(Image source: Columbia Pictures)
BY ZACH TOOMBS
A new film — and contender for Best Picture at the Oscars — is opening up a national conversation about the role torture might have played in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
“If you’re right, the whole world’s gonna’ want to know this.”
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ chronicles the ten-year search for the al Qaeda leader and the 2011 raid that led to his death. It stars Jessica Chastain as Maya — a CIA agent at the center of the operation, who filmmakers say is based on a real life operative.
For director Kathryn Bigelow, the film is a follow-up to the 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, about American explosives teams in Iraq.
Bigelow says she came at the film’s story like a journalist — with attention to detail and a strong faith to the facts. [Video: CBS]
Her screenwriter, Mark Boal, says:
“...we’re not trying to come at it with an agenda. I don’t think anybody really debates that [the torture] happened, so we had to include it in the story.”
But the film’s story differs from the U.S. government’s official record. The first 20 minutes of Zero Dark Thirty depict CIA waterboarding and torture, something the Senate investigation into the bin Laden raid says never happened. CNN’s Peter Bergen served as an adviser for the film. This is what he said Monday.
“Half an hour of the film is very, very visceral, and viewers are going to walk away with the feeling, I think, basically wrongly, that torture somehow, basically netted bin Laden.”
That’s led to a surge of backlash against the film. Although Vulture’s David Edelstein named it his number one film of 2012, he wrote:
“It also borders on the politically and morally reprehensible … it makes a case for the efficacy of torture.”
And Frank Bruni of The New York Times says:
“I’m betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie...”
Though MSNBC’s Joe Scarbrough was a fan.
“It presents a narrative that is going to make a lot of people in the mainstream media, in the Democratic Party and in the administration uncomfortable … that the CIA program, whether you find it repugnant or not, actually was effective.”
The irony here is that many conservatives originally perceived “Zero Dark Thirty” as pro-Obama propaganda, meant to remind the American public of the president’s crowning foreign policy achievement.
The film’s original pre-election release date was even moved back after complaints that it might turn into a huge promotional piece just before votes were cast.
In fact, The Daily Beast says, if anything, the film might shed a negative light on Obama — as a president who waited far too long to pull the trigger on raiding bin Laden’s hideout … [Video: CBS]
“...it takes the Obama administration nine months to take any sort of action. Maya (the main character), meanwhile, is ripping her hair out...”
Of course, viewers can decide for themselves next week. The film is set for release Dec. 19.
(Image source: Columbia Pictures)
BY ZACH TOOMBS
A new film — and contender for Best Picture at the Oscars — is opening up a national conversation about the role torture might have played in the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
“If you’re right, the whole world’s gonna’ want to know this.”
‘Zero Dark Thirty’ chronicles the ten-year search for the al Qaeda leader and the 2011 raid that led to his death. It stars Jessica Chastain as Maya — a CIA agent at the center of the operation, who filmmakers say is based on a real life operative.
For director Kathryn Bigelow, the film is a follow-up to the 2008 Best Picture winner The Hurt Locker, about American explosives teams in Iraq.
Bigelow says she came at the film’s story like a journalist — with attention to detail and a strong faith to the facts. [Video: CBS]
Her screenwriter, Mark Boal, says:
“...we’re not trying to come at it with an agenda. I don’t think anybody really debates that [the torture] happened, so we had to include it in the story.”
But the film’s story differs from the U.S. government’s official record. The first 20 minutes of Zero Dark Thirty depict CIA waterboarding and torture, something the Senate investigation into the bin Laden raid says never happened. CNN’s Peter Bergen served as an adviser for the film. This is what he said Monday.
“Half an hour of the film is very, very visceral, and viewers are going to walk away with the feeling, I think, basically wrongly, that torture somehow, basically netted bin Laden.”
That’s led to a surge of backlash against the film. Although Vulture’s David Edelstein named it his number one film of 2012, he wrote:
“It also borders on the politically and morally reprehensible … it makes a case for the efficacy of torture.”
And Frank Bruni of The New York Times says:
“I’m betting that Dick Cheney will love the new movie...”
Though MSNBC’s Joe Scarbrough was a fan.
“It presents a narrative that is going to make a lot of people in the mainstream media, in the Democratic Party and in the administration uncomfortable … that the CIA program, whether you find it repugnant or not, actually was effective.”
The irony here is that many conservatives originally perceived “Zero Dark Thirty” as pro-Obama propaganda, meant to remind the American public of the president’s crowning foreign policy achievement.
The film’s original pre-election release date was even moved back after complaints that it might turn into a huge promotional piece just before votes were cast.
In fact, The Daily Beast says, if anything, the film might shed a negative light on Obama — as a president who waited far too long to pull the trigger on raiding bin Laden’s hideout … [Video: CBS]
“...it takes the Obama administration nine months to take any sort of action. Maya (the main character), meanwhile, is ripping her hair out...”
Of course, viewers can decide for themselves next week. The film is set for release Dec. 19.
