Zero Dark Thirty Review

An edited version of this article first appeared on January 19th 2013 in page 26 of  Saturday Nation

Barely a year and a half after the capture and killing of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, a movie depicting the decade long mission to capture him has caused uproar from different factions of the American government, anti-government groups and human rights activists.

The movie,  Dark Zero Thirty directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal, follows the journey of a CIA team that dedicated years to following every little detail and clue that could lead to a possible capture of the world’s most wanted and feared villain.

The movie’s plot commences in 2003 when C.I.A officer Maya (Jessica Chastain) is sent to the American embassy in Pakistan to work with a fellow agent Dan (Jason Clarke). The two spend the first few months trying to get information from Ammar, a detained terrorist. Dan, a cold ruthless man who prefers monkeys to people as friends, uses torture and humiliation to get information from Ammar who despite his suffering remains quiet. Eventually they trick him to giving up the name of Abu Ahmed; an alias used by an old acquaintance of Bin Laden’s who was now working as his personal courier.

Dan is reassigned and Maya fixates the next few years of her life on the single task of finding Abu Ahmed. In the process, she survives several blasts and an attack by gun men. Furthermore, she loses numerous friends and colleagues through a suicide bombing. In 2009, a detainee claims that the man identified as Abu Ahmed from a photograph they have is a man he personally buried in 2001. Maya’s seniors conclude that Abu Ahmed is long dead and they’ve wasted years following a dead trail.

Maya remains adamant and some information from Moroccan intelligence leads her on a new theory that Abu Ahmed was actually alive and the photograph they had  been using was that of Abu Ahmed’s brother who had a striking resemblance to him. With the help of Dan who is now in back at the C.I.A headquarters, they are able to locate Abu Ahmed who eventually leads them to Osama’s compound and consequently to the raid and killing of the man with a 25 million dollar bounty on his head on 2^nd may 2011.

The raid scene

Dark Zero Thirty which was released worldwide on 11^th January had to postpone its release scheduled for October last year until after the American elections. This was due to claims that it would serve as a propaganda tool for the Obama campaign team, to who the killing of Bin Laden was a big selling point. The title, Dark zero thirty, is a military term for 30 minutes after midnight. Director Kathryn Bigelow adds that the title is also symbolic to the darkness and secrecy that cloaked the entire decade long mission.

The movie has been a commercial success beating star studded Gangster Squad in ticket sales when they both premiered last weekend. So far, it has raised over $29.5 million as of last weekend and has bugged five Oscar nominations. Most critics have reviewed the movie well with movie review website rotten Tomatoes describing it as “gripping, suspenseful, and brilliantly crafted” and goes on to say “ Zero Dark Thirty dramatizes the hunt for Osama bin Laden with intelligence and an eye for detail.”

However, not everyone gave the movie a good rating. The film has enraged factions of the American people including senators led by John McCain claiming the movie’s producers were given access to classified information by the C.I.A and Obama administration; a claim that the American government has denied.  This forced the acting C.I.A Director to issue a message which in part read “What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts.  CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product.”

The movies off camera drama did not end there. There have been further claims that the movie is pro-torture and that it wrongfully portrays the use of torture as a key tool that was used to acquire information that led to Bin Laden’s capture. 

And it’s not without good cause. The first hour of the two and a half hour long film contains gory, brutal scenes of prisoners being tortured and humiliated. At best, a prisoner is punched around and at worst they are water boarded, stripped, locked in tiny boxes, denied sleep and made to crawl around naked with a dog leash around their neck. Author Greg Mitchell wrote that "the film’s depiction of torture helping to get bin Laden is muddled at best—but the overall impression by the end, for most viewers, probably will be: Yes, torture played a key (if not the key) role."

Author Greg Mitchell

Other critics had less than flattering remarks about the movie. Journalist Michael Wolff slammed the movie as a "nasty piece of pulp and propaganda" and Bigelow as a "fetishist and sadist" for distorting history with a pro-torture viewpoint.

Django Unchained Review

An edited version of this article originally appeared on  the 12th of January 2013 in Saturday Nation under the title 'Fast-moving Django comes calling'.

It’s a good start to the year for Kenyan film lovers and theatre goers as this coming week marks the opening of the much anticipated film “Django Unchained” in several theatres across Nairobi and the country. The movie, termed a spaghetti country film by reviewers, is directed by the controversial and blatant Quentin Tarantino famous for Pulp fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Bastards. The movie has star studded cast consisting of among others Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, Christopher Waltz, Kerry Washington and Leonardo Dicaprio .

