It Looked Directed in a Documentary-like Fashion, but It Was Too Dramatized: My Impression of the movie “Zero Dark Thirty”

This review may contain spoilers

I was interested in the movie “Zero Dark Thirty,” because I liked “Hurt Rocker,” but I have missed it until now. I found that it was shown in a theater for secondhand movies, and I went to see it.



Honestly, I was disappointed with it. I think that “Hurt Rocker” is much better than “Zero Dark Thirty.”

You know that this movie covers the true story about Death of Osama bin Laden, and it looked directed in a documentary-like fashion, for example moving grainy images shoot by a hand held camera. The back story is interesting, but the story is actually so dramatized that I couldn’t trust it.

The main character, Maya, was very capable and strong-willed, and her colleague, Jessica, was a nice person but frivolous. In the middle of the movie, she almost achieved a great deed. Before it became sure, she was already exited over it. When I saw this scene, I felt sure that she would tragically be dead.

In a stereotyped movie, someone that isn’t a main character became happy, and then they were hit by a tragedy. In “Zero Dark Thirty,” Jessica was killed by suicide bombing.

This suicide bombing is a true story. It is a problem that this movie described the real victim as a frivolous person in order to set the mood, isn’t it? I think that it is insufficiently deferential to her.

After losing a colleague, Maya started to think of her job as a personal revenge to Osama bin Laden. She found out where Osama’s compound was, and explained the member of SEALs that the object of their operation.

Maya: [to Navy SEALs] Quite frankly, I didn't even want to use you guys, with your dip and velcro and all your gear bullshit. I wanted to drop a bomb. But people didn't believe in this lead enough to drop a bomb. So they're using you guys as canaries. And, in theory, if bin Laden isn't there, you can sneak away and no one will be the wiser. But bin Laden is there. And you're going to kill him for me. 

It sounded quite unnatural for me. If she personally wanted SEALs to kill Osama, I couldn’t believe that she told, “You’re going to kill him FOR ME,” at all.

“ARGO” is based on a true story and dramatized well, too, but I love this movie. The true story of “ARGO” itself is somehow fantastic, and the movie is comedy, because no one was killed in it.

On the other hand, “Zero Dark Thirty” is based on a very serious true story and directed in documentary-like fashion, but in fact, it is too dramatized. It is deceptive.