Zero Dark Thirty

In many ways, war today isn't too different from what people usually imagine when they think of the Cold War-- espionage, intelligence operatives, interrogating prisoners, CIA agents working in the field to find military targets. War in the world of terrorism has become a completely different animal from traditional warfare. It isn't about standing armies going toe to toe with each other on a battlefield anymore. In Zero Dark Thirty, the entire first two hours of the movie goes without seeing any soldiers fighting. All of that time, around a decade, is spent trying to find one person. Since the movie spans such a long time, the viewers get to see how intelligence gathering changes as the political world changes. Within the first fifteen minutes of the film is a striking torture scene. What we see the most throughout the film is CIA agents struggling to get a hold of Osama Bin Laden--or even just people working for him. This isn't a war of military mights clashing against each other like it was in the past. It is a war of intelligence, on foreign land, and in densely populated areas. One interesting thing about the change in information gathering methods depicted in the film is that, since it is shown mostly following one CIA agent, the viewer is given a real sense of the frustration involved with having their methods being restricted, even if those methods were terrible and unethical. In the end, they are forced to go on what equates to a hunch of Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts and send a covert team, "canaries," to see whether he was really there or not. What's striking about this mission (in comparison to what we've seen of war previously in the course) is how precise and thorough the team is. They have stealth helicopters, silenced rifles, night-vision goggles, the works. It really shows just how much the U.S. has put into being efficient with warfare, for better or worse.