Zero Dark Thirty

**Winst** · 01-05-2013, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by The Gas Face

Is Zero Dark Thirty the same as the book No Easy Day?

No...they are not the same.

It is interesting to compare related parts of the two.

Both the book and the film are mixtures of certain facts and fictions.

The film does and says what it wants to....and the book pretty much does the same..in it's own sort of way.
Two different subjects and two different mediums.

**Winst** · 01-05-2013, 06:01 PM

BTW..IMO...in the end...I think that they would have been better off going with the original material that they were working
with for the making of this film...or the original project in general.
The "raid in Pakistan" kind of threw their story for quite a loop...so they were kind of dead in the water unless they shifted the focus.

Despite the intriguing film that they made...I think that the original project could have been just as good and quite possibly even more interesting.

I would *love* too see what happened with all of the original materials that they had to scrap when they shifted the project in a new direction.

The CIA angle could have possibly been *much* better...and that's saying something considering what was done with the CIA in ZDT.
..and the military/political angle would have been totally over the top with the original materials. (...CAG..'nuf said.)

Something tells me that ZDT won't be the final word related to this and other related topics.
There is too much information in the mix and too many stories out there waiting to be told/shared.

**renchfrieswith** · 01-05-2013, 06:42 PM

I read on many different websites that that movie is awesome.

I really liked the Hurt Locker.

**HS Cult Leader** · 01-05-2013, 07:21 PM

Originally Posted by isabella

IMO, jessica is the best actress currently working on films. she's also gorgeous. i've seen her in the debt and tree of life (which i think was her first major role). i was blown away by her performance in TOL......i couldn't believe what i was watching. i had never heard of her and remember saying to my husband if there's any justice in hollywood she'll get the recognition and jobs that she deserves. i was very disappointed that she was nominated for the help instead of TOL. i couldn't bring myself to watch the help so i don't know about her performance (at any rate, she didn't stand a chance against the blaek actress who was nominated from that movie).

I've really admired her work since first seeing her in the "Tree of Life", she is such a natural beauty and talented actress.

**ZeroZed** · 01-05-2013, 07:43 PM

I'm half way through the movie and taking a break. Overall (so far) it's good, but I wouldn't characterize it as great. It has some good moments, but there's a lot of obvious Hollywood schlock in there. A couple of examples for those of you who have seen it...Jessica's (the dark-haired CIA operative) story arc is just silly. Also, when the man whom I assume in a CIA bigwig comes in to their office in Pakistan and screams at them....too melodramatic. Even the use of female lead(s) is a Hollywood distraction/concoction. Then again, up to this point in the film, Jessica Chastain's (Maya) performance has consisted of very little other than alternating between deer-in-the-headlights and rattled. I'll withhold final judgement until I make it through the second half of the film.

Of all the movies I've seen in 2012, I'd say that the two best films overall were Argo and End of Watch. Argo, of course, is also based on a episode from US history, but despite the fact that it had many comedic elements, I think that movie was much more tense and compelling than Zero Dark Thirty has been up to the 1 and half hour that I've watched so far.

**Avery** · 01-05-2013, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by KillVampires

So according to my friends in the government, the woman in this story, does not even exist in real life. The CIA operative "Jen" as she's known as is really a composite character of two men. Not sure why Hollywood changed it. There really aren't that many women high up in anti-terror or the military. Also the scene where she's screaming at her boss "I NEED TWO WIRETAPS" never happened in real life. Just manufactured drama, likely the scene was necessary to get that hot redhead broad her Oscar nomination. She over acted the entire film. Anyone working on counter terror who yelled at her boss like that would be reassigned and stress evaluated.

Then why did the author of No Easy Day say that it was a woman in his 60 minutes interview?

Well, to the best of anyone's knowledge she is being referred to only as "Jen", an unnamed female CIA analyst according to ex-SEAL and "No Easy Day" author Mark Owen (not his real name) in an interview piece with "60 Minutes" (via Yahoo). Host of the piece, Scott Pelley, says, "One of the passengers on their plane was a CIA analyst who had spent five years on bin Laden's trail."

It was her intel and confidence that led SEAL Team Six to bin Laden's Abbottabad compound in Pakistan. Owen adds in the "60 Minutes" interview, "I can't give her enough credit. In my opinion, she kind of teed up this whole thing and is just wicked smart, kind of feisty... We'd always talk back and forth, you know, what do you think the odds of this are? What do you think? And she was always like, '100 percent, he's there.'"

"SEAL Team Six just took care of the last 40 minutes," Owen added.

**lilbuddy67** · 01-05-2013, 08:08 PM

Yeah, the screeners are out. Definitely worth watching.

**KShow** · 01-05-2013, 08:09 PM

6/10

It's well acted. Too long, but not a horror to sit through. Most of the movie is about the search for UBL's courier, not about the raid.

**lilbuddy67** · 01-05-2013, 08:15 PM

Originally Posted by KShow

6/10

It's well acted. Too long, but not a horror to sit through. Most of the movie is about the search for UBL's courier, not about the raid.

