Zero Dark Thirty

First Hit:  An impactful, single focus, no nonsense story about how Osama bin Laden was killed.

This film is about one subject and one subject only – the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden (OBL).

There are no real subplots in this film which meant that we follow one storyline from beginning to end. To do this, the writing, characters and acting have to be clear, focused and crisp. This film does all this in spades.

We follow Maya (played by Jessica Chastain) from when she arrives in Afghanistan, about 10 years of interviewing, analyzing, and searching until she identifies and verifies, to the US Government, that OBL as dead. The in office Presidents are heard on occasion in the background but only as place markers in time and to spout policy and precedents.

We join her as she gets her first indoctrination into the torturing of prisoners to get information. Then we follow her as she digs up small leads and puts pieces of the puzzle together and with her unqualified belief, she finds OBL’s hiding place. There have been questions about the showing of torture and even more questions about if the US Government tortures people.

Nothing I saw on film is beyond the ability of our government. I know our government likes to think we treat prisoners fairly, but frankly I don’t believe it. Although I never saw waterboarding, I’ve seen some pretty terrible treatment of the enemy while in Vietnam and I’m sure it is worse today.

Chastain is sublime in her role. There is nothing else in her mind except finding Osama bin Laden. Although her face is extraordinarily beautiful she doesn’t draw attention to her beauty. All the audience focuses on is her driven single-mindedness and the story. Jason Clarke plays Dan her boss when she first gets this job, and he is outstanding in intensity and drive. Mark Boal wrote a great screenplay. Kathryn Bigelow’s direction was amazing and easily on par with her Oscar direction of “The Hurt Locker”.

Overall: Amazingly detailed film with a single focus.

Lincoln

First Hit:  Fantastic acting in a wonderful slice of Americana.

I was overwhelmingly amused that we had just finished an election where the Republican Party devastatingly lost its credibility and mojo while this film showed Republicans at their finest.

Make no bones about it; Lincoln’s Co-Republican group were what drove the 13th Amendment into the law of the land while Democrats floundered in a generic stupidity of beliefs. Who learned from this lesson – the Democrats and it was the Democrats that brought our first black President back for a second term.

In Lincoln the focus is on a short few months from when he was elected to a second term until his assassination. Lincoln’s task was to ensure the freedom of blacks in America before the ending of the Civil War.

His premise was that if the war ended prior to passing the 13th Amendment, this law would fall by the wayside and blacks wouldn’t have their deserved freedom. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln as a thoughtful complex intelligent man whose single-minded focus kept the Republican dream alive.

He cared not so much for what was on the outside, but what was in a person's heart and what was right. Wife Mary (played by Sally Field) was, in this time of her life, grief stricken by the loss of one of their sons and despite her strength and intelligence was prone to fits of despair over loss. 

Day-Lewis is extraordinary and will certainly get an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Lincoln. He embodied the drive to create equality for the blacks in America. Field was strangely complex and powerful in her role as Marry Todd Lincoln. David Strathairn was pointedly strong and loyal as William Seward, Secretary of State. Tommy Lee Jones was amazing and perfect as Thaddeus Stevens the long time proponent of the 13th Amendment. Jackie Earle Haley was great as Alexander Stevens the Southern States representative during negotiations with Lincoln. Tony Kushner wrote a powerful and compelling screenplay while Steven Spielberg delivered a Oscar worthy turn as director.

Overall: If Republicans want to get their mojo back they need to watch and learn from this film – the Democrats obviously learned through history.