Zero Dark Thirty

Although Kathryn Bigelow’s “Zero Dark Thirty” tells the dramatized tale of the search for infamous war criminal Osama Bin Laden, the film’s most controversial talking point has arguably been it’s depiction, and proclaimed endorsement of torture. Instead of showcasing that torture worked, as claimed by many critics, the visuals of torture in the movie intend to blur the line between hero and villain, in regards to the US National Security. Instead of following the typical action movie formula, Bigelow in turn uses the controversy as a means for discussion. While typical blockbusters feature a clear-cut line between good and bad, the depiction of torture is used in order to give the heros some flaws, while potentially lending evil some sympathy. All in all, “Zero Dark Thirty”‘s depiction of torture, although brutal, is purely intended to distort the forces of good and evil.

Although the plot of “Zero Dark Thirty” screams something along the lines of a super-Hollywood-blockbuster-action-movie, Bigelow instead uses this commercially successful genre just as a base, and implants some of her auteur-esque methods into the typically repetitive action structure. One of Bigelow’s greatest strengths and signatures is character development and internal struggle, highlighted not only by the masterful “The Hurt Locker”, but also present in “Zero Dark Thirty”. In a genre which doesn’t thread much emotion into it’s action, “Thirty” is almost entirely character driven, and only resorts to big explosions when it is completely necessary to do so, a welcome rendition of the traditional Hollywood piece. In the end, Bigelow manages to take “Zero Dark Thirty” from a cheap-thrills, low-plot box office hit, to an emotional thriller that proposes many internal questions, a strength of the director.

Kathryn Bigelow is not a feminist director, just a female one. Although critics may argue that Bigelow’s placement of a female lead character signifies her as a feminist director, this is not the case. Many would argue that Bigelow’s two most famous, and successful, works are “The Hurt Locker” and “Zero Dark Thirty”. In the former film, the main character is a man, since the film is written by a former journalist who witnessed the actual story, which features a man. In “Thirty”, the main character, Maya, is a woman. However, for this movie, Bigelow wrote the script. As a man can write more easily for another male, Bigelow selected a female lead so she could more accurately portray how the main role would act. Overall, Kathryn Bigelow is in no way or form a feminist director, but the fact of her being a woman contributed to her selection of a female lead for “Zero Dark Thirty”.