"Too long"......lol
Probably under 35. MTV attention span. A good story is a good story. I pity the future,

**ZeroZed** · 01-05-2013, 09:18 PM

Originally Posted by KShow

6/10

It's well acted. Too long, but not a horror to sit through. Most of the movie is about the search for UBL's courier, not about the raid.

I concur with this. Worth watching, but not really a great film. The action scenes are far better than the (utterly unbelievable) drama. In fact, the CIA melodrama was on par with crappy TV shows and made it difficult to suspend disbelief through many of those parts. I don't see what the fuss is over the female lead (Jessica Chastain). She's pleasant enough to look at, but her performance was nothing spectacular. They did a really great job with the locales (I've been to many of the places where the film takes place, including detention facilities).

Argo is still a far better film in my opinion. Better acting, better (unbelievable, but historically accurate) story.

**SouthernListen** · 01-05-2013, 10:24 PM

The hollywoodization of real life military action right after it happens is unseemly, at best.

**No Mercy** · 01-05-2013, 10:37 PM

I was very undewhelmed by the film but it has to be said the final raid on on the compound is pretty tense and interesting all at once, even though we all know the outcome. Overrall though I would say like a couple of the above posters 6/10. Not great but worth a watch.

Now do any knowledgeable people here use newsgroups and know of a good NZB website now that Matrix is closed. If so, perhaps a message could coincidentally arrive to me in a secret covert operation, not unlike something out of this movie. It would be appreciated, as I know there are a lot of smarter people than me on here.

**telecaster69** · 01-05-2013, 10:40 PM

Originally Posted by eliasbboy

By the way, lest anyone think I'm a prude for editing that post I'm having a quadruple feature at HOME tonight.

Zero Dark Thirty
Hitchcock
The Hobbit
Django Unchained

God Bless Oscar season.

Yeah....I had the same game plan after the football games...watched Django and Zero Dark Thirty...think I'm gonna check out Hitchcock now.

**Ving** · 01-05-2013, 10:44 PM

Originally Posted by ZeroZed

I concur with this. Worth watching, but not really a great film. The action scenes are far better than the (utterly unbelievable) drama. In fact, the CIA melodrama was on par with crappy TV shows and made it difficult to suspend disbelief through many of those parts. I don't see what the fuss is over the female lead (Jessica Chastain). She's pleasant enough to look at, but her performance was nothing spectacular. They did a really great job with the locales (I've been to many of the places where the film takes place, including detention facilities).

Argo is still a far better film in my opinion. Better acting, better (unbelievable, but historically accurate) story.

Argo Accurate ? Nigga please, that whole ending is totally fabricated, they never got stopped and interrogated at the airport on the way out, it was completely made up to make an exciting movie. CBS Sunday Morning had the real Argo people on, they got on their flight and left no drama.

Zero Dark Thirty is excellent and I bet it does huge numbers at the box office, also how would you know what was accurate about it ?

**ZeroZed** · 01-06-2013, 06:07 AM

Originally Posted by Ving

Argo Accurate ? Nigga please, that whole ending is totally fabricated, they never got stopped and interrogated at the airport on the way out, it was completely made up to make an exciting movie. CBS Sunday Morning had the real Argo people on, they got on their flight and left no drama.

Zero Dark Thirty is excellent and I bet it does huge numbers at the box office, also how would you know what was accurate about it ?

What I doubt was accurate in ZD30 are the main characters histrionics. All the screaming, cursing, and tantruming she does to her CIA superiors--totally unbelievable. As someone else in this thread alluded to earlier--if a professional behaved in that manner they wouldn't be rewarded with more assets, they'd most likely be given a mental eval and sent home. A good 70% of ZD30's plot centers around Maya's "lone woman" crusade to follow her lead...that whole story arc seems completely crafted with a Hollywood story arc...just not buying any of that. When I reflect on ZD30, the only parts that I feel are probably the most accurate deal with the actual raid...but all the CIA intrigue seems really scripted and concocted like a lot of TV shows.

As to Argo, I'd say that although it does have some fictional elements, it sticks much closer to historical facts than ZD30. Plus, the "facts" of the Argo story are much more bizarre and unbelievable to begin with....Hollywood agents, SFX guys, fake Sci-Fi movie scripts to con the Iranians, hiding in the Canadian Ambassador's home for months on end. And we know that the character Ben Afleck plays is a real guy (Tony Mendez), who was given some pretty high awards for pulling off the crazy stunt.

But hey, if you think ZD30 is a better film, that's cool. I liked it too...I just don't think it's deserving of any big awards. Having a personal interest in Middle Eastern relations, I'm just saying that I think Argo was the more compelling film of the two.

**Engaged Chicken** · 01-06-2013, 06:11 AM

Originally Posted by lilbuddy67

"Too long"......lol
Probably under 35. MTV attention span. A good story is a good story. I pity the future,

These kids today.

**ohmicah** · 01-06-2013, 06:47 AM

The whole OBL raid smells like "Wag The Dog" stuff to cover up Obama's badly photoshopped birth certificate that was released a couple days before.

The OBL raid was about the only story that could have gotten the birth certificate story buried.

Skeptical photoshoppers, please do a You-Tube search and see for yourselves.