100 BEST WAR MOVIES: 7. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

 

            “Zero Dark Thirty” is the story of the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden and his assassination. It was directed by Kathryn Bigelow. It was her next film after winning Best Picture and Best Director for “The Hurt Locker”. She was the first female director to win Best Director. She co-produced “Zero Dark Thirty”. Her screenwriter again was Mark Boal. The duo had intended to make a film about the Battle of Tora Bora, but before they started production, Bin Laden was killed and they decided to shift the focus to how that came about. Luckily, a lot of Boal’s research was applicable to the new focus. The movie cost about $50 million. Some of that money to a recreation of Bin Laden's compound. The film was successful and made $133 million. It was acclaimed and made many critics’ top ten lists. It was nominated for Oscars for Best Picture (losing to the inferior “Argo”), Best Actress (Jessica Chastain lost to Jennifer Lawrence in “Silver Linings Playbook”), Best Original Score (Boal lost to Tarantino for “Django Unchained”), and Best Film Editing. It won for Best Sound Editing. The film was a favorite for Best Picture, but criticism of its depiction of the use of torture created a backlash.

            The movie starts powerfully with telephone calls from victims of the Twin Towers destruction on 9/11. Once the stakes are established, the film becomes the story of one woman’s quest to get Bin Laden. Jessica Chastain plays Maya, who is a composite character, but based on an actual female CIA agent.  She portrays the CIA operative as obsessive and persevering (to the point of being a pain in the ass to her superiors).  Her evolution from naïve to hard as nails in the world of black sites is a theme.  Bigelow and Boal made a great decision to concentrate on this woman and build up to the mission by showing the frustrating quest to locate OBL (the movie does not dumb it down for the current events-challenged masses). The quest involves torture ("enhanced interrogation") which leads eventually to a courier which leads to the compound Bin Laden was living in. It’s not an easy journey and includes the suicide bomb death of her colleague Jessica (Jennifer Ehle). The last act is the mission to kill Bin Laden. The SEAL team is America’s best special forces operatives and they are realistically played. The reenactment is mesmerizing even for those who know what will happen.  The flight into Abbottabad  has the best use of music that I can recall in a scene like this.  Not bombastic.  I would best describe it as SEALish.  The “assault” is a blend of POV  (through night vision goggles) and fly on the wall cinematography. It’s a happy ending that was not forced because it is true.

Chastain deserved the Oscar. She is perfect in a role that would normally be a male role. Chastain is well-supported by a strong cast. It’s not all-star, but you’ll recognize many solid performers.  The biggest surprise is Chris Pratt as a Navy SEAL.  He does inject a little humor into a deadly serious movie. He’s not the class clown, but elite military types often have good senses of humor.  By the way, there is also a major part for one of my favorite actresses - Jennifer Ehle (the miniseries “Pride and Prejudice”).

            I won’t give away the plot.  The movie works on two levels.  If you are like me and have a working knowledge of the war on terrorism, it is exciting to see some key events reenacted suspensefully.  It does help to know the basics.  The dialogue assumes that.  There are numerous references to KSM (google his ugly ass).  I almost envy the majority of Americans who will find the entire movie suspenseful because they do not know what will happen next.

ACTING:   A+                

ACTION:   A+ (6/10) the only combat is the kill mission

ACCURACY: A  (hard to judge since the CIA actions are classified)      

PLOT:  A               

REALISM:   A 

CINEMATOGRAPHY:   A

SCORE:   A

SCENE:  the mission

QUOTE:  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.

            Interestingly, the movie does not do the cliché of describing the mission plan.  This was a good decision for both the informed and the historical illiterates.  It also does not flesh out the SEAL characters.  However, small touches make it clear they are not only heroes, but professionals.  There is an understated scene where Maya watches them play horse shoes and is stunned to learn that they know they are going on the mission that very night.  Subtle, but brilliant.  The movie also avoids the cliché of the corrupt or clueless authorities.  No Americans are villains.  It does take to task the risk-averse, but they are portrayed as simply too careful.   Then again, Maya is portrayed as an obsessed bitch.  Thank God she was!  CIA Director Leon Panetta comes off well, but there is little reference to Obama and none to Bush, Jr.  The movie does not lionize Obama for giving the green light.  It does not demonize Muslims.  In fact, a CIA official is tellingly depicted on his prayer mat.

