Zero Dark Thirty is a terrific spy thriller.
Almost nobody mentions that. Everybody talks about the controversial issues raised by Catherine Bigelow’s new movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden — the use of torture, the slam at criminal defense lawyers — but if you can set aside your differences with the politics of the characters (and by extension, the filmmakers) Zero Dark Thirty is thoroughly enjoyable as a modern espionage thriller about an intelligence agency’s attempts to break open a terrorist network and trace it to its heart. The plot may not be as intricate as George Smiley’s battle with Karla, but the movie is filled with crunchy details of tradecraft, and the characters are just as morally dubious.
For the last few years I haven’t cared for anything like “controversial issues”. I have friends who constantly get on my nerves with their rants not about the quality of story or characters, but about who offended whom and why the movie is controversial.
Good to have someone who praises those things that are important in a movie.
Thanks. I mean, the movie certainly touches on controversial issues, and I can understand how that can ruin a movie for people with strong feelings about those issues. It’s ruined a lot of movies and television for me. But I wanted to point out that it really does play like a great espionage thriller.