La noche más oscura
La noche más oscura
La noche más oscura
Director:
Kathryn BigelowGuión:
Mark BoalCámara:
Greig FraserMúsica:
Alexandre DesplatReparto:
Jessica Chastain, Jason Clarke, Joel Edgerton, Jennifer Ehle, Mark Strong, Kyle Chandler, Édgar Ramírez, James Gandolfini, Chris Pratt, Callan Mulvey (más)Streaming (2)
Sinopsis(1)
La captura de Osama bin Laden preocupó al mundo y a dos administraciones presidenciales estadounidenses durante más de una década. Al final, un pequeño y brillante grupo de agentes de la CIA le encontró. Fue una misión llevada en el secreto más absoluto. Algunos detalles han salido a la luz, pero las partes más significativas de la operación secreta, y sobre todo el papel que jugó el equipo de agentes, se verán por primera vez. (Universal Pictures España)
(más)Reseñas (17)
Dos horas de espera para una incursión militar cautivadora. La espera, en la que no sucede nada interesante, solo presenta a un par de actores buenos en papeles secundarios (Mark Strong, James Gandolfini) y, de vez en cuando, estalla una bomba en alguna parte.
()
The unreservedly enthusiastic overseas reviews didn't lie, it's a blast. What’s impressive is that the slickest films in A-list Hollywood today are being made by a woman. And I'd like to hear what 'Klaus's Rasputin', the insane Chancellor Hájek, would say about this film, given his popular opinion (one of the many pearls this alien entity has spat) that Osama Bin Laden was a fabrication. It could be fun…
()
SPOILERS AHEAD. Like Fincher’s Zodiac, Zero Dark Thirty is another long detective story without a satisfying conclusion. Though the perpetrator is apprehended after a long and exhausting manhunt, neither the main character nor the viewer gets much satisfaction from that. In the last shot, Maya gives vent to her emotions after several years of drudgery, only to realise that by solving the case, she has lost her only goal in life. Like James in The Hurt Locker, service to her country is the emotional foundation of her existence. Nevertheless, she isn’t initially obsessed with the idea of taking down public enemy number one and we can thus simultaneously follow the investigation and her character transformation from a terrified girl who has finished school and is shocked to see brutal interrogation methods into a heartless bitch who uses her power without hesitation. She uses the word “motherfucker” to exaggeratedly describe herself, perhaps as a sign that the last remnants of her femininity have been numbed. The procedural thriller aspect of the film blends very elegantly with the psychological drama, without the necessity of a single diversion into the protagonist’s personal life, which basically doesn’t exist anyway. We don’t get to know her family and she has no friends or home. She is simultaneously an offender and a victim in the aggressive hunt for a terrorist. ___ The book-like division of the film into chapters not only rhythmises the narrative, but also arouses expectations in the viewer, which subsequently remain unfulfilled. Similarly, our enjoyment of the film’s suspense is undermined by a very specific fact (how many people are in the hideout) and the titles telling us the specific time and place of the events, because thanks to the news, we mostly already know what happened then and there. The individual episodes are not self-contained units with clear points and an indispensable place in the overall structure of the narrative. Rather, these episodes comprise shreds of information without a solid causal link. The episodic nature of the narrative is not masked by the consistent “knitting together” of individual scenes, because the investigation did not go smoothly (one discovery leading to another) in reality, but haltingly. Instead of crucial plot revelations, there are only more misinformation and dead ends. The investigation has the form of a chain of fortunate coincidences and intuitive decisions, disrupted by failures of the human factor. Implicitly, the element of (bad) luck is set forth in two scenes: shortly before a fateful encounter, a black cat runs across the road, and on the day of the strike, the “canaries” kill time by playing horseshoes. ___ It involves collecting data and working with probability, not drawing clear conclusions, which is why the crucial moment resembles a situation akin to Schrödinger’s cat. People who either know something and it is necessary to get it out of them or who may easily die (or, like the head of the CIA, be replaced by someone else without a long explanation) are also reduced to mere carriers of information, or just abbreviations in the extreme case. What someone’s name is or what they do in their free time is not important; what they know is the important thing. All of the dialogue, whether in the office or at a restaurant is about the same thing: work. Even the prologue is saturated with information, with many overlapping audio recordings from 9/11 and the film’s most disturbing moments include the camera passing through a room full of servers.) ___ From this perspective, Maya represents another nerdy character in contemporary cinema. Exceptionally intelligent, focused on facts, indifferent to emotions (and dining on food of dubious quality). She treats the soldiers who do the dirty work for her almost like game avatars who may die, but she is in no way affected by that. During one of the interrogation scenes, all she has to do is tap the guard on the shoulder and he hits the prisoner for her. The final action is then reminiscent of one of the levels of a game like Call of Duty – several soldiers without individuality methodically searching every room of the vast compound as they proceed toward their main objective. We have no one we could identify with; we