            As far as accuracy, I could detect nothing egregious. The Camp Chapman suicide bombing is accurately depicted. However, much of the movie depicts events that are still classified. I trust Boal when he says the screenplay is based on research.  It also does not sugar coat what happened in that compound.  Spoiler alert:  there is no attempt to take OBL alive.  As to the controversial depiction of torture and the actionable results from inhumane interrogation, I would be surprised if those types of things did not happen.  You may want to believe otherwise, but get your head out of the sand.   It is a crying shame that the ostriches prevented this movie from a deserved Best Picture Oscar.  It is a travesty that they deprived Bigelow of a director nomination.

            In conclusion, “Zero Dark Thirty” tells the story many had been waiting to see.  It does it in a well-crafted way that does justice to history.  It is better than “The Hurt Locker” and “Lincoln”.  It will have its detractors and where you stand on this is telling.  I can tell you this much, if the movie would have been about Tora Bora, where we completely botched the chance to kill the most wanted man on Earth, it would have been a very depressing movie. You would not have left the theater thinking “USA USA USA!” You did with this movie even though it was not trying to elicit that response.

Air America (1990)

 

            When it was proposed in 1985, the idea was for “Air America” was meant to be the first Vietnam War comedy.  It was to star Sean Connery and Kevin Costner.  Funding took so long that the two moved on (Connery to “The Hunt for Red October” and Costner to “Dances With Wolves”).  The film was directed by Roger Spottiswoode (“Under Fire”).  It was based on the non-fiction book by Christopher Robbins.  The movie went over budget at $35 million.  Although considered a bomb, it actually made over $57 million.  Some of the budget was a $7 million check to Mel Gibson.  Robert Downey made the movie for the pay check and because he wanted to work with Gibson.  Downey did not enjoy the shooting in Thailand.  The production was marred by two earthquakes and a typhoon.  The movie that had a 500-member crew who moved between 44 locations in Thailand, London, and Los Angeles.  26 aircraft were rented from the Thai air force.

            Air America was the name given to the CIA’s effort to intervene in the conflict between the non-communist government and communist rebels in Laos.  It is set in 1969.  The civilian pilots fell into two categories:  those who made flights delivering supplies to villagers as part of a “hearts and minds” effort and those who ran guns and opium.  Mel Gibson’s Gene Ryack is the latter and Robert Downey’s Billy Covington is the former.  The movie opens with an Air America plane dropping bags of rice that plummet through the roof of huts.  That same plane is shot down by a peasant firing a rifle.  This “golden BB” causes the plane to crash, killing everyone on board.  The movie goes from broad physical comedy to tragedy in seconds!  Cut to Covington as a traffic chopper pilot.  He’s crazy, which makes him perfect for Air America.  He gets recruited with the promise that he will be able to do the kind of flying that just got him fired.  When he arrives in Laos (“we’re not here”), he meets the cynical Ryack.  Ryack has a plan to accumulate a cache of weapons and then sell them on the black market so he can retire.  Air America is in bed with a corrupt Laotian Gen. Lu Soong (Burt Kwouk!).  Covington is going to make his mission to take down the general, especially after his soldiers rescue the opium and not Ryack/Covington after a crash.  Speaking of crashes, the movie is basically a sequence of crashes.  After one of them, a rescue chopper is shot down!  The movie is crash porn.

            “Air America” is an uncomfortable blend of comedy and action.  The comedy is not black enough and is overwhelmed by the drama which includes the deaths of several of the characters.  And the action lacks suspense, even in the crashes.  The movie has lots of explosions, but they are of the ridiculous gasoline variety.  There are more crashes than laughs, so the movie was deceptively marketed as a comedy.  It is not the first comedy about the Vietnam War.  “The Boys in Company C” came out in 1978 and if you want a movie that is clearly a comedy, “Good Morning, Vietnam” was released in 1987.   

  The cast works hard and is not to blame.  Gibson and Downey do have some chemistry and the movie tries hard to be a buddy film.  In fact, it works best as one.  Nancy Travis is wasted in the role of an aid worker.  All of the main characters are stereotypes.  Ryack is the cynical veteran who is corrupted by the system.  Covington is the daring do-gooder.  Lu Soong is the villainous corrupt general.  The movie is rife with cliches.  The Air America personnel party like journalists or mercenaries (which they basically are).  Ryack gets a redemption arc that is very predictable 

“Air America” is a dud, but it does have its strengths.  The stunt flying is excellent and some of the stunts were so daring that they were nixed by stunt pilot.  Spottiswoode was able to find some real Covingtons to do them.  Another reason to watch is the soundtrack of classic rock.  Now that I think about it, you might want to skip the movie and just buy the soundtrack.  By the way, the movie did come under some criticism for having songs that were not around in 1969.  Personally, I don’t care as long as the song fits the scene. 

