Maya in Zero Dark Thirty

What Was It All About, Gloria?

            Zero Dark Thirty is Kathryn Bigelow’s cinematic account of the hunt for and killing of Osama Bin Laden. This overly long film (two hours, forty minutes) is mostly about Maya (played by Jessica Chastain), who makes it her life’s mission as a CIA operative to find and kill Bin Laden (they call him UBL in the movie). What kind of woman is Maya? She’s one tough customer. Early in the movie, with cold detachment she witnesses the water torture of an Arab who may have information on the whereabouts of UBL. And, like the burly male interrogator and torturer, she tells the prisoner that things will go better for him if he gives them what they want.

            Maya is also one of the boys. She can drop f bombs with the most hardened male CIA or SEAL operatives. More driven than they are, she doesn’t give up her quest when her male counterparts show fatigue. Again, she’s one tough woman.

            When UBL is finally located she doesn’t want to use the SEALS with “all their Velcro” but prefers a plane with a bomb or two to obliterate the compound and everything in it. Again she’s one of the boys, or worse, she’s one of the baddest boys, those who can kill without regard to collateral damage, the current euphemism for the indiscriminate killing of innocent men, women, and children.

            Maya is not actually present at the raid on UBL’s compound, but she does monitor electronically as SEALS terrorize children, kill all the men and a few of the screaming women, and then find and kill UBL. “I think I’ve got the jackpot here,” says a SEAL after killing the man he thinks is UBL, but UBL is not positively identified until the SEALS return the remains to base camp where Maya unzips the body bag and shakes her head yes.         

When the raid is over and the SEALS return to base camp, Maya flies out in a giant cargo plane where she is the only passenger. As the film ends, she sits near the rear just inside the huge aircraft, straps herself into a jump seat, and gazes sadly as a single tear starts. What a woman!

            Maya is an advertisement for women in combat: she is willing to torture, maim and kill with the worst of men. What is the message here? Given equal opportunities women can be as cruel and immoral as men. What an accomplishment!