Very similar to "The Hurt Locker", which Bigelow won the Oscar for best picture, "The Hunt for Bin Laden" is also a film that reflects the involvement of the US military/US intelligence forces in the (anti-terrorism) war. Even the origins are the same: war reporter Mark Ball followed the U.S. military to report on the Iraq War, and later he turned his long-form report into the script of "The Hurt Locker"; also on the Iraqi battlefield, Mark Ball The idea to write a screenplay about bin Laden started, and it was Kathryn Bigelow who took over the project. In the original script, Ball described a long ordeal for the CIA and the U.S. special forces-because bin Laden was still at large at the time, the end of the hunt was a failure, but shortly after filming began, suddenly came the The news that bin Laden was killed, so Ball and Bigelow began to revise the script, and this is now the "Hunting Bin Laden".
"Hunting Bin Laden" was indeed ill-fated. Not only was the script revised, but even the release date had to be postponed. The original release date was close to the U.S. presidential election. The allegation of stealing military secrets, in order to avoid political suspicion, had to be delayed until 2013. However, as soon as it was released, it reached the top of the weekly box office list, which can be regarded as a good return from the audience to the main creator.
"Hunting Osama bin Laden" still retains the complex of Ball's original creativity. From the September 11 incident in 2001 to the successful hunting operation in 2011, it took ten years of long torment, heart-wrenching and physical abuse. Maya, a CIA agent played by Sika Chastain, is brilliant. At the beginning of the film, the original material of the 9.11 incident was quoted, but the video material was not used. Instead, the recordings of several panic calls for help were edited together, and the American audience was recalled in the darkness of 9.11. Horror memory - this dark title also echoes the title. The English title of the film is a military term, referring to the moment when you can't see your fingers outside. Of course, we can also understand it as the killing of Ben · at the end of the film. The real night battle scene of bin Laden's action, or the hero's ten-year-long struggle to find bin Laden's state of mind.
In the United States, Afghanistan, Poland, and the United Kingdom, "Hunting Osama bin Laden" weaves a large anti-terrorism net that spans half the world. in the quagmire of "Operation Lights". Tortured prisoners of war, data collection, intelligence analysis, colleagues were killed in a terrorist attack, Maya's whole body was absorbed by this painful anti-terrorism war, the amiable civilians were indistinguishable from the terrifying human bombs, Maya's life world is like an endless hell The torment is endless - she even yells at the CIA director at an intelligence analysis meeting, and the pressure is evident.
The main part of the film is the process of collecting and analyzing intelligence. The CIA has done everything possible, torture to extract confessions is commonplace, and money transactions are also accepted. In this 157-minute film, we don't get to see the actual military action until the last 40 minutes. U.S. special forces in a helicopter were parachuted into the house where bin Laden was hiding and launched a sniper battle. In this final operation, we can clearly see the killing of civilians by the U.S. special forces. From a legal point of view, the men, women and children in this house may be terrorists, and shoot to kill is also in line with the law of warfare. . Therefore, when a woman screamed and rushed towards her husband's body, the US special forces ruthlessly shot bullets at the woman's back, which may not be considered a violation of human nature; and in order to kill bin Laden and his henchmen, Special forces must put the women and children around them at risk. If women and children become human shields, it can only be regarded as the price that must be paid in this anti-terrorism war.
But is this really a victory? It is inhumane for terrorists to attack civilians, and the means of the war against terror may not be regarded as adhering to humanitarianism. Chomsky once quoted the famous dialogue between Alexander the Great and the pirates in "Pirates and Monarchs" - from the perspective of pirates, Alexander the Great adopted a "hook-thief kills, thief's marquis". logic.
Maya personally confirmed bin Laden's body, and then she boarded the return military plane in despair, tears streaming down her face.
It was a Pyrrhic victory, or rather, no one won.
(Published in China News Weekly, Issue 3, 2013)
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