Netflix adds controversial Oscar-winning thriller with 91% RT score

Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty (Image credit: Universal Pictures)

Netflix has added a bunch of movies today, but the one to watch is Zero Dark Thirty, an enthralling thriller about the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, which eventually led to the May 2011 raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Director Kathryn Bigelow's 2012 film was critically acclaimed, with a 91% Rotten Tomatoes score, and it picked up five Oscar nominations, winning the Best Sound Editing award in a tie with Bond movie Skyfall. It stars Jessica Chastain as Maya, a character based on a real, necessarily anonymous CIA agent.

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Zero Dark Thirty — (Image credit: Universal Pictures)

The movie had its controversies including torture scenes, accusations about government intelligence leaks, and its use of real-life audio recordings of several victims of 9/11. Indeed it opens with the audio recordings before going forward two years to a bearded CIA agent (Jason Clarke) subjecting a terrorist prisoner to a brutal inquisition at a CIA black site.

Maya is at the heart of the story as she relentlessly pursues clues in the search for Bin Laden. She also faces enemies closer to home, such as bureaucrats and superiors who she feels are getting in the way of the hunt.

She works out that a supposedly dead terrorist named Abu Ahmed is in fact alive and working as bin Laden's trusted courier, a discovery that eventually, after much painstaking surveillance and an extravagant spot of bribery, leads the US to that compound in Abbottabad. The raid itself is shot with hand-held cameras and makes a suitably nerve-wracking finale.

In our five-star review at the time of release, our critic wrote: "What is undisputed is that Bigelow has made a terrifically gripping, provocative film and that Chastain gives an outstanding, Oscar-worthy performance in the lead."

At 157 minutes, it's not the shortest film and you will need to focus to keep up with the plot.

The subject matter reminded me of a truly great drama series, The Looming Tower, starring Jeff Daniels, Tahar Rahim, Alec Baldwin and Peter Sarsgaard. The 2018 TV adaptation of Lawrence Wright's book, tells the story of the bitter rivalry between the FBI and CIA in the build-up to 9/11. It's both gripping and of course deeply tragic as opportunities to have potentially stopped the terrorists were missed.

Zero Dark Thirty is available on Netflix now in the US and UK. The Looming Tower is available on Hulu in the US, while in the UK it can be rented or bought via Prime Video.