Surprisingly, several of the characters are based on actual people.  Gen. Vang Pao led CIA-supported forces against the communist Pathet Lao.  He ended up immigrating to the U.S. after Laos fell.  I doubt he went to see the movie.  Air America was a collection of cargo planes that the CIA clandestinely used to support non-communism from 1950-1976.  It did support Gen. Vang Pao and it did get involved in drug smuggling.  Or turned a blind eye to it, according to some historians.  On a positive note, it did some reconnaissance work for the American army and did some search and rescue for downed pilots.  Covington and Ryack are not based on real people, but did represent the two basic types of employees.  The fact-finding Senator Davenport was based on Sen. Stuart Symington.  Symington made a trip to Laos to check out the CIA operation and later expressed disgust at the activities Air America participated in. Major Lemond was inspired by Maj. Richard Secord who was in charge of Air America during the Secret War in Laos.  If you want to learn about Air America from a feature film instead of a documentary, “Air America” will give you the gist of it.  Just don’t expect to laugh it up.

GRADE  =  C-

13 Hours (2016)

                “13 Hours:  The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi” is a movie by Michael Bay of “Pearl Harbor” infamy.  He based the movie on the book by Michael Zuckoff.  He interviewed several of the characters in the movie.  Three of them (Kris “Tanto” Paranto, John “Tig” Tiegsen, and Mark “Oz” Geist) vetted the script and served as technical advisers.  The movie was filmed in Malta.  The Annex and the compound were accurately recreated.  The movie ended up as Bay's least successful endeavor.  It is also his least bull shit film.  Now you know what the movie-going public wants.

                The movie begins with one of the lengthiest background information lead-ins I have ever seen.  But our current events challenged society needs the background and it is informative.  In a good sign, the intro is relatively neutral.  It makes it clear the movie will be about the “six elite military operators” that defended a covert CIA base.  “This is a true story”.  Yeah, we’ve heard that before.

                Dan Silva (a buff, bearded John Krasinski) is a contractor (mercenary to people who insist on political incorrectness) who is leaving his wife and kids to do one last job (are any of them not “the last job”?) in Libya.  Before landing, he takes off his wedding ring.  My first thought was:  OMG, Jim is going to cheat on Pam!  Actually it is to hide his status from the terrorists.  Huh?  Silva is greeted by a bud named “Rone” (a first-billed James Dale).  The ride to the compound features a Libyan stand-off that is used to establish that Silva is no longer in Kansas and his new boss CIA desk jockey “Bob” is a stereotypical war movie bureaucratic wuss/dick.  In other words, the exact opposite of Rone’s team of bon homie badasses.  Bob has the heavy burden of representing the entire bungling government, including the never mentioned Hillary Clinton.

                A visit by bleeding heart Ambassador Stevens (Matt Letscher) comes at a bad time considering Benghazi is a hell mouth.  (The movie does not cover how low a campaign contribution you have to give to get his gig.)  Mr. Chips decides he wants to stay in the Annex which is the equivalent of a listening post in the Verdun no man’s land.  But at least he has two overconfident and underqualified security guards.  And the local militia guarding the perimeter.  What could happen, right?  Certainly nothing on the anniversary of 9/11.  Right? 

                Sept. 11, 2012 opens with Silva calling his wife and finding out she is pregnant!  Why do people call their wives in war movies?  Does he want to provoke the hell mouth?  If so, mission accomplished because here the hajis come.  It’s like the Alamo, but with no Davy Crockett.  Or any other Texans.  When Rone and his boys learn the Ambassador is in danger, they want to rush to his aid.  Unfortunately, “Bob” tells them to “stand down”.  They go anyway.  Let the combat porn begin!

                The team makes a drive to the Annex that is straight out of “Black Hawk Down”.  You can’t tell the good Libyans from the bad, except that the bad ones are shooting at you.  They reach the Annex and we get a little breather before the volume goes up again.  Next, there is the Bayesque wild ride back to the compound.  Imagine “Fast and Furious” with more gunfire.  It’s now time for the “Zulu” reenactment.    We started with six mercs – the over/under is four for this particular “last stand” movie.

