It has been a very good week for "Zero Dark Thirty." The film has now pushed itself to the front of the Oscar conversation by taking three prizes from the New York Film Critics Circle on Monday and another three from the National Board Of Review today, with director Kathryn Bigelow and actress Jessica Chastain looking like the ones to beat (at the moment). While many critics and industry types have already seen the film, the rest of us have to wait, so here's a few more peeks to tide you over.
What else is there to say about this picture? Yes, you know how it ends, but the drama in the film comes from the journey that spanned years and years as intelligence officials tried to track down Osama Bin Laden until they finally made their move last year. As the Bigelow and Chastain stress in the CNN interview below, the tension is in the investigation, though yes, the finale is as white knuckle as you'd expect, even if you know the outcome.
"Zero Dark Thirty" opens in limited release on December 19th and goes wide on January 11th. Watch below followed by more images. [Filmofilia]
I am in shock to learn Edgar Ramirez is gay. In shock because, he certainly does not look or act gay. I thought he dated Tibisay Lucena and Ana Maria Simon? Do you know if it\’s true, he has a long time relationship with Jonathan Blum the now, head of Cisneros Media? who is he dating? Does he still live in Caracas? And if he is gay, why won\’t he come out of the closet, like so many actors and singers, now have done. Thank you for your input.
If Hollywood thinks one CIA target-er/interrogator found Bin Ladin, they are dumber than they look. This is fiction. The CIA is arrogant though and they couldn't intel their way out of a paper bag without the military, including female military personnel who are not represented. This agent was in middle school when first investigations on Bin Ladin started and the CIA's f-ups led to disrupted operations to apprehend Bin Ladin. All the director needed to do is put 007 and Q in the plot and call the Bin Ladin operation a MI-5 OP and they would be just as accurate.
Horse s**t.
@NIKOLA – Also excited to see Chastain's performance and become a challenger for the Best Actress race. I'm disappointed that Mary Elizabeth Winstead isn't getting more attention for Smashed though.
You guys really need to challenge this film as potential propaganda. It is essential – even though Jessica Chastain maintains that it is not propaganda – to entertain this. The Hurt Locker was maintained by the filmmakers to be 'apolitical' but in fact it was a subtle form of propaganda. The Hurt Locker, by claiming to focus on 'adrenaline of war' made numerous implicit assumptions about American involvement in the Iraq, like our right to even be there. Propaganda works best by omissions and assumptions. I assume that Zero Dark Thirty will be much of the same. If I'm wrong great. But we need to understand how politicized this film is regardless and challenge it.
Hype is officially monstrous now. Can't wait to see this thing. And THANK GOD Chastain came along to give the good-but-not-Oscar-great Lawrence a fight.