and overhyped.
ZDT - well deserving of any awards (writing and directing) that come its way.

PhiloCypher

Thin Red Line - Overly pretentious twaddle , its like a Planet earth and band of brothers mashup, its twee "what is love", "what is life" type narration is about as subtle as a lump hammer when it comes to exploring its themes. Give me Platoon any day it may not be as beautifully shot with those endless scenes of swaying grass Malick likes so much but it covers similar themes with a lot less hand holding and the narration when it comes only happens as the credits roll.

HurtLocker - Its been a while since i watched this but the reaction I remember having was this won an oscar ??? really ???

Zero Dark Thirty - I really liked it , a far more oscar worthy offering then Hurt Locker.

Sad Professor

I think you might need to re-watch Platoon, PhiloCypher. Because - "less hand holding" - I don't think so. I love Stone but he's rightly infamous for his heavy-handedness. Platoon is a particularly big offender. The Christ on the cross symbolism, Elias and Barnes as the angel and devil on Sheen's shoulders, war is hell, etc. Stone smacks you in the face with his themes and then smacks you a few more times to make sure you got it. And in fact there's narration throughout the film and it's far more heavy-handed than anything you'll hear in The Thin Red Line. The voice-over in TTRL is all poetic internal monologue. Where as in Platoon, Sheen is basically articulating the themes of the film.

I wouldn't consider them thematically similar films either. Platoon is about loss of innocence and the brutality of war - fairly common war movie themes. Where as TTRL is about the dualism of nature, of which the war of the film is merely an expression. It's set during war and it's about war to a large extent, but it's not really a war film in the traditional sense.

ktulu123

Just finished Zero Dark Thirty, really enjoyed it. Can see it picking up a few awards.

...Also I want a stealth blackhawk

speedboatchase

How is everyone seeing it already? *cough* DVD screeners? *cough*

PhiloCypher

Sad Professor wrote: »

I think you might need to re-watch Platoon, PhiloCypher. Because - "less hand holding" - I don't think so. I love Stone but he's rightly infamous for his heavy-handedness. Platoon is a particularly big offender. The Christ on the cross symbolism, Elias and Barnes as the angel and devil on Sheen's shoulders, war is hell, etc. Stone smacks you in the face with his themes and then smacks you a few more times to make sure you got it. And in fact there's narration throughout the film and it's far more heavy-handed than anything you'll hear in The Thin Red Line. The voice-over in TTRL is all poetic internal monologue. Where as in Platoon, Sheen is basically articulating the themes of the film.

I wouldn't consider them thematically similar films either. Platoon is about loss of innocence and the brutality of war - fairly common war movie themes. Where as TTRL is about the dualism of nature, of which the war of the film is merely an expression. It's set during war and it's about war to a large extent, but it's not really a war film in the traditional sense.

Ha **** you're right for some reason the only bit of Sheen's narration that stuck was that last bit in the helo, I still stand by what I said about TRL tho I just used the wrong film to illustrate my point. I would simply prefer these lofty themes to be explored less explicitly and openly through dialogue, through the characters openly musing about the nature of war and man in overly florid prose. That to me is heavy handed.

pheasant tail

I enjoyed this,although i did think it would be better with all they hype,i thought it was waves ahead of the hurt locker

don ramo

cant really say i enjoyed this, it was a very ok type of film, it didn't seem to be paced well, and i don't get what the hell they were doing with the scorecards,

I didn't really get the feeling that Maya was obsessed with catching him till probably the end when shes asked where she wants to go, and she honestly doesn't know,

after seeing Django, Lincoln, Flight and this, of those particular award bait films i can see Django coming away with the most awards

Rabidlamb

Bigelow handled the subject matter expertly here, it was not the Team America World Police I had feared.
I really liked the early rendition scenes, the Dan character was developed really well.

Some things were flagged a bit obviously such as the girl in her team who believed in the Jordanian doctor.
When she was all giddy at the base waiting for his arrival you knew how that was going to play out.
I suspect putting them both in the Marriot at the time of the bombing was a bit of poetic license but directors have been using that device for years.

The setbacks in the middle of the film slowed the pace down a bit too much I thought but the reward in the final hour was breathtaking.
I loved how they switched to night vision during the compound scene.
The suggestion of Bin Ladens face was enough, it was clever not to focus on the gory details.

This was masterful film making, superior in every way to The Hurt Locker.
If she won an Oscar for that film I can't see anything stopping her here.
Only this time she'll deserve it.

Overall, 8.5/10

Funny things I picked up on:
Dan's mention of unknowns we don't know, very clever.
John Barrowman being Tony Soprano's right hand man, wtf.

FloatingVoter

Rabidlamb wrote: »

John Barrowman being Tony Soprano's right hand man, wtf.

Well, he probably transferred over from Torchwood - and Tony Soprano running the CIA ? - given whats been going on there recently he'd make a neat fit.

darced

This post has been deleted.

omerin

This film looks and feels like a "made for TV" movie. I don't think anything more needs to be said.

charlie_says

Irish cinema release date is 25th of Jan I read somewhere. Anybody know this is correct?