Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as Film-Noir

Zero Dark Thirty (2012) as Film-Noir

I absolutely loved the movie Zero Dark Thirty (2012), although we call Oh dark thirty when I was in the Army. Jessica Chastain was amazing in the role of Maya. Around the time I watched the movie Zero Dark Thirty (2012). I was taking the TCM sponsored “Into the Darkness: Investigating Film-Noir” by Richard L. Edwards, Ph.D., Ball State University. I kept getting the feeling that something was similar to what I was studying and this movie.

Using the seven elements described by Dr. Edwards, I will look at Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and determine which elements work and which do not. In the end, I will make a determination whether this film should be classified as a modern Film-Noir or Neo-Noir.

Element 1 – Postwar anxiety and societal malaise; I would have to say threat the September 11, 2010 destruction of the World Trade Center let the country with a feeling of postwar anxiety that continued even though we quickly entered a couple of more wares.

Element 2 – Guilt and dread; All of the agents, including Maya have some degree of guilty even if they have become callous to the torture. The excessive drink alludes to the personal demons that each is dealing with. 

Element 3 – Psychoanalysis and trauma; Certainly, Maya was traumatized by the attack on our country and by the continued death of her friends.

Element 4 – Criminality and the limits of rational investigation; To investigate the actions of the terrorist, Maya, and her group were pushed inside of the darker side of humanity using sadistic torture.

Element 5 – Existential despair; All of the agents and soldiers are consumed with the fact that they might not be able to stop the next attack against America. 

Element 6 – The inability to separate truth from lies; They know that it is hard to separate the truth from a lie when the subject is tortured. This problem also comes when they are unable to tell if the political bureaucracy is dealing truthfully with them as well. 

Element 7 – The role of women in postwar society; This is perhaps the easiest of all to reconcile. Women have been present in military activities basically from the beginning of recorded history. Generally speaking, the role of women in the US military has not been related to direct killing. Women have only been allowed in all combat arms fields, including flying fighters, in the last five years and as of this writing, women have only earned a ranger tab within the last year.

Maya in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) stands this female exclusion on their heads. She not only participates in torture sessions, but she is also the driving force behind the search and ultimately death of the 911 attack leader. When others (male) people had moved on she continued to focus on killing the people that killed her friend.

In conclusion, this movie has all of the seven classic elements of a Film-Noir or in this case a Neo-Noir, and it should take its place with Chinatown (1974) and the other Neos.