'Zero Dark Thirty' Director Catching Hell for Torture Scenes

News on the street is that Zero Dark Thirty's producer/creator, Kathryn Bigelow, is catching heat from political positioning pundits as a bunch of them sent a letter to Sony Pictures trying to shame them in showing the interrogation, aka, torture methods, used to obtain information on the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, in the movie.

For whatever reason, they've taken supposed offense to the CIA operative, Maya in the movie, for using techniques to get a detainee on giving up the position of where ObL was hiding.  For me, Bigelow's creative decision to depict torture doesn't seem unreasonable to myself.

Of course, the complaints had to be addressed and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence released a statement on the matter....

"CIA did not first learn about the existence of the UBL [bin Laden] courier from detainees subjected to coercive interrogation techniques…Instead the CIA learned of the existence of the courier, his true name and location through means unrelated to the CIA detention and interrogation program."

Bigelow also noted in a letter to the press that

"As for what I personally believe, which has been the subject of inquiries, accusations and speculation, I think Osama bin Laden was found due to ingenious detective work. Torture was, however, as we all know, employed in the early years of the hunt. That doesn't mean it was the key to finding Bin Laden. It means it is a part of the story we couldn't ignore."

And...

"As a lifelong pacifist, I support all protests against the use of torture, and quite simply, inhumane treatment of any kind," she notes. "But I do wonder if