Spaghetti western is a term used to refer to a genre that emerged in the 60’s of western themed cowboy movies but directed by Italian film makers hence the name spaghetti. The genre was popularized by directors of the time such as Sergio Leone and Sergio Cobucci. Quentin, known to bring back old genres and recreate them in his odd, off the book style, borrows heavily from this genre and pieces together recreational scenes from his favorite spaghetti westerns.

Django unchained, set in Texas in the 1800’s two years before the American civil war, is not short of performers with the big name appearances introduced gradually as the movie progresses making the audience feel like you are watching different parts of a sequel. This does magic for the plot which is carved cleverly in the usual Quentin Tarantino way to result in over two and a half hours of an emotional involving, action packed journey.

Django and Dr.Schultz

The film is the story of Django a slave who is freed by Dr. King Schultz played by Christopher Waltz, a dentist turned bounty hunter. Dr.Schultz needs Django to identify the Brittle brothers, criminals he intends to kill for a reward. After freeing Django from the Speck brothers, slave merchants who had purchased him, the two agree on a deal. Django would assist the witty, smart talking German doctor catch the Brittle brothers and in return the doctor would give him his freedom, a horse and seventy five dollars.

They set on the journey and soon find the Brittle brothers and kill them. On their journey, Django and the doctor get to talking and Django reveals that he has wife Broomhilda, played by the enchanting Kerry Washington, who was sold separately and that he intends to go save her. Dr. Schultz moved by the story which he relates to a German fairy tale and feeling responsible for his freed being, agrees to help only if Django would in turn help him catch more bounties through the winter.

Another deal is struck and the duo spends the winter killing all sorts of criminals. Dr. Schultz teaches Django how to target shoot, read and mannerisms of a gentleman. After a long, cold and profitable winter, the duo sets out to Mississippi to rescue Broomhilda. 

This, however, is where the story gets interesting. BroomHilda is owned by Mr. Calvin Candie a seasoned slaver and farmer who owns Candie land; the 4^th biggest cotton plantation in the region and every salves nightmare. Mr. Candie, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is a spoilt, charming and brutal man who fancies watching his slaves fight each other to the death. Django and Dr. Schultz have to outplay the cunning Mr.Candie who is supported by his over-enthusiastic, over-suspicious and over indulgent head slave Steven played by Samuel L. Jackson.

Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie

Over all the movie is a classic but it does not come short of the usual Quentin Tarantino over the top signatures. There is over use of obscenities and some scenes are a bit gory and distasteful. The bloody scenes just like in Kill Bill and Inglorious Bustards are a little over bloody and even those are marred with more obscenities.

 In one scene, a slave is brutally torn apart by a pack of dogs and the racial comments and slurs are sometimes pushed to the limit. Leonardo Dicaprio in a recent interview admitted "This was one of the most narcissistic, self-indulgent, racist, most despicable characters I've ever read in my entire life." 

However, the long dialogue scenes are laden with wit and clever talk and when they are not sharing their intelligent and sometimes not so intelligent ideas, action is well catered for. The action is bound to keep you at the edge of your sit. Explosions, guns and human eating dogs included. The characters give the movie their all and you can see them enjoying their roles. Slavery and racism, a sensitive topic, is given a light and humorous approach and one ku klax clan scene will especially get your ribs cracking.

Quentin Tarantino

Like all other Quentin Tarantio movies, Django Unchained, barely a month after its release has not escaped controversy.  Slavery-era action figures of the movies main characters, on sale online are raising questions about whether they're appropriate. Outraged Los Angeles black community leaders called them “A slap in the face of our ancestors”. The leaders feel that it trivializes the era of slavery.

Nonetheless, the movie, which had an estimated budget of 100 million dollars has already raised over 106 million dollars in theaters alone so far and has been nominated for five golden globe awards. There is talk of the three main characters getting Oscar nominations for their roles. 

January is a somber, long and slow month for many but Django Unchained is a movie to take your mind off things albeit for just a few hours. And it being an economical month, the over two and a half hours that the movie runs is definitely a good bargain and one that is worth you money. Go watch this movie.

A summary of Kenyan box office performance in 2012

An edited version of this article first appeared on Saturday Nation on the 5th of January 2013 under the title 'Thriller, action movies top the local box office'.

