The upcoming feature film Zero Dark Thirty, a fact-based narrative about the search and assassination of Osama bin Laden, has been scrutinized since its inception, and is now on the hot seat for endorsing the use of waterboarding to obtain intelligence information.
Critics of the film, opening in limited release on December 19 and nationwide January 11, initially challenged director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal for obtaining classified documents from the Obama administration, and coercing those involved with the operation to divulge confidential information. These latest claims suggest the filmmakers are subsequently advocating for torture methodology.
Nevertheless, Bigelow and Boal firmly stand by their decisions, commenting that their purpose for the film was to humanize the journey, and that the torture scenes were but one facet of that mission.
“The film was a political chew toy before I even wrote a word,” Boal told theGrio at a press conference. “It’s a gross misrepresentation of the film to suggest that it shows this intelligence operation came out of any single piece of information. I understand those scenes are graphic, and unsparing and unsentimental, but I think what the film does, over the course of two hours, is show the complexity of the debate, and the number of different ways the information came into the CIA.”
Boal points out that the film also depicts how a nonviolent approach with al-Qaeda prisoners was essentially more effective in obtaining key clues, and that the series of terrorists attacks following the use of torture proves it didn’t resolve the issue.
Referencing two CIA agents in the film, he added, “The information that Jessica [Chastain] and Jason [Clarke]’s characters hear about, it occurs over a relatively civilized – with emphasis on relatively – a civilized context of a hummus and tabouli lunch.”
In its entirety, Zero Dark Thirty looks at the intricacy of the United States’ mission to find and kill bin Laden, condensing the ten-year journey to halt his terrorist enterprise into a two and a half hour time frame. The movie begins with a brief audio flashback to September 11, then tracks an undercover CIA agent named Maya (Chastain), recruited out of high school to pursue terrorists, as she works her way through Pakistan gathering clues that eventually lead to bin Laden’s demise.
According to Bigelow, all characters in the movie are based on real people and real accounts, and were uncovered through extensive research done by herself and Boal. Exactly what that research entailed both are unwilling to disclose, however there are those within the government and related watchdog groups who claim the two were privy to information beyond their authority. CNN reports there is speculation Bigelow and Boal attended an event with real-life CIA operatives where they were unauthorized, and that the Obama administration illicitly helped with the film because it would portray the president as “gutsy.” There is also a new investigation within the CIA and Pentagon as to whether the filmmakers were provided with “undue access” to secret information, though officials insist nothing “jeopardized sources or gave away classified information about the operation.”
Furthermore, Bigelow and Boal, who also produced the film, took specific precautions to safeguard military secrets, including working with the Pentagon on recreation of the helicopters used in the movie’s raid scenes. They say their communication with the government was minimal but purposeful, as they also didn’t want to sacrifice the story.
“[Department of Defense] didn’t have the screenplay,” Bigelow pointed out. “Had we gone down that road, you know, there might have been a lot more assets available to us. But I think it was a very smart decision on Mark’s part to work off his material, to not have that extra layer imposed on him.”
Beyond CIA leaks, many critics of the film are wont to rebuke the torture scenes as a fabrication, claiming they glorify the use of brutality in U.S. foreign policy. Specifically, Zero Dark Thirty presents an indirect link from the use of torture tactics on al-Qaeda, such as sleep deprivation, sexual humiliation, drownings, and beatings, to a revelation that ultimately leads to bin Laden’s seizure. Though later, the focus shifts more towards technological tools as well as the street team used in narrowing in on the lead, it is the consequence of this initial violence that has many incensed.
British film critic Glenn Greenwald wrote in the Guardian, “That this film would depict CIA interrogation programs as crucial in capturing America’s most hated public enemy, and uncritically herald CIA officials as dramatic heroes, is anything but surprising. A large Hollywood studio would never dare make a film about the episode, which is America’s greatest source of collective self-esteem and jingoistic pride, without clinging tightly to patriotic orthodoxies. The events that led to bullets being pumped into Osama bin Laden’s skull and his corpse being dumped into the ocean have taken on sacred status in American lore, and Big Hollywood will inevitably validate rather than challenge that mythology.”
Conservative talk show host and torture “apologist” Joe Scarborough has even used the movie as fuel to his fire that such practices are warranted.
“[Zero Dark Thirty] presents a narrative that is going to make a lot of people in the mainstream media, and the Democratic Party uncomfortable,” he said on his show, Morning Joe, reports Mediaite. “That is the truth that Barack Obama learned the first briefing that he got after he won the election. And that is that the CIA program, whether you find it repugnant or not, actually was effective with KSM [Khalid Sheikh Mohammed] and other people, getting actionable intelligence that led to couriers that led, eventually years later, to the killing of Osama Bin Ladin.”
Yet for Bigelow, the film is about holistic efforts in the hunt; the intricacy of the tale; and all the components, good or bad, which have since become ingrained America’s historical thread. There was no other way, she says, but to tell the entire truth.
“I wish it was not part of our history, but it was,” she said. “Our thinking was [that] this is about the people, the men and women on the ground in the workforce who found this house, and therefore found this man, and ultimately not really about him. It’s about them. They humanized that hunt, humanized that journey, and it’s their story.”
Follow Courtney Garcia on Twitter at @courtgarcia