The
widely known movie, Zero Dark Thirty,
is an intense chronicle of the decade-long hunt for Al Qaeda terrorist leader
Osama bin Laden after the September 11th attacks, and his death at the
hands of Navy SEAL Team Six in May 2011. The movie follows the protagonist,
Maya, a CIA rookie operative, whose first experience is being assigned to
Pakistan in order to learn vital techniques and how seek out the whereabouts of
Bin Laden. For several years, she becomes obsessed with the task at hand and is
relentless in her single-minded pursuit of leads to discover the location of Al
Qaeda's leader. Finally, in May of 2011, her work pays off as the White House
finally approves the mission for SEAL Team Six team to be sent out in order to
kill Bin Laden following the lead of Maya. Despite not being believed by many
of her colleagues, Maya proclaims that she is “100%” confident that Bin Laden
is where she says he is.
The Representation Test is a media
literacy tool meant to spark learning and conversation around representation in
film, and to encourage more overall diversity on screen and behind-the-scenes
in Hollywood. Zero Dark Thirty
received a grade of ten points, the scale equivalence of a B. The test is
divided into six different categories: women, men, race, ethnicity, and
culture, LGBT people, people with disabilities, and bonus points.
Most
of Zero Dark Thirty’s points came
from the first category, examining the role of women within the film. Because
the protagonist was a woman, Maya portrayed by Jessica Chastain, the film was
awarded two points instead of the normal one point due to the fact that men
play the role of the protagonist in most movies. Any viewer can see that Maya
is the protagonist simply because the movie follows her complete journey in the
task of capturing and killing Bin Laden. Furthermore, the film was given points
for including women of color in speaking roles who were not reduced to racial
stereotypes, representing women as more than “object for the male gaze,”
including women in speaking roles with diverse body types, and passing the
Bechdel Test. These women acted throughout the entire movie at various times as
other CIA agents who aided Maya in her quest for justice. For example, Jennifer
Ehle plays the role of Jessica, one of Maya’s colleagues and closest girlfriend
throughout the movie.
Zero
Dark Thirty scored in three out of four sections in the men category by
including men of color in speaking roles who were not reduced to racial
stereotypes and including men in non-stereotypical roles, as well as avoiding
perpetuating an extreme and unhealthy body ideal for men. Both Harold Perrineau, who plays Jack, and J.J. Kandel, who portrays
J.J., are men of color and other ethnicities who assist Maya in her research
throughout the movie’s entirety. However, this movie does not score in the
glorifying violent men section because of the harsh techniques used in
interrogation and the actual mission (would not score for women either).
Furthermore, the movie fails to
score in any of the next three categories of race, ethnicity, and culture, LGBT
people, and people with disabilities. The LGBT people and people with
disabilities sections were easy to score simply because of the nature of the movie. This
movie did not have anything to do with LBGT people or people with disabilities
and did not place any emphasis on these characteristics; any viewer could
comprehended this idea. Contrastingly, the race, ethnicity, and culture section
played more of an important role in the movie. Seeing that the movie is based
on capturing, interrogating, and ultimately killing terrorist of a different
race and ethnicity, conveying different cultures, Zero Dark Thirty failed to score points in this category because of
the unavoidable stereotypes brought along with these characters.
Finally, the movie scored one bonus
point for having a woman director. Kathryn Bigelow is a renowned director who
is also widely known for directing The
Hurt Locker and the TV movie, The
Miraculous Year. She has also won two Oscars for “Best Motion Picture of
the Year” and “Best Achievement in Directing,” both for the film, The Hurt Locker.
Overall, I believe that is a fair
method of grading movies, despite the fact that most movies do not score high
on the test. Zero Dark Thirty is one
of few movies that scored close to an A, missing the mark by only one point. This is mostly due to the fact that most motion pictures score low in the
women category mainly because of having men protagonist. In addition, other cinemas
score low in the other five categories, similar to Zero Dark Thirty. Personally, I would not change anything in The
Representation Test: I believe that the categories are fair and encompass key
viewpoints that every movie should be diagnosed by. It is simply the nature of
Hollywood that many movies are produced with the same elements, scoring low as
a result, but proves to be successful, verified by box office sales and
overall popularity of a film.
I really like this movie and I agree on your analysis. I like that the movie does a good job in representing women and men even though it doesn't on the other categories. However, usually on these type of movies most of the times, you won't see those categories represented so it is an understandable score.
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