 Kenyans love action and thriller but strongly dislike horror movies. At least if cinema attendance at Century Cinemax Junction, Starflix Cinemas prestige plaza and IMAX Mama Ngina is anything to go by. The Dark Knight Rises, Avengers, Skyfall and Men in Black 3 topped the most watched list for all three theaters in the past year.

“The best performer for 2012 in terms of attendance for us was The Dark knight rises” Nich Mwole in charge of customer care at Starflix Cinemas in prestige plaza tells me. “The worst performing was Prometheus a science fiction. People do not like horror movies and movies with too much science fiction. They want to see heroes but generally want a movie that’s believable. ” he adds.”This is however different for animations because of children. Our biggest customers are families and most parents will watch what their children want to watch so movies like Ice age 4 and Madagascar 3 also did quite well.”

The dark knight rises

It is no surprise that the Dark Knight Rises directed by Christopher Nolan and released on July 16^th 2012 topped the local charts in cinema attendance. The movie, the final installment in the Batman film trilogy was a worldwide success raising over a billion dollars in the box office alone. The Dark Knight Rises became the second highest grossing superhero film of all time, second highest grossing film of 2012 and the seventh highest grossing film of all time.

The avengers which came second in the local theatres attendance is also no surprise as it topped the 2012 list for highest grossing film in the world, managing to pull in over 1.5 billion at the box office. The film directed by Joss Whedon and distributed by Walt Disney studios boasts of a star studded cast of among others, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson and Samuel L. Jackson. The film premiered in April 2012 and brought back previously popular super heroes Iron man, Captain America, Hulk and Thor to form a team that in the movie, must stop Thor’ evil brother Loki from subjugating earth.

“Skyfall had a huge attendance for us, for the four weeks it ran it attracted over 5,000 people each week.” Charity Wakini the sales manager at IMAX on mama Ngina Street tells me. Skyfall released in October 2012 is the twenty third installment in the James Bond series of films. Skyfall was the first of the James bond movies to cross the 1 billion mark globally and is currently the highest grossing film in the UK as well as the 14^th highest grossing film of all time.

 “Out of the many movies released annually, we select the ones best suited for the Kenyan market and those are mostly action movies” Says Charity. Just like at Century cinemax and Starflix, Dark knight rises and Avengers also topped the list for the most watched movies at IMAX “Other than those, the Hobbit also did well because it’s a family movie and it started showing in December when most people were home.”

Overall, IMAX attracted the most crowds in terms of attendance for the last year owing to the higher quality image in picture “We use 70mm film unlike the standard 35mm used in normal theatres” adds Charity “we also use a silver screen which means our images are sharper and bigger. We sell not so much the movie but the experience which is why movies that are in 3d attract a bigger crowd because you feel like you are part of the movie.”

IMAX too agrees that horror movies and anything not action does not attract people “Our worst performer last year was Under the Sea, a documentary about the environment. Prometheus, Dark shadows and Bourne legacy also did not appeal to the masses for some reason” adds Charity.

In the local film industry, 2012 was also a remarkable year. Nairobi Half Life directed by Tosh Gitonga and starring Joseph Wairimu, broke records to become the most successful theatrical release for a Kenyan film. “In our theatre alone we have had over 10,000 people come to watch the movie” Jayesh Patel the general manger of Century Cinemax at the junction, Ngong road tells me. “At some points we even had to add chairs in the cinema halls to accommodate the crowds.”

The main cast for Nairobi Half life

 

The film which has won several awards locally and internationally has raised over 82,000 dollars in cinema attendance alone according to its distributors. “We have had people of all cultures and walks of life come to watch this movie. I never thought I would ever see a Kenyan film do this well.” Mr.Patel continues. Nairobi Half life which premiered at the start of August 2012 is still showing in the New Year at the Junction. “It still attracts a good crowd and we will continue to show it for as long as there is demand” adds Mr.Patel.

Jayesh Patel brightens up when he speaks of the movies expected to take theatres by storm in 2013 “This year will be good for film, not only will we add a 3D screen here at Cinemax, but there’ll also be great movies to show on it. Iron Man 3 is undoubtedly the most anticipated movie and there’s Hitchcock, Gangster squad, the new J.I.Joe, X men, Django Unchained, Hangover 3, Robocop, Oblivion and of course the return of Superman and Die Hard” he concludes.

“For IMAX the movies we are anticipating are Iron man 3, Jack the giant slayer, OZ the great and powerful and A Good Day to Die Hard” says Charity wakini.

2012 was a great year for film and 2013 promises to be better. Grab your pop corn, a comfy seat and brace yourself for the show.