clearly see the faces of some of the victims. There is no heroic music or attempt to create suspense. In the final analysis, bin Laden’s corpse is worth less than the recovered data carriers and printed documents. Information is more valuable than human life, as is made apparent by the environment in which Maya operates through most of the film, constantly surrounded by monitors, stacks of paper and data media. The greatest cultural experience for her is watching a giant screen with a satellite image of the terrorist’s supposed hideout, as if she is viewing a video-art installation in a gallery. ___ The film caused an uproar in the United States due to its alleged defence of the use of torture. However, I consider viewing Zero Dark Thirty as a fictionalisation of the rightful revenge for 9/11 to be evidence of viewers’ extraordinary insensitivity to the film’s means of expression. The torture depicted in the film does not take the form of a glowing attraction for viewers, but is rather reminiscent of an unpleasant horror film in which the camera at one point forces us to take on the victim’s point of view. It is not waterboarding that gets the person being interrogated to provide the required information, but only a “human” dialogue around a table and a shared meal. As I have mentioned previously, coercive methods are not justified even if they lead to clear findings, as they rely on uncertainty until the end. Throughout the film, we are confronted with the question (and encouraged to ask it ourselves) of whether it was all worth the wrongs committed. The film doesn’t give us an answer, but it is sufficiently political (despite the director's declarations of apolitical intentions) due to the fact that it doesn’t present the story of the elimination of America’s nemesis in the form of a genre shooter, which would have offered some feeling of satisfaction. By that, I don’t mean to call into question the film’s exceptional level of craftsmanship, which cannot be denied, whether we are talking about the cinematography, sound or editing. ___ For those who can appreciate a film that is engaging despite how inaccessible it is to viewers (or perhaps it’s engaging because of how inaccessible it is), Zero Dark Thirty is the best thing to come out of Hollywood last year. 90%
()
(menos)
(más)
"The ultra-professional result may be easier to respect than enjoy," said Peter Debruge in his review for “Variety” and I couldn’t agree more. The process that lead to the discovery of the hideout of Osama bin Laden and his killing is very well portrayed, with Jessica Chastain as a “tough” agent, cold and emotionless. It must have been the only way to film this story so shortly after the events, without turning it into dumb propaganda or, on the contrary, a silly anti-American conspiracy. Thumbs up, for sure, but did I enjoy it? No. It’s still a three-hour long borefest in the desert rather than a gripping war movie.
()
I understand that getting Osama was mostly due to lengthy bureaucracy combined with refreshing waterboarding, but the first hour of this film is the pure essence of boredom. It only begins to pick up after the attack on the base in Afghanistan, only to culminate in the final bit of action, which is something so precisely and coldly filmed that the director's craft is bewildering; anyway, we won't know for a few years whether this film came too soon or too late. 3 ½.
()
I have a minor issue with Kathryn Bigelow in this movie; in comparison to the genius Hurt Locker, it’s the complete oppositemovie-wise. While The Hurt Locker was pure action with barely any story, Zero Dark Thirty is mostly a story that completely overshadows everything else. It attempts to be such a precisely told Bin Ladin operation that it sometimes forgets that it’s a movie and not a book. That’s exactly why the movie is 157 minutes long and why there’s a couple of moments that were incredibly boring to me. If it weren’t for the last half an hour, I’d be pretty pissed. Luckily, Jessica Chastain was keeping everything on such a strong level that I couldn’t close my eyes throughout the movie; it’d simply be too much of a shame.
()
The losers have a voice and dignity (which we realize when they are completely denied and the film does not turn “eyes"), the winners are not here - only strange marked beings without intimacy and pleasure, lonely technocrats who approve to any sort of crap, but it breaks them down when someone shoots their favorite monkeys. One of the American critics wrote that this procedural view of "the administration of justice" is amoral and came, like Greengrass' Flight 93, too soon. I say: just in time. Maybe one day we will see a film where everything will be given with clear moral values, the good will be good and the bad will be bad. This will be the story of the winners. Zero Dark Thirty is a story of lost and abandoned people, which can be interpreted as admiration for the performance of the bureaucratic machinery of the secret services, but rather offers the interpretation that Bigelow has made another bold film about stigmatized individuals who "move history".
()
The perspective of one of the workaholic cogs in an overseas bureaucratic machine for the search for a "symbol of all evil" - a.k.a., a procedural drama in the purest possible form. As interesting and detailed as it is, it's also cold, audience-unfriendly, and requires more than a cursory knowledge of the events. The first, office hour is significantly better than the second, which for logical reasons was fundamentally reworked from the original concept. There is no propaganda, and the Allies come out no better than "the bad guys," but nevertheless if a (much) longer time had elapsed since these events, it would have been better.
