Hard to describe this film concisely. Fascinating. Haunting. Mesmerizing. Troubling. Compelling. Sobering. Language is horrific so I really can’t recommend it, per se. Still, I’m glad I went. The story’s important. All the more because it’s true. (trailer)

This fall I read No Easy Day: The Firsthand Account of the Mission That Killed Osama Bin Laden by Mark Owen (one of the Seal Team Six members that killed UBL). I also read Manhunt: The Ten-Year Search for Bin Laden–from 9/11 to Abbottabad (by CNN’s Peter Bergen, one of the only American reporters ever to interview UBL). Both were fascinating stories about the tracking/killing of UBL, but Manhunt is the much better, detailed and intriguing of the two. The factual context and background helped, for me, to fill so many details missing from the movie.  

Not going to get into all the controversies surrounding the movie right now. Just want to say I’m grateful for all the men & women in our intelligence agencies and in our military who keep us safe. God bless you.

For more on this movie, and the controversy:

• Magazine story: Inside Mark Boal’s and Kathryn Bigelow’s Mad Dash to Make Zero Dark Thirty
• Democrat Senator Diane Feinstein — chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee — calls film “grossly inaccurate and misleading” re: torture and the hunt for UBL
• Bipartisan group of U.S. Senators sends letter to Sony Pictures about “factually inaccurate” film
• Acting CIA Director Disputes ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Accuracy in Rare Public Statement