                “13 Hours” has no glaring weaknesses.  It tells a true story that deserves to be told and it does it in an informative and entertaining way.  It is surprisingly light on politics.  This must have disappointed Republicans as much as Oliver Stone’s “W” disappointed the Democrats.  Bay is mostly interested in lionizing the contractors who fought off the hordes. The movie is mostly about macho heroes and a FUBAR situation  He does not really take a stand on the controversies surrounding the incident.  There are some allusions to those controversies, but the movie is not heavy-handed.  It is more of a standard action picture than a political thriller.   In fact, the script cobbles together several common war movie tropes - the running gun battle, the last stand, the red-tape loving ass-coverer, etc.  There’s nothing in this movie you have not seen before, but it is done competently.  The cinematography by Dion Beebe has a nice variety.  The dialogue by Chuck Hogan can best be described as manly. The score is what you would expect from this kind of movie and is actually fairly restrained.

                The cast is not A-List, but it does not need to be.  There is not a lot of acting required.  Krasinski was the big get for the casting director and he is adequate.  He plays Silva as a morose individual who is not very enthusiastic about this job.  He is certainly not the adrenalin junkie that most soldiers of fortune are portrayed as.  There is little character development and it is sometimes hard to tell the heroes apart, especially during the night fighting.  The screenplay throws in a few tired clichés.  “Bob” is a cartoonish bureaucratic wimp.  There is also a blonde spy who starts off sneering at the warriors, but ends up respecting them.  And there is the likeable Libyan interpreter who represents the “good” natives.

                The movie will of course be most remembered for its action sequences.  You get what you expect from Bay, but it’s not like he’s the only director that has adopted the over-the-top depiction of modern combat that goes back to “Saving Private Ryan”.  Since that revolutionary opening scene in SPR, directors have tried to depict combat realistically.  Some, like Ridley Scott in “Black Hawk Down”, have been successful.  Others have adopted the mantra that extreme combat equals realistic combat.  In other words, the more hellish the action and violence, the closer you get to proving war is hell.  What they don’t understand is it is possible to go too far and veer into super hero territory.  “13 Hours” is somewhere between SPR and “Hacksaw Ridge”.  There are no moments that cause a war movie fanatic to laugh out loud, but you just know there was not nearly as much ammo expenditure, explosions, and bloodshed in the actual firefights.  The graphic wounds are certainly appropriate to war.  We do love to see human equivalents of zombies get slaughtered.

                I feel a little sorry for Bay with regard to the lack of box office success for the film.  My theory is word got out to his general audience that the movie was not a “Transformers” sequel and the rabid Hillary haters found out it was not red meat.  This is a shame for Bay because the movie is not bad.  It may exaggerate the heroics, but the men were real heroes and they get their due.  In this respect, the movie reminds of “Lone Survivor” and “American Sniper”.  Not as good, but comparable.

GRADE  =  B  

         

HISTORICAL ACCURACY:    How accurate is it?  Let’s start by assuring you that it ain’t “Pearl Harbor”.   The background information is a good summary of the situation going into Sept. 11, 2014.  Although, oddly the footage shows Gaddafi’s capture before it shows the air strikes that helped contribute to his demise.  The main characters are all real individuals with “Bob” being a representation of the actual CIA chief who remains unidentified.  The setup of the Annex and the compound are true to life.  The circumstances of Ambassador Stevens death are accurate in the big picture.  The Annex was woefully insecure and the security detail was laughable.  The "February 17th Martyr's Brigade" militia that was supposed to defend the perimeter did run away at the first sound of gunfire.   The script gives a plausible  version of what transpired when members of Ansar al-Sharia stormed the site.  Stevens did go to a safe room, but the jihadists did set the building on fire.  The movie has Bob giving a “stand down” order, thus siding with the critics of the State Department and CIA.  This theory was debunked by the Benghazi Committee, but eyewitnesses, including the technical advisers insist they were told to wait.  The movie does not really address the State Departments decision to turn down requests for more security at the Annex.  While the attack on the Annex is accurate, the ingress of the contractors to search for Stevens was by armored vehicle and was not a hellish run through a gauntlet and there were no attacks while they were there.  They did take fire on the way back.  The assaults on the compound are basically true, but shall we say “enhanced”.  There was an attack at 12:30 and one at 2:30.  Both lasted about ten minutes.  The mortar attack around 5 A.M. that killed Rone and Glen was well done.  Another controversy the movie touches on is the supposedly criminally tardy air support.  That also has been debunked. Overall, I would give the film a B for accuracy.