()
In the same spirit as The Hurt Locker. When possible, it is impersonal, cold, and always absolutely precise; while in crucial moments it is deadly to the point that my teeth almost chatter. I wanted to deliberately undermine Kathryn Bigelow in my review for the fact that, with its running time, documentary storytelling style, and barely glimpsed characters, it remains constantly unappealing to the average viewer. But it simply can't be done. Faced with the perfect Mark Strong and a six-star finale, there is nothing left but to salute the quiet and unnoticed ZD30.
()
I understand that September 11th was a huge shock for the United States and shook the confidence of a superpower, something that the Soviet Union was unable to do throughout the entire Cold War. I understand the need to come to terms with the execution of the mastermind of the attack through artistic means, and I also understand the power of symbols. However, I was surprised by the flood of awards from festivals. To be clear, it is somewhat of an art to make a chase for the world's most wanted terrorist so boring, unengaging, and tedious. It is almost incomprehensible that even scenes of torture or assassinations are emotionally empty, no passage is able to draw the viewer into the game, and everything is mechanical, cold, and flat. The presence of acting stars does not help at all, as this directorial style could easily be utilized by unknown second-rate actors and the result would be the same. I do not understand the superlatives regarding the final action. Perhaps it is worth mentioning that alongside the ridiculously drawn-out footage, the film is harmed most by the minimal distance from the events. It is evident from what is portrayed that the creators, just like American institutions, have not understood the truth about Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda has never been a vertically built, centrally controlled organization with a strong leader at the helm. It is more like an "international workers' movement," a community of people united by Islamist ideologies and drawing strength from the conservative environment of Islamic society. Osama was important for the Western world, not for his fellow believers, and at the time of his execution, he was long gone from the game. Overall impression: 35%.
()
It doesn’t have the balls of The Hurt Locker, but it’s much more interesting. Immediately having left the nest, Maya the Honey Bee is entrusted with the job to find the bearded villain who knocked down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center. Maya was looked for him, grumbling that she’s lacks the means, then she found him and sent a team to take him out. A tear was shed. The End. I hope I haven’t spoiled the ending for you with this SPOILER that they got Bin Laden. :) Jessica Chastain was the energetic powerhouse of the entire movie, even with her one-dimensional character who lives for work alone, and she continues on and up in her career development. As for the other members of the actors’ ensemble, the awesome Jason Clarke is No. 1 in this picture, winning over the audience with his interrogation at the beginning. Mark Strong rocks again, his entry is one of the most memorable scenes of the movie. Kathryn Bigelow managed everything she had to, but as a whole it’s too long and spends a long time beating about the bush. I know that this was how it really happened, but it harms the story. Otherwise decent work, nothing more. It's cool, that you're strong and I respect it, I do. But in the end, everybody breaks, bro. It's biology.
()
Slow yet captivating filmmaking with precisely portrayed war conflict realities and fantastic characters, especially Jessica Chastain, who was born for agent roles. She already delivered an excellent performance in The Debt – also an outstanding film – and her tour de force continues here in full splendor. It is interesting that Kathryn Bigelow is capable of directing far grittier and rawer films than most of her male counterparts – at least when it comes to big-budget productions. Zero Dark Thirty is a cold, refined affair that knows exactly what it wants to say and how, where symbolism alone is enough and where uncompromising action is needed, which has no equal in terms of realism – I am primarily referring to the final raid, which is truly brilliant. It is admittedly too long, but dense, highly watchable, and being that it’s based on true events amplifies the overall experience. An urgent film without a message that will become a legend, mainly because of its authentic depiction of modern warfare.
()
I have my own thoughts about the hunt for Osama and especially its "successful conclusion". There are still many question marks around the whole famous tracking down, shooting and "burying" in the sea, so I was hoping that there would be some question marks in the film. There weren’t. It wasn't made by Oliver Stone. Instead, the result is a two and a half hour long and sometimes really boring American propaganda film that relies on good acting, Desplat's music and the fact that when the viewer sees the final, very well shot action, he will forgive a lot. To be honest, I give not the originally intended two, but three stars for these pros. But I'm definitely not happy. I like Kathryn Bigelow's previous film, which I was also not impressed with, a bit more.__P.S. What would the ending have to be in Zero Dark Thirty for me to give it one more star? Agent Maya approaches the body bag, unzips it, one of the soldiers asks her if it's bin Laden, Maya doesn't answer. Blackout, end credits. Then I'd be much happier.
