Actors: Jessica Chastain, Joel Edgerton, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Chris Pratt, Mark Strong, Scott Adkins
Directors: Kathryn Bigelow
Rated: R (Restricted)
Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date: March 19, 2013
Run Time: 177 minutes
Film: 3.5 out of 5 stars
Extras: 3 out of 5 stars
As I am sure everyone does, I remember exactly where I was on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Being a native New Yorker, I think that it affects us even more. “Zero Dark Thirty” brings us right back to that day with their very intense black screen opening sequence. I have to say I am typical not a big fan of war movies, though this film is not that. The film nears three hours yet it completely grasps your attention throughout. It only let up is when they were doing the Seal raid on Bin Landen’s compound. I felt like it broke apart from the rest of the film. Before that though I didn’t check my watch once and was completely enthralled in the drama. Kathryn Bigelow has done it again, after “The Hurt Locker”, she delivered another very powerful film and I can’t wait to see what she does next.
Official Premise: For a decade, an elite team of intelligence operatives, working in secret across the globe, devoted themselves to a single goal: to find and eliminate Osama bin Laden. Zero Dark Thirty reunites the Oscar® winning team of The Hurt Locker, director-producer Kathryn Bigelow and writer-producer Mark Boal, along with producer Megan Ellison, telling the story of history’s greatest manhunt for the world’s most dangerous man.
Jessica Chastain was amazing in this film. She is probably one of my favorite actresses right now. She was amazing and stole the show in “The Help”. She kicked some ghost ass in “Mama” and yet she still takes on this extremely intense role and delivers one of the best performances of the year. She won the Golden Globe Award for Best Performance By an Actress in a Motion Picture in the Drama. Like Bigelow, I can’t wait to see what she is doing next. I really love the strong female role that Bigelow had created here. I also thought that Jason Clarke was absolutely amazing and another great performance after “Lawless” (also with Chastain). I would have love to see more of him. I was really taken back by every single scene he was in.
Let’s get to the special features, which I was dying to get to after watching this film. To start I was a little disappointed. I feel like this was rushed to DVD quickly due to the awards. I would have loved to see some commentary tracks included and also some longer featurettes. The four featurettes included are very informative but all run under ten minutes. First off we have “No Small Feat”, which is a brief look at the making of “Zero Dark Thirty”. “The Compound” is a look into how the film rebuilt the compound. “Geared Up” shows the cast training with the authentic SEAL gear. Lastly “Targeting Jessica Chastain” shows her talking about the role of Maya and her reflections.