Zero Dark Thirty

The way that war was portrayed in Zero Dark Thirty was completely different than in Apocalypse Now and any of the other works that we have studied. They did not portray the enemy as lesser than them, quite contrary to that actually, they were extremely intelligent and developed. They had to use many forces to get to Bin Laden and he had covered every possible way of being caught that he could. Also, the way that the war itself was portrayed was completely different. They showed it to be a lot more purposeful and not just going in and invading without a direct target. War itself has changed not only because of technology but since we are not at war with a definite country, instead a particular group of people, it is crucial to be make informed decisions when making attacks to not give a reason to start a larger war. Another major difference is the amount of information that is needed to defeat the enemy has a completely different base than in past wars; it is not enough to just know the land and have good attack techniques but they need to be able to track people's every move for extended periods of times. They have to be able to see what they purchase and consume, who they talk to, where they go and how, the layout of where they live and basically anything else that can be any indication on how and who to attack. Also, the fact that a woman was the one who was basically calling the shots is completely different than anything else that we have studied. War has always basically been an unspoken boys club but now this portrays an America that is finally allowing gender boundaries to be erased because the woman doesn't just loose her mind at the first encounter with war like the prior woman brought up in stories.