()
Jessica Chastain is without a doubt the hottest redhead in Hollywood, and it can’t be denied that Kathryn Bigelow knows how to make emotionally sober films that faithfully map political and war themes. But Zero Dark Thirty is 150 minutes long, and the first 120 minutes are so elementary, documentary-like and detached in their attempt to portray the fate of a single woman during the systematic hunt for the greatest modern criminal that we sometimes wonder if a mistake has been made somewhere and the viewer is not the criminal – we do get an uncompromising opening and a successful establishment of atmosphere, but the script is incredibly monotonous, cumbersome and only brought out of its lethargy by the placement of a few bombs throughout the nine-year plot cycle. Fortunately, a bit more action and a bit of directorial inventiveness come into play at the end, making the whole attack on Osama's fortress a very resonant video game experience, and the final shot of the heroic agent's exhausted face vehemently tries to convince me that the overblown footage and monotony were meant to serve as a symbolic depiction of a haunting and long-suffering labour sacrifice – but to no avail. 60%
()
Oh, and us formalists are bothered that the movie isn't "realistic" and instead sticks to some of the conventions of classical storytelling. I just can't forgive Bigelow for the five shots of a single helicopter explosion. No, but seriously. The problem with Zero Dark Thirty is that it shatters its attempt at obsessive and documentary-style dispensing of information without regard for the viewer with the director's ill-concealed sympathy for the protagonist (that cliché of the woman in a man's world is unfortunately unavoidable here, when I was hoping for the opposite) and its thoughtfully controversial balancing of the debatable aspects of the whole situation. Indeed, as much as the first fierce torture lesson plays into the hands of those opposed to American integration, the later frustration of the protagonist's lack of information due to the ban on waterboarding has the opposite effect because we're already necessarily sympathetic to the character in some way. That is, what, for example, Fincher managed to avoid in Zodiac, or Padilha in his breezily fascist Elite Squad. Moreover, the viewer develops a relationship with the main character practically only through her aggressiveness, which consists of using vulgarity at a completely unexpected moment. However, the systematic brilliance of the ending (I'm convinced that the entire final scene in the villa is shot without any added lighting) and the provocative lack of pandering (the bus explosion) is impressive.
()
Kathryn Bigelow is definitely not my favorite director, but I couldn't miss this incredibly praised film that was nominated for 5 Oscars. We'll see if the director enjoys the same success as she did three years ago with "Death Waits Everywhere." Two films about important historical events in the United States were featured at the Oscars. I saw both of these films in relatively quick succession. The first was, of course, "Lincoln," which captivated me with its performances. Otherwise, the film doesn't excel in any way, providing a fairly accurate and boring depiction of history and events that marked a major turning point for the world. "Zero Dark Thirty" is the second film that delves into history, but not into history of a distant past. On September 11, 2001, a dark chapter of American history began, which was supposed to end on May 2, 2011. It was on this day that Osama bin Laden was killed. I don't know if his death truly marked the end of anything, but it was the death of a symbol forever associated with the fall of four hijacked planes. Kathryn Bigelow and her team decided not to make a film about the Twin Towers anymore, since the film "United 93" would be hard to surpass, but they decided to focus on the events that followed. The almost decade-long hunt for the greatest terrorist of all time - at least as he is portrayed - ultimately led to success. Osama bin Laden is dead, the world hasn't changed, but Americans are satisfied. At least some of them are. Maya is a CIA officer who has been focused on finding bin Laden since September 11. It becomes her obsession, and she is willing to do anything to find him. She doesn't realize that it doesn't actually solve anything, but as I said, it's her obsession. First, we see her struggling with torture, but then she becomes the one capable of torturing. Her development is fairly logical, although not without emotions. You watch as she becomes a rather empty person who is driven by a single goal. She doesn't mind that she almost gets killed; she continues on to ultimately stand over the corpse of the most wanted man. The film is very patriotic, at times pathetic, but definitely not as much as "Lincoln." Kathryn Bigelow knows the right measure, and she is also a damn good director. She has perfectly timed moments to strike. The first is the torture scene, right at the beginning, scenes that were heavily criticized for actually suggesting what Americans are capable of doing to obtain information. Of course, Americans have never tortured anyone, and there were no videos on the internet about it. The second is the explosion scene at the moment when negotiation was supposed to take place. Finally, it's the final half-hour, a perfectly captured military action during which Osama was captured. Kathryn cannot be accused of being a bad director, because she simply isn't. However, she was not nominated, whereas Steven Spielberg was. Is there justice? No, but there is patriotism, and Lincoln is an icon, and Spielberg as well. Let him have it. I'm not captivated by "Zero Dark Thirty," but I definitely think it's a better film overall than "Lincoln." More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2013/02/now-is-good-stand-up-guys-bourne-30.html
()
(menos)
(más)
Kathryn Bigelow is an accomplished director and has the craft down pat, but I'm afraid this one got a little out of hand. Unlike the picture The Hurt Locker there was significantly less tension, and the overlong running time didn't help either. I was unpleasantly surprised that the final military engagement that everything was leading up to rather lacked drama too. However, I would like to praise Desplat's music, it improved some scenes a lot. (60%)
()