Movie: Zero Dark Thirty (1-11-13)

[E.H. Ruddock]

This was all a bit too much of a propaganda movie for me. "look, we got the motterfokker, the torturing was great, we're the greatest country on earth, geronimoooooo"-ish for me. Embedded cinematography if you want. Sorry.

Tell us how you felt about the movie "Act of Valor".

[Bob Loblaw]

Then you kinda missed the point, Angus.

[digster]

I was expecting what Angus was describing walking in, and the feel couldn't have been further from that, IMO.

[dkfan9]

I wanna see this soon. How did you guys interpret the movie's portrayal of torture, and whether it contributed to the capture of bin laden?

[Harry Lime]

This was all a bit too much of a propaganda movie for me. "look, we got the motterfokker, the torturing was great, we're the greatest country on earth, geronimoooooo"-ish for me. Embedded cinematography if you want. Sorry.

Did we see the same movie?

[Stickman]

I wanna see this soon. How did you guys interpret the movie's portrayal of torture, and whether it contributed to the capture of bin laden?

it sure seemed to help move things along.

[Angus]

Then you kinda missed the point, Angus.

Explain me the point, please.

Haven’t seen Act of Valor. Should I?

[Harry Lime]

Then you kinda missed the point, Angus.

Explain me the point, please.

Let me ask you this. What did you take away from the last scene/shot of the film? Did it come off as that "geronimoooo propaganda" you speak of?

[Bob Loblaw]

Then you kinda missed the point, Angus.

Explain me the point, please.

Haven’t seen Act of Valor. Should I?

I haven't seen Act of Valor, so I can't comment.

To me ZDT is as unbiased as we could hope an American movie to be that deals with this subject matter. It's largely about exposition, and doesn't really--as far as I'm concerned--take sides regarding the political debate on torture and shady methods of getting information. The film makers were just trying to show the way things happened and leave it to the viewer to draw their own conclusions regarding whether it's worth it to use such methods to accomplish certain ends.

For sure some characters (the grunts) are showcasing the "geronimo" attitude, but that's the way things are in the real world. They wouldn't be grunts if they didn't have that. And, like Harry Lime posted, the final shot says a lot about the difficulty of having to make the decisions the lead character made. By the end she's broken and hollow, the complete opposite of someone reveling in victory.

[Jorge]

Underwhelmed and bored by most of this movie. Tedious, tortuous first half, detached and unengaging. Shave off a good 45 minutes so it feels less like a collection of scenes of people in offices yelling at each other and storming out indignantly.

But I disagree that it's any kind of patriotic propaganda.

[E.H. Ruddock]

This was enjoyable. Didn't they lose the dog in the mission though?

[Mirella]

Positive thing: it actually showed 'terrorists' as people. And I did not buy those emotions at the end at all. What I mainly saw were people not looking well after their bodies, eating junk food, not sleeping enough, and being called 'bright' with no proof to back that up. And lots of shouting. Other than that, I can quote my 'review' from Facebook: I was annoyed by most characters and the whole situation the largest part of it, and did not feel at ease watching all of that. But I liked the last hour, as a movie. By then I was just seeing it as an interesting insight of what happened there and then, without being disturbed by my own thoughts about world politics, ethics, war and violence in general, and money and energy spent for such negative things. It was not boring any of those two hours and 37 minutes, but it is not a film I would want to see twice.

groetjes,
Mirella

[VinylGuy]

well, first of all Bigelow is a hell of a filmmaker. This is just an "ok" movie for me, but a sincere one.
It takes a stand where it shows how the cia and different offices work, shows torture as a real way of get into things, its clear where she (Bigelow) stands for.
I do believe its a geronimo type of movie, it might not be propaganda but shows how americans feel about the war on terrorism and how they choose to validate their actions based on "terrorism" and "freedom".
Jessica Chastain best actress? she was ok, she is a great performer but her character is very undimensional and we dont get the chance to see her doing other stuff than be worried, scream, be mad and yell.