Death from the sky

Zero Dark Thirty

Crit

Can I just say one thing before we start? I acknowledge that Osama bin Laden was a very bad man, and I don't mourn him. But the widespread whooping after his death as if we'd just won a football game diminishes us. Bad actor or not, this was a human life we terminated with prejudice, and the only people who have a right to rejoice are the members of the navy Seal Team Six who had a job to do and did it; the rest of us can be grateful for their success, but quietly, please, solemnly.

This is fine filmmaking if suspect history, and apart from the fact that the directors of at least 4 Best Picture-nominated films were bound not to be nominated by name, I'm not sure how you can nominate it for the big prize without recognizing Kathryn Bigelow.

But about that suspect history: reading complaints about the effectiveness of waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" strategies in obtaining solid intelligence, I thought, "hey, it's a movie, it's based on actual events, but it doesn't pretend to be a documentary." But it really does matter. I could live with the ostensibly good guys getting some information, even a key piece of information, via overzealous tactics, if they at least considered that the ends have to be pretty damned important to justify such means.

But in the first place, no, there's little suggestion that any of the intelligence agents have any qualms about what some of us might call torture, and second, the narrative suggests that without these tactics, we might as well not even have bothered to look for "UBL," as the target is called, via the less familiar transliteration Usama.

Let me put the difference in terms that I can understand, whether you can or not: it has always bothered me that Eddie Collins is portrayed as a right-handed batter in Eight Men Out, but that flaw isn't significant enough within the narrative to matter much. But if Collins were portrayed as a power-hitting outfielder, that might be too big a falsehood or sloppiness for the film to survive. I wouldn't say that misrepresentation of the effectiveness of torture kills this film for me, but it certainly makes me respect it a lot less--it is, for me, a well-made film with one extraordinary performance (yes, Jessica Chastain is as good as you've heard), but one that cheats.

But it does extend a really positive trend of the 2010s: the trend of seeing lots more of Jennifer Ehle (with a Texas accent, no less!) than we have in previous decades.

Twenty-four hours later: it's not a religious issue for me, but stalwart protesters outside the theater today persuaded me to include this for your further edification.

Trailers

• The Place Beyond the Pines--Good guy does bad things for good cause; sound familiar?
• 42--Ooooh, I want this Jackie Robinson biopic to be good, but the trailer does not fill me with confidence. Chadwick Boseman, who has been in a lot of TV I haven't seen, as JR, an unrecognizable Harrison Ford as Branch Rickey.