Zero Dark Thirty Movie Review ? When do the secrets stop ...

With all the controversy surrounding the recently acclaimed movie,?Zero Dark Thirty?, I was more than interested when I was invited to a viewing of the film last year. ?Zero Dark Thirty?is based on the true story of a Central Intelligence Agency Officer who headed the raid that uncovered the location of Osama bin Laden, later organizing SEAL Team SIX to follow through. Though this film is ?not a documentary?, as screenwriter Mark Boal reminds us in various interviews; it is hard for our general public, the civilian world, to separate fact from fiction in this world-renowned story we have all followed in interest.? Therefore, we believe what we see. How do we know better? But is this okay? When do the secrets stop? The film was better than I expected it to be, but the fact that it was supported with secrets now available to the public is what makes me cringe.?

?..the towers have just been hit! Help!!? All you hear are the emergency calls from September 11, 2001 as the film begins with a pitch black screen, an appropriate beginning to a movie whose title is Zero Dark Thirty, an?unofficial?term which refers to 30 minutes past midnight, in other words, total darkness.?It's 2003 and the films main character, Maya, is the CIA Officer who has devoted her career to finding Al Qaeda?s Osama bin Laden. She locates herself in Pakistan, so that she is in the center of the search, subjecting herself to possible terrorists as her fellow Officer, Dan, tortures them. After various leads and interrogations, Maya discovers that a man named Abu Ahmed was a courier for bin Laden and therefor may have access to bin Laden?s current location. She follows the leads for years, even surviving various threats and a bombing, as assassins attempt to end her life.? She continues the search, finally locating Abu Ahmed and following him in his car to a compound in Abottobad, Pakistan, the ultimate location where Osama bin Laden had been living.?After various plans regarding the capture of bin Laden, the CIA eventually tasked Navy SEALs from Team SIX, the United States Navy?s main counterterrorist unit, with the mission. We all know the ending; on May 2, 2011, SEALs find bin Laden on the compound?s third level, where he is ultimately killed.

?While the movie didn?t have a political agenda, the topics of controversy are still plenty. A few are worth noting, one of the topics being torture. While the movie suggests that?water boarding?led to the finding of bin Laden, others have noted otherwise. Senator John McCain spent 5 ? years in inhumane and brutal conditions in North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, and mentioned after watching the film that waterboarding was not what led us to bin Laden?s compound. That article, and McCain?s statement, can be found below. It is then that we are reminded once again that this a movie, not a documentary.

http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2012/dec/18/mccain-rejects-torture-s...

?A final point to make, and in my opinion the most important, is that of the safety of our United States Military, and the SEALs that completed this very mission. Known as ?silent warriors?, more attention is being brought to the not-so-undercover missions of our Special Warfare Operators these days. Should it be our business to see just how that mission was carried out? Well, either way, it?s our business now, and because of that the safety of our operators are at a much higher risk. When do the secrets stop?

I can understand writing a book, No Easy Day,?on which the movie was based, to clarify the mission because of so many reports in error, but is it necessary to clarify? Is recognition needed, individually, when any media is bad media? According to sworn testimony from CIA Information Review Officer Martha Lutz, releasing of this type of information could provide an ?unnecessary security and counterintelligence risk?, unnecessary being the key word.

As a current SEAL* recently mentioned after I asked him for a response to the film, ?None of us need recognition. We are not athletes pandering for the spotlight or our next big break. We are warriors, looking to silently accomplish whatever difficult task we are given without any attention, so we can quietly return to our families and lives. It is unnecessary and unwelcome to use our community to sell an agenda. It is also unwelcome to create an obsession within our culture with Navy SEALs and our work.? I think he put it best as he followed that with, ?Secrecy is safety, safety is coming home, and coming home alive is what all of us want.?

On that note, thank you to all those in uniform currently serving to protect our freedom every day. Your service does not go unnoticed, whether we know your name or not.

Promo posters for this movie are up in Village Theatre, which means it should be opening soon here in Coronado.

To read more about the movie and to watch more trailers, click here:

http://www.zerodarkthirty-movie.com/site/?hs308=ZDT6186

Source: http://www.ecoronado.com/xn/detail/2019736%3ABlogPost%3A145315?xg_source=activity

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