Day Zero

The white-on-black text sets it up:

From World War I through the Vietnam War, the United States Military relied on the draft for troops.

During that period, over 16 million men were drafted to serve in the U.S. Armed Forces.

Following the Vietnam War, the United States suspended the draft.

Until now.

Day Zero takes place in New York City, slightly in the future. Terrorists have struck not only the World Trade Center, but also somewhere in Los Angeles—killing over 15,000. The war in Iraq is ongoing, and, sensing the need for fresh soldiers, the U.S. government brings back the draft.


The film follows three called-up friends in the 30 days before they ship off to war. Aaron is a young author working on his second book, Dixon is a violent but honourable street-tough cab driver, and George is a rich-kid lawyer with a wife recently cured of cancer.

As expected, each of the characters reacts and adapts differently to the call-up:

Aaron, whose first concern is that he won't have time to finish his novel, has trouble coping with the idea of having to kill someone. Maybe from a tank or plane, he tells his bored psychiatrist, but not hand-to-hand, not eye-to-eye. He can push a button, but he won't pull a trigger.

Dixon, has less qualms about serving (and, perhaps, killing)—at least ostensibly. He has less to lose than Aaron, and, whereas Aaron is indifferent to politics, Dixon agrees with the war's purpose. However, the script does give him a love interest to keep up the dramatic tension: oh, my, what will he do now!

The third character, George, immediately tries thinking up ways to avoid heading overseas. He enlists his father, who has connections to Senators, his own legal expertise, and Googling "conscientious objector". He also seems the most opposed to the war on principle, though that doubles as a convenient cover for simply being afraid.

Below, Frodo finds out he's just been drafted to a special platoon whose mission is to take the One Ring deep behind enemy lines and toss it into a volcano.


I had a teacher in high school who used to predict what we were going to say, and, before we had a chance to say it, would warn us if he didn't like where we were headed.

"Don't go there," he'd say.

I had the same reaction while watching Day Zero, because, much like teenagers, it's a predictable slog through overwrought emotions and by-the-numbers storytelling that, bless its little heart, thinks it isn't. So, every time the film would be ready to hit another gob of green goo—deadbeat mothers, cancer patients, sexually molested children, self-mutilation—I'd remember that high school teacher and feel his pain. Unfortunately, the film went there.

Once, a long time ago, George was put in a position that had a clear sense of right and wrong, but, instead of doing the right thing, he took the easy way out and ran away. I wonder if that relates in any way to George's present situation...


What makes Day Zero especially frustrating is that it has a ripe premise and genuinely interesting characters. It's the execution that ruins both. I'd gladly watch another film about a fake draft or spend more time with Aaron, Dixon, and George—but without all the inane plot points and shocking (yet stunningly relevant to the story at hand) revelations. Squandered potential is worse than making nothing out of nothing.


Aaron shaves his head and goes crazy. He also hears helicopters while smashing things in his room. Taxi Driver and Apocalypse Now are cool, aren't they?


I do like this shot, though. It's my favourite from the film—which actually isn't badly made at all, if you look at the technical stuff. It's also surprisingly apolitical (although that can sometimes be a dangerous way of saying you agree with a film's politics) for a story about a military draft and the Iraq war. The war, the draft, the decisions the characters make: good, bad, neither? Forcefully neither, I'd say. Not that some political opinions would have hurt. Sometimes it's fun to be rubbed the wrong way for a bit!

As things are, however, what we get is closest to a misfired political cartoon: full of exaggeration and well-meaning intentions, neither funny nor meaningful. It's just a shame that for a city with as diverse and yummy a culinary culture as NYC, Bryan Gunnar Cole's Day Zero tastes so much like Haggis.