Zero Dark Thirty

[Blueintheface]

Did you know it was rated R?

Permission to use the warthog, Captain Stubing LA?

[LA Ute]

Did you know it was rated R?

Yes, because it was full of F-bombs. I didn't enjoy listening to that but I will go to R-rated movies when language is the issue.

[Devildog]

Yes, because it was full of F-bombs. I didn't enjoy listening to that but I will go to R-rated movies when language is the issue.

That is reality. The language used in the military is rough, and that is true almost 100%. I knew some active lds people that didn't cuss... much... but when they finally did drop an occasional F bomb, nobody was very surprised except that it came from someone who normally didn't. It usually made others smile.

You would need PG subtitles to tell the accurate story without the F bombs.

[Donuthole]

That is reality. The language used in the military is rough, and that is true almost 100%. I knew some active lds people that didn't cuss... much... but when they finally did drop an occasional F bomb, nobody was very surprised except that it came from someone who normally didn't. It usually made others smile.

You would need PG subtitles to tell the accurate story without the F bombs.

Argo is not a military show, though, so there's no excuse.

[happyone]

That is reality. The language used in the military is rough, and that is true almost 100%. I knew some active lds people that didn't cuss... much... but when they finally did drop an occasional F bomb, nobody was very surprised except that it came from someone who normally didn't. It usually made others smile.

You would need PG subtitles to tell the accurate story without the F bombs.

I think I've told this story before, but one time after being down range with my driver, I told him after putting the F***ing jeep away come and see me (he was also ran the company arms room and I was the Arms room officer adn we were getting ready for an inspection)

When he came back I said something to the effect that I really need to stop swearing. He looked and me and in all seriousnesss said "Sir, You don't swear" Didn't even register with him.

I'll go see it sometime. I'll be interested in comparing it with No Easy Day. The book that one of the participants wrote.

[Devildog]

Argo is not a military show, though, so there's no excuse.

Uhh.

I just read the title of the thread.

I guess I should post this for myself.



Happyone,

Hell, I don't even realize I've done it myself most of the time. Once in awhile I get reminded by someones reaction... I hate it when it happens at church.

*Edit

NSFW

[YOUTUBE]8rRClqsyk0o[/YOUTUBE]

The story behind the video.

http://militarytimes.com/blogs/battl...n-afghanistan/

[old_gregg]

I'll go see it sometime. I'll be interested in comparing it with No Easy Day. The book that one of the participants wrote.

i read no easy day, and didn't particularly like it. it was tough to get around the guy's hubris (which is probably not uncommon among special ops folks). there is also a good chance he's full of crap.

[Devildog]

i read no easy day, and didn't particularly like it. it was tough to get around the guy's hubris (which is probably not uncommon among special ops folks). there is also a good chance he's full of crap.

Fixed it for ya.

That pride is earned. It's damn hard to get where he got, and everyone that understands the requirements, knows it.

Arrogance abounds in that environment and working among other egos is a learned and required skill.

These guys really are as good as they think they are.

[wuapinmon]

Argo is not a military show, though, so there's no excuse.

Argo fuck yourself. (I couldn't resist)

[MarkGrace]

Oh shit, one of the theaters here got it a week early. Just bought tickets for tonight!

[dabrockster]

Oh shit, one of the theaters here got it a week early. Just bought tickets for tonight!

Can't wait to hear your review...

[PaloAltoCougar]

An outstanding movie. I liked so many things about it. The score was great, and appropriately silent during the key scenes at the end (none of the huge orchestra swells lesser directors use to evoke the desired emotional response). The locations and Osama's house looked perfectly authentic (further confirming my impression that so much of that area is a hopeless craphole). There's a tension throughout the movie that's Hitchcock-like at his best. Liked all of the actors, including Tony Soprano as CIA Director Panetta. And the whole raid sequence is superbly done, and very suspenseful despite one's knowledge of the outcome. I got chills as Team Six boards the choppers--no use of macho rhetoric, they're all business from start to finish.

Jessica Chastain was superb, and is a lock for a Best Actress nomination. The closing scene when she [I assume no one needs a spoiler as to what happened to Osama] looks at the corpse, the culmination of a decade of ceaseless and singleminded work, and flies off to who knows where, has a depth and complexity that would have eluded, again, a lesser director. I think a male director would have been less able to relate to and direct Chastain's Maya role.

