Why Zero Dark Thirty is watchable - and why it won few awards

If you missed Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty on screen it's definitely still worth watching on DVD, maybe better on DVD. I was daunted by two things: the length (2.5+ hours!,) and the torture. Watching at home, with short break for T, the length was not an issue - we were totally captivated by the fast-paced, focused, dramatic narrative - kudos to M. Boal (?) for fine screenplay. The torture, which all occurs near the beginning of the film, is difficult to watch, as it's meant to be, but important, essential for the context of the whole movie - not at all gratuitous or overdone. All of us have seen various forms of torture on film by now, so it's no longer terribly shocking to see torture presented graphically (sometimes it's revolting, however). What's really different about the torture in ZD30 is that it's perhaps the only time where your sympathies are in doubt: other torture scenes (coming to mind quickly: Reservoir Dogs, the McCain biopic, Deer Hunter, to cite three very different ones) we are completely in sympathy with the victim. Here, we know the victim is a cold-hearted terrorist partly responsible for thousands of deaths, and the torturer (Jason Clarke) is working to save American (and other) lives. All true. And yet - what he's doing to the man is so against our national principles and values that we are aghast and hate him for it. Our feelings are shared by the new CIA agent on scene, Jessica Chastain (Maya) - she is our entree into the narrative. She too is appalled -but she's part of it, it's her job. Gradually, she figures out how to extract info without direct violence (though the threat of violence is always there - part of the equation); then the film moves on to its second phase, which is using the evidence to track down OBL or UBL as they call him, and finally to persuading the reluctant bureaucracy to move on the evidence. Chastain, in her single-mindedness and passion, is like an avatar of C. Danes in Homeland - in fact, that probably didn't help ZD30's chances at major awards - it felt a little like we've already spent 13 episodes with this character. Alos, ZD30, which won only a single Oscar I think, was hurt by the obvious comparisons with the similar but more likable Argo, which was tighter in construction, more unusual in topic, and had great sense of comedy as well as danger. ZD30 apparently based on real accounts of those who caught and killed OBL, and Maya apparently a composite of several people. Really engaging movie to watch, but it does lose a bit of its edge toward the end - the attack on the compound - because we are so certain of and familiar with these events and the results.