20 Spy Movies You Must See Before You Die
7. Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Kathryn Bigelow became the first and only woman to receive an Oscar for Best Director for her war on terror masterpiece, Zero Dark Thirty, when she beat her ex-husband James Cameron to the award in 2013. Rightly so: Zero Dark Thirty is a long, difficult and punishing film, but it's so packed with ideas about the world, ethics, and the human condition that its status as a modern classic is undeniable.
Besides, Zero Dark Thirty, with its plot about one woman's obsessive hunt for Osama bin Laden, was never suppose to be a "fun' watch. Indeed, Bigelow touches on all manner of uncomfortable subjects - the film's waterboarding scenes, for example, proved highly controversial - as Jessica Chastain's broken protagonist, Maya, spends every waking minute in pursuit of a seemingly impossible goal.
For many, the film was an eye-opener, given that so much of Zero Dark Thirty's content had never been rendered on screen in vivid detail. Suddenly here was everything we weren't meant to see, all in plain sight: the bombings, the torture, the raid on Bin Laden's compound in the movie's unforgettable final scene...
What we remember most is the ending... Maya, her quest finally completed, breaking down into floods of tears. The biggest compliment to Bigelow's film is that we understand. We feel like we've been through hell with her.