I also derived considerable comfort that there are so many CIA and service personnel going about their business in such a dedicated way (I believe the film's presentation). And I appreciated the disturbing treatment of torture, certainly not glorifying it but suggesting it was necessary to achieve the results obtained. I don't believe Feinstein et al. who claim that part of the movie is fictional. Go see it, but leave the kids at home.

[MarkGrace]

So, pretty good movie. I think the best way I could describe it is a two and a half hour episode of Homeland without some of the ridiculousness of Homeland. ha. But seriously, I couldn't believe at how many points it reminded me of that show. The CIA heroine with a "me against the world" mentality, the operating on gut instinct despite gaps in intelligence, the singular drive in the hunt for a man, the unexpected detonations -- they're pretty much all there.

The movie opens with this brilliant collage of sound, which consists of these interwoven calls from the WTC on the morning of 9/11. There are no images on the screen, you just sit there in darkness listening to people's panicked voices. Horrifying stuff. It really takes you back to that moment and right from the outset reminds you why we wanted to get this guy so much in the first place.

From there the story just jumps right into the last decade of events that led up to Osama's death (spoiler, he dies at the end!), all told in a narrative centered around the still unknown CIA agent played by Chastain. And the best thing I can say about the narrative is that you never get lost in it. Despite the number of terror suspects, countries, military bases, characters, etc., you always know exactly where you are in the story, which itself is pretty remarkable given that they're trying to compress 10 years of disparate facts and history into one 2-3 hour movie. Kudos to Bigelow and the screenwriter on that one because there's a lot to pull together to make that happen.

In terms of inconsistencies in that story, I don't know it well enough to judge. Maybe people will have problems with it and with a better knowledge of the facts will object to some of the liberties they take, but I'm not that person. And maybe people with a knowledge of military operations will have a problem with how some of the things are presented, but again, I just don't know enough there, and to be honest I don't really care either. To me, the way everything was pulled together and presented was just very impressive.

The Chastain character is really great, and much like I always feel about Carrie in Homeland, I just wanted her to succeed and be right. Of course I already knew she was, but just in the context of the story and watching her on screen you want that for her. Bigelow is in love with her face, and has all these great shots of her features from different angles. I had heard much of her Wonder Woman-like performance, but to be honest it wasn't as, I don't know, loud? as I expected. She is pretty quiet at times, again with Bigelow using the camera to capture her face in all these expressive manners.

When the moment finally arrives and she gets the call that "it's happening, tonight" you just feel a rush of emotion. Excited for the moment, nervous and hoping she's right (even though you know she is), and anxious for what is about to come and how it will all play out. And what is about to come is absolutely exquisite. Seriously, the last half hour or so of that movie is some of the best filmmaking you'll ever seen on screen. And you definitely need to see it on a screen -- there's no way your home tv, no matter how big and awesome, is going to do that moment justice. The choppers lifting off the ground, watching them weave in and out of canyons headed into Pakistan, the use of diegetic sound, the way some of it is shot to replicate night vision, the shots inside the choppers of Seal Team 6. All of it, just remarkable and breathtaking. You feel so in that moment it is uncanny.

That whole last bit is just so awesome I have to admit I started crying. With the "it's happening, tonight" I got this cold rush down my whole body, and when the choppers took off I couldn't help myself, the tears just started to come. It was just such an overwhelming feeling thinking about all the lives that went into that moment. The people who spent countless hours in the hunt, the lives that it cost both the CIA and the military, the sheer number of years that it took, and the men and women capable of an extraordinary bravery far beyond what I'd ever be capable. Just really, really a special moment to watch.

The way the camera lingers on Chastain's conflicted face after the raid is also very interesting. It's a moment that you expect to be triumphant given all that she put into it, but it's really not. It's more about relief and reflection on the cost it took to get there. I have to imagine, and I've felt that way watching Homeland before, that once the moment arrives, it's bound to feel anticlimactic in some ways. During the pursuit, this person feels larger than life. Like a ghost or something more than a man. But when the body is sitting there next to you, you realize he's just another human like the rest of us.

Anyway, I look forward to reading everyone's thoughts as you start to see it.

[MarkGrace]

It's kind of interesting to think what this movie would have been like had they not found Osama in the end. I'm curious to know where they were headed and what the resolve of the movie would have been.

[Colly Wolly]

Thanks for the great write up dude. Don't think this is showing anywhere in Utah right now but I am pumped to see it next weekend.