Kathryn Bigelow
Zero Dark Thirty

I don’t know if the next work by Bigelow is already in the works, but I'm sure that it will beforehand be a decidedly easier film compared to “Zero Dark Thirty“. It's a bit like when you reach the top, exhausted with your heartbeat pounding like a frenzied drum, and the muscles in your legs seem to come alive to curse. An infinite relief because from up there, indeed, you can only go down.

I believe this film drained the American director who identified with the sharp-edged protagonist and worked hard to deliver as unassailable a production as possible, who knows how many hours of work and sleepless nights... Personally, I am convinced that when a project is overloaded with too much importance, the risk of failure increases exponentially because one tends to lose the measure and focus. To testify to the importance of “Zero Dark Thirty,” just think that the White House provided thousands of interviews and documents to the production. In fact, over 3 hours of work were cut, and the release was postponed in theaters (due to elections) such was the anticipation within the United States. It is the depiction of a manhunt far longer than expected and which, precisely for this reason, progressively exhausted, worn out, and mocked the American intelligence and the billions of dollars spent: the search for Osama Bin Laden.

When I learned of the decisive raid in Pakistan, I remember staring at the images, continuously looping, trying to fill the objective aridity of the information provided. The photographs (retouched or not), the formal speeches, a few maps, and very little else. I imagined gunfights worthy of a big-budget action movie for an impossible mission that found resolution almost by chance, after long difficulties, with the help of the hero of the moment.

It's a harsh and dry film. If you could tread on noise, it would be like a lifeless leaf. The Republican Party opposed it for its torture scenes, (however harsh, I am convinced they are candy compared to reality), but there are also heavy criticisms for the Democrats, guilty of waiting over 150 days before acting. An almost documentary-like first part, with an enormous tangle of names echoing in our heads, gradually transforms into a classic thriller as the sharp protagonist Jessica Chastain takes hold of the film. It is likely that this figure was beefed up by the director because Kathryn Bigelow’s intent seems to be to personify in the actions of this agent, and in her almost inhuman determination, the desire for revenge and redemption of a nation wounded in its pride that knows no peace. All very tacky, but that's how Americans are, and they truly believe in it. I spoke of a thriller, even though it seems absurd since the final 30 minutes should have an almost non-existent level of tension. And yet, even though we know exactly how it will end, when and where they will strike, we squirm in our seats. We suffer every time the decisive raid is postponed due to the White House’s fear of a tremendous backlash for basing military action on foreign soil on shaky information.

As viewers, we fear, in fact, that Maya's work will be lost, and the final scene, which sees two assault helicopters take flight, is worth the 5.50 € ticket alone. Like morbid voyeurs behind the keyhole, we want to see in the blackest hour (“Zero Dark Thirty” - 30 minutes after midnight) how the Americans took their revenge. Without rhetoric, and in a detached manner, Bigelow, in a few minutes, presents us with a feverishly awaited military operation that overall turns out to be sparse, cold, simple, and from a certain point of view, disappointing. Reality is often like that. No pompous music to seal the end of an unprecedented manhunt; in Jessica Chastain's gaze, there is only mild satisfaction for having done her job, but also some sadness because it is inherent in the human condition not to fully enjoy the present and to already look to the future. I liked the not at all triumphalistic cut given to the film and the criticisms that, indirectly, it made of the way its nation hunted Bin Laden. I conclude by saying it is a technically flawless work that describes a sigh of relief, a weight lifted.

Nothing more.