Zero Dark Thirty

From the very first scenes of " Zero Dark Thirty ," director Kathryn Bigelow demonstrates why she is such a formidable filmmaker, as adept with human emotion as with visceral, pulse-quickening action. Starting with an opening sequence that consists of a blank screen and an audio track of the anguished 911 calls of people caught in the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001 , Bigelow cuts unceremoniously to a squalid prison two years later, where a CIA official is mercilessly torturing a detainee.

Will "Zero Dark Thirty" be Swift-boated out of an Oscar? That's just one of the questions swirling around what observers agree has been the most political Academy Award season in recent memory — not just the movies themselves, but the tactics used to undermine their legitimacy for cinema's top prize. In early December, " Zero Dark Thirty ," Kathryn Bigelow's taut, masterfully executed thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, looked like an unassailable Oscar front-runner, winning a clutch of glowing reviews and...

Screenwriter Mark Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow were talking about their new movie, "Zero Dark Thirty," and they were at a loss for words for what genre it belongs to. "Interpretive journalism?" Yuck. "Docu-drama," Boal suggested. "That term is so reductive," Bigelow countered. "But in a sense, so is taking a urinal and saying, ‘This is art,' " he said. "That's ‘found art,' " Bigelow replied, casting her vote for the term "reported film. " " ‘Reported film' is like ‘found...

W hether " Argo " succeeds in snagging the best picture Oscar away from " Lincoln " at the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday or Emmanuelle Riva becomes the oldest best actress honoree by beating presumed front-runner Jennifer Lawrence, one thing will be clear: When it comes to movies, audiences were the big winners in 2012. Many of the films widely acknowledged to be the year's best are competing Sunday, including "Lincoln," " Zero Dark Thirty ," " Silver Linings Playbook ," ...

Depictions of waterboarding in a new movie about the manhunt for Osama bin Laden are "grossly inaccurate and misleading" and the film's producers should make clear to viewers that the production is a dramatization of actual events, three senior senators said late Wednesday. The movie "Zero Dark Thirty," which was released in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, dramatically depicts efforts over the past decade to capture and kill the al-Qaeda leader. Producers describe the film as "an exciting...

In his Jan. 6 Outlook commentary, "Sorry, Hollywood. What we did wasn't torture," Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. stated, "Inevitably, films like ["Zero Dark Thirty"] come to be seen . . . as a sort of proxy for reality. Even those who should know better get caught up in false arguments, debating, for example, ‘Can torture (as shown in the film) be justified?,' rather than ‘Are harsh but legal measures (as not shown in the film) sometimes necessary?' " Lest this statement also be taken as a...

Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. is a 31-year veteran of the CIA. He is the author of "Hard Measures: How Aggressive CIA Actions After 9/11 Saved American Lives," written with former CIA spokesman Bill Harlow, who also contributed to this essay. It is an odd experience to enter a darkened room and, for more than 2 1 / 2 hours, watch someone tell a story that you experienced intimately in your own life. But that is what happened recently as I sat in a movie theater near Times Square and...

The CIA on Friday said that a Hollywood movie portraying the hunt for Osama bin Laden "departs from reality" in significant ways, and emphasized that despite assistance it provided to the filmmakers, the agency had no control over the final product. In an unusual letter to CIA employees, acting Director Michael Morell said that the highly anticipated film, "Zero Dark Thirty," leads viewers to believe that a "few individuals" were behind the hunt for the al-Qaeda...

The Oscar ceremony on Feb. 24 may be Hollywood's time for self-celebration. But this year at least, it will be Washington's night to shine. Thursday's Academy Award nominations announcement presented a veritable hymn to the nation's capital, from the 12 nominations for " Lincoln ," Steven Spielberg's chronicle of the 16th president bullying the 13th Amendment through a fractious Congress, and Ben Affleck's " Argo" (seven nominations),...

PG-13 Amour.  Only the most sophisticated high-schoolers will be able to handle this quietly magnificent film because of the subject matter — growing old and disabled and dying. If they also happen to be interested in film acting of the highest order, they'll be transfixed by co-stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, who are so believable as an elderly couple that you never feel anyone is "acting" at all. The PG-13 rating...

Deputy Labor Secretary Seth Harris was named acting secretary last month after Hilda Solis stepped down. Now, some Labor Department employees are wondering whether Harris has designs on ditching the "acting" from his title and getting the White House nod for the big job. So far, his name isn't among those most often mentioned for the nomination — but Harris, a former law professor who served in the department during the ...

As the calendar page turns to 2013, the question on movie-lovers' minds is: How can it possibly top 2012? Fans and industry observers alike agree that last year represented a high-water mark for the art and business of cinema. A healthy box office was matched by a cheering increase in attendance, suggesting that filmgoers haven't given up entirely on pausing their downloads, getting off the couch and going to a theater to watch a motion picture. The consistently high quality of movies, from serious dramas such as ...

PG-13 Quartet.  Fine for most teens, but unlikely to interest many, "Quartet" paints a charming portrait of four faded opera stars living in an English country mansion. The arrival of grande dame Jean Horton, a famed soprano, causes ripples at the home. Her long-ago ex-husband, Reginald, doesn't want her there, as she broke his heart. His pal Wilf urges reconciliation, though he still chases the ladies himself. Their friend Cecily had a lesser career than Jean's and...

I can't remember a time when Uncle Sam was so Hollywood. I'm a film fan, so I know the feds are regulars on the big screen. But government service had an interesting profile in this past year in films that received top nominations for both the Golden Globes and the Oscars. "Argo" and "Zero Dark Thirty" attest to the incredible and dangerous work of the intelligence community, Foreign Service and military. And if you're interested in such a career, you can go to the movies and at least get a Hollywood...

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. " — Col. Nathan Jessep to Lt. Daniel Kaffee "A Few Good Men" (1992) "You," said Jack Nicholson's Jessep to Tom Cruise's Kaffee, "have the luxury of not knowing what I know. " Viewers of the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" will, according to some informed persons, lose the luxury of not knowing...

In his Jan. 6 Outlook commentary, "Sorry, Hollywood. What we did wasn't torture," Jose A. Rodriguez Jr. stated, "Inevitably, films like ["Zero Dark Thirty"] come to be seen . . . as a sort of proxy for reality. Even those who should know better get caught up in false arguments, debating, for example, ‘Can torture (as shown in the film) be justified?,' rather than ‘Are harsh but legal measures (as not shown in the film) sometimes necessary?' " Lest this statement also be taken as a proxy for...

Will "Zero Dark Thirty" be Swift-boated out of an Oscar? That's just one of the questions swirling around what observers agree has been the most political Academy Award season in recent memory — not just the movies themselves, but the tactics used to undermine their legitimacy for cinema's top prize. In early December, " Zero Dark Thirty ," Kathryn Bigelow's taut, masterfully executed thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, looked like an unassailable Oscar front-runner, winning a clutch of glowing reviews and...

"I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. " — Col. Nathan Jessep to Lt. Daniel Kaffee "A Few Good Men" (1992) "You," said Jack Nicholson's Jessep to Tom Cruise's Kaffee, "have the luxury of not knowing what I know. " Viewers of the movie "Zero Dark Thirty" will, according to some informed persons, lose the luxury of not knowing about...

PG-13 Amour.  Only the most sophisticated high-schoolers will be able to handle this quietly magnificent film because of the subject matter — growing old and disabled and dying. If they also happen to be interested in film acting of the highest order, they'll be transfixed by co-stars Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, who are so believable as an elderly couple that you never feel anyone is "acting" at all. The PG-13 rating notwithstanding, the pace...