The movie Zero Dark Thirty was produced and made for the purpose of creating a story while educating people about one of the most famous times in American history: 9/11 and the killing of Osama Bin Laden. With this in mind, the topic of terrorism was a touchy subject in America at the time that this movie was created. Because of this, as well as some other factors, I believe that Zero Dark Thirty was the most historically accurate a movie could be without being a documentary.
While the movie mainly focused on telling the heroic story of the killing of the Osama Bin Laden, it focuses heavily on a certain issue that was also questionable at the time: torture methods. At the time, waterboarding was considered extremely controversial, and caused a plethora of debate between people. The film didn't necessarily make a statement on their belief with torture, but rather addressed the issue and the controversy around it. This shows a huge dedication to their agenda to tell the story, and not make a narrative as apparent. Not only was the controversy addressed, but it was correctly referenced as well. In the film, there were three different scenes with three different interrogations that used waterboarding. According to a BBC article on this subject, exactly three Al-Qaeda members were actually interrogated using waterboarding. This further emphasizes their want to remain neutral on the topic, while still sticking to the facts.
The biggest, and arguably the most important, part of the film was the final thirty minutes. This was the part where they showed Operation Neptune Spear: the SEAL operation responsible for the killing of Osama Bin Laden. This definitely stood out to me when considering the historical accuracy of the movie, mainly because the entire film was leading up to it. After doing a good amount of research, I concluded that the portrayal of Operation Neptune Spear in the film was spot on to the actual event. While there were certain things that had to be left out to spare the audience from gruesome details, the parts that were left in the film were crucial, and thus represented perfectly. These parts include one of the two Black Hawks crashing, the amount of deaths and people in the actual compound, and the layout of the compound itself. One thing that was left out of the film for good reason was the plethora of porn found in the compound. If this would have been included in the film, it would have distracted from the story, and could have caused detriment to the rating of the movie itself. While this detail was true and real, I don't believe that it was important enough to the retelling to include it, which shows a good decision on the productions part.
One of the most apparent themes in the film was the theme of government process. Operation Neptune Spear was an operation that was almost completely based on a whim, and was executed against the odds. And the reason that the movie turned out so well is because they took advantage of the underdog scenario that actually happened, and amplified it. This made the movie more powerful as entertainment, while also showing people that this time in history was actually a powerful moment.
The more recent the history is, the more touchy the subject can be. The previous three movies that we watched were all about events that were not nearly as close in time as 9/11, therefore not as difficult to write and make a movie about. In the case of Zero Dark Thirty, the history is incredibly fragile. Because of this, the writers and producers had to be extra careful about their narrative with this film, which, i believe, is the reason that this film was so well done. It retold a story of heroic nationalism, and took advantage of the story-like aspect of the actual event, which in turn made the film quality entertainment, as well as a phenomenal learning experience.
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