Goal number one

The film touches upon the chronicle of the hunt for the most dangerous terrorist in the world, Osama bin Laden. The opening shots show the nation’s shock after the tragedy of September 11, 2001 , and the final shot, shot mostly in night vision style, shows the killing of bin Laden by the US Navy SEAL group.

The central character Maya ( Jessica Chastain ) is obsessed with finding the offender, his elimination was her only goal since high school, when the girl was recruited to the institution directly involved in the investigation of 9/11.

Bigelow and Boal began writing the script in the early 2000s, when bin Laden, according to some reports, was hiding in Tora Bora . After the Bigelow-Boal creative team was awarded an Oscar for directing and writing the script for the military drama Storm Lord , they decided to return to the theme of war. A few days after the murder of a terrorist in May 2011, the project was given a “green light” ^[6] .

Initially, the director and producers planned to name the film “For God and the Fatherland,” but after the release of the teaser it was changed to “Zero Dark Thirty” (“0030” is a military term for half past one) ^{[7] [8]} . Partial filming took place in the Indian city ​​of Chandigarh , which was specially decorated for Lahore and Abbottabad , where they eliminated bin Laden ^[9] . During the production of the tape, the placement of Pakistani symbols caused discontent and protests from the population, which made the filming process more difficult ^[9] .

The prototype of the heroine Jessica Chastain was a real CIA employee, whose name was not disclosed. For participation in the operation, she was awarded the most important military award of the United States ^[10] .

As Bigelow had hoped, immediately after the announcement of the development of such a political film, a flurry of criticism fell on the film crew. One of the first to express his opinion was Member of the US House of Representatives Peter King , who wondered: “Was Bigelow admitted to secret documents?” ^[6] . The director escaped with an abandoned “No Comments” ^[6] . Despite this, the screenwriter Boal admitted that most of the film is based on its own research ^[6] . Later, opponents of President Obama said that representatives of his administration personally passed on to the creators of the picture secret data ^[11] .

Not taking into account the film's go-ahead, the Pentagon found the film so reliable that the US Department of Defense conducted a special investigation to find out who had discovered all the secrets of the bin Laden Bigelow hunt ^[12] . According to its results, it turned out that classified information was given by the closest assistant to the US Department of Defense Panetta, Michael Vickers ^[13] .

The music for the picture was written by the French composer Alexander Desplat ^[14] . Despl's warmly received critics soundtrack has been nominated for several film awards and awards.  

Even before the appointed official premiere of “Goals Number One”, closed shows were accompanied by the publication of extremely positive reviews. On the authoritative site Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 93%, based on 170 reviews by professional critics ^[3] . Many analysts have included the tape in their own lists of the best films of the year ^{[15] [16]} .

Variety newspaper columnist Peter Debrazh praised the film for praising camera work, Jessica Chastain’s play, naturalistic lighting and sound design ^[17] . A regular critic of Time magazine, Richard Corliss, was conquered by Bigelow’s tape, adding that even this year ’s favorite journalist “Operation Argo” cannot be compared with “Target” ^[18] .

To Hollywood Reporter magazine reviewer Todd McCarthy, “Goal Number One” seemed the most impressive movie that Bigelow’s hand ever put ^[19] . Chastain considered acting work the most convincing for her whole career ^[19] . Eric Cohn of Indiewire simply called the painting “the 9/11 masterpiece we've been waiting for” ^[20] .

Bigelow herself has repeatedly said that her film is not for the faint of heart ^[4] . Composer Alexander Despla, who wrote the soundtrack to the tape, spoke of her like that ^[21] :

Russian criticism also warmly greeted the picture. Valery Kuznetsov from Rossiyskaya Gazeta agreed with his foreign colleagues that the film is the main contender for the Oscars, but confirmed Bigelow’s opinion that this movie is not for the faint of heart ^[22] .

Tortured Scenes

The film received a lot of critical and positive reviews for showing tortured scenes. According to some journalists, because of them, the picture was not awarded the main Oscar ^[23] .

The Guardian called the film "harmful propaganda," pointing out that the picture "presents torture in the light in which they are seen by supporters and CIA administrators, that is, the ugly, dirty business necessary to protect America" ^[24] .

US Senator John McCain , who was himself tortured during his military career in Vietnam, said the film made him sick, "because it's wrong." In his speech in the Senate, he said that “the application of the“ extended interrogation methods ”to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed not only did not give us information about the bin Laden Abu Ahmed’s courier, but they actually gave information that was false and misleading” ^[25] . John McCain, Dianne Feinstein, and Karl Levine sent a critical letter to Sony Pictures Entertainment Rentals Chairman Michael Leaton, stating that “with the release of Goals Number One, the filmmakers and your production studio are spreading the myth that torture is effective. You have social and moral obligations to present the facts correctly ” ^[26] .

Actor and member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, David Clennon made a statement in which he refused to vote for “Goal Number One” in any Oscar category because it advocates torture ^[27] . Famous American actors Martin Sheen and Ed Asner ^{[28] also} protested against the painting.

Journalist Matt Tybby wrote: “The real problem is what this film says about us. When those pictures from Abu Ghraib appeared , at least half of America was horrified. National consensus (albeit with a small gap) has shown that this is not what we are as humans. But now, four years later, “Goal Number One” is coming out, and it seems that our feelings for the horrors that we have created in Abu Ghraib , Guantanamo and Bagram so dulled that we can accept them on the condition that from this we get a box office movie ” ^[29] .

US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in an interview with NBC on February 3, 2013, in response to a question about the film "Target Number One", confirmed that torture was used in the operation to eliminate the head of al-Qaeda ^[30] .

• Official site
• Goal Number One on the Internet Movie Database
• Goal Number One on Rotten Tomatoes  
• Goal Number One on allmovie