Zero Dark Thirty

This is the kind of culture we live in. One of selfishness.

I can barely see a spot through the SUVs in the parking lot at the Galleria. Yup, that's the kind of country we live in. One where what I do counts and I'm not even thinking about you. Global warming? Income inequality? The big issues don't matter, I'm entitled to live my life how I want and if someone else suffers, screw 'em.

Kind of like the people inside the theatre. You know, the ones who talk and eat bon-bons from cellophane for forty five minutes in this almost three hour epic. After this chap ate a bag of popcorn and drank a twenty four ounce soda. The rich don't even go to the theatre, they stay at home, they use their connections to get the latest flicks delivered to their private screening rooms. The poor go for release from their horrid lives and overspend for crap that will make the owner rich and themselves obese. And what's left of the middle class stays home. We live in walled gardens. And we like it that way. Because the rest of the world bugs us. We hate people. We want to drive on an empty freeway and fly private in a world...

That's overpopulated with poverty. The shots of Pakistan are horrifying. Empty these citizens from their SUVs and have them mingle in the market of Islamabad. That'll get their neurons firing. And this ain't no "Argo," Hollywood entertainment to make you feel good. As a matter of fact, I now feel horrible, I haven't felt this empty and at loose ends since the "Deer Hunter," back when movies were our primary art form and they could still change the world. Now movies are made to play around the world, they're two-dimensional whiz-bang affairs catering to teenagers and foreigners, and our nation has forgotten that the moving image can change lives and the course of history. Don't get me started on music, the land of imitators doing it to sell tchotchkes to the unwashed, whether it be t-shirts, vodka or perfume. The music is irrelevant. No one's taking a stand, no one's being a leader.

And there's so much to hate about "Zero Dark Thirty." That it was single-handedly financed by Larry Ellison's daughter, what kind of country do we live in where a twentysomething can write a check for $45 million, one in which she inherits $2 billion a few years before, and the issue of torture...did it help us get Osama or not.

I don't know.

Because I'm an ignorant American. A knee-jerk liberal. We should not torture, that's it.

And I stand by that. But I'm open to opposing facts. But my left wing brethren are not. They're excoriating this movie, bloviating about it without seeing it, and you've got to see it, you must see it, IT'S THE MOVIE OF THE YEAR!

Oh, maybe that "Amour" flick is as good, dealing with human emotions, something radically different. But if you were not blown away by "Zero Dark Thirty," you didn't see it. And most people did not. Because of the aforementioned torture issue and the pussification of our country. We're squeamish. We can't handle torture scenes and tension, we prefer comedies. Well let me tell you, life ain't no comedy, it's deadly serious, and there are people laying their lives down so you can live in ignorance.

That's what struck me about this flick. The concept of something being bigger than yourself. We live in a country of me, me, me, everyone refuses to sacrifice. But service is about sacrifice. If you watch "Zero Dark Thirty" and don't contemplate joining the CIA, your heart doesn't beat.

All those Ivy Leaguers going into finance, so they can get rich. Money won't keep you warm at night. But if you're really changing the world, doing good, you've got a reason to get up in the morning, your life makes sense.

These people are dedicated.

Got a boyfriend?

NO!

Got any friends?

NO!

That's what drives me wild, the people who want to have it all. They want to be rock stars and have a family and live a normal life... That's not how you make it. You make it by being single-minded, giving up everything but the cause. And still, you might not succeed. You might get blown up by a bomb just when you're getting close. Even worse, you might get blown away when you're far from the target. Are you willing to take that risk?

OF COURSE NOT!

You don't want any risk. All you want is GUARANTEES!

Everybody in America, you can't take anything away from them. If one more songwriter e-mails me about Napster and Spotify I'm gonna scream. THINGS CHANGE! Adjust or get out of the game. The past is never coming back!

And all you gun nuts, thinking the Second Amendment gives you the right to protect yourself from a heinous government... If you think an assault rifle has a chance against the U.S. military, you're delusional. Not only do they have night vision goggles, they've got satellites and drones that can track you when you leave the house. Yup, they've got footage of everybody in the compound except Bin Laden. Right there on camera!

And why do I have to go see a movie about something I already know about? Because you've got no idea of the tension and the anxiety of a mission. It's one thing to read about it in the newspaper, it's another to be on the ground in a foreign country with your life on the line. Kathryn Bigelow depicts that so well!

And she's over sixty!

But find someone green-lighting movies that age.

No, you're too old to know. You're ready for the scrapheap.

But you gain through experience. "Hurt Locker" was just a stepping stone to "Zero Dark Thirty."

My mind never wandered. The tension was nearly excruciating. I knew it was a movie, but I also knew it was real. That there are smart people who are not worried about the number of Facebook friends they've got, but the bigger issues of life.

Yup, stay home. Be a pussy. Pontificate without even seeing the flick.

Or, you can go to the theatre and be positively blown away.

I was.


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