Apple TV Scores Unlikely Hit With 'Dark Matter' Star's War Epic

When audiences think of war films, so often does the trench warfare of WWI or the Axis/Allied conflict of WWII come to mind. Whether it's the quiet genius of The Zone of Interest or the visually breathtaking All Quiet on the Western Front, it's the biggest 20th-century conflicts that dominate our war film consciousness. But modern warfare deserves its flowers, with some of the finest war films of the past 20 years dramatizing the biggest moments in the conflicts that defined our current generation.

One such film that perhaps defines the modern warfare sub-genre is Zero Dark Thirty, director Kathryn Bigelow's dramatization of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden. The film marked Bigelow's follow-up to 2008's The Hurt Locker, which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards and made history by helping Bigelow become the first woman ever to win Best Director (which shockingly has only happened three times in almost 100 years). To many, she didn't just live up to her previous movie; she bettered it with Zero Dark Thirty, which also proved popular with the Academy.

The film scored five nominations, including nods for Best Original Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and a Best Actress in a Leading Role nomination for Jessica Chastain, who lost to Jennifer Lawrence. Zero Dark Thirty also achieved the rare feat of tying for an Academy Award, having to share the Best Sound Editing prize with Skyfall. In Collider's review of the movie at the time, Matt Goldberg was particularly impressed with Chastain, calling it "a masterful performance," and "key to not only the emotions of the film, but its larger points." 14 years later, the film is a hit again, officially ranking as one of the ten most-watched movies on Apple TV in the U.S.

'Zero Dark Thirty' Had a Stacked Cast

+3

Chastain might've stolen the show with her brilliant performance as Maya in Zero Dark Thirty, but she isn't the only famous face involved in the film. James Gandolfini, Jason Clarke, Kyle Chandler, Mark Strong, and more help make up the ensemble, alongside Chris Pratt in an early action role, as well as Joel Edgerton, who is also impressing on the Apple TV charts with the sci-fi series Dark Matter.