2011 raid on Osama Bin Laden's hideout – the most spectacular and the most palpalbe achievement of Barack Obama's presidency – was destined to get spectacular and prestigious screen adaptation in Hollywood, institution known for its fanatical devotion to 44th US President. Made roughly a year after the actual event, 2012 action docudrama Zero Dark Thirty, however, generally avoids treatment that would look like explicit or blatant propaganda. Directed by Katheryn Bigelow, film maker more interested in effective action scenes than cheap political sermons, and written by Mark Boal, this film chronicles long, difficult and sometimes dangerous efforts of CIA to locate Bin Laden that would culminate in famous raid. The film mixes semi-documentary approach with exciting action pieces, while instisting on realism and authenticity. That includes depiction of scenes in which CIA interogators extract information about Bin Laden through disturbingly brutal torture, a scene even more brutal in light of recent appointment of Gina Haspel, controversial CIA official that apparently served as a model for film's ficticious protagonist Maya (played by Jessica Chastain). Bigelow and film's authors on one hand don't bother with controversies about torture or single superpower dispensing vigilante justice instead of arresting and putting most notorious terrorist on trial; but they also leave enough material for those who do, making Zero Dark Thirty perhaps more relevant today than it was six years ago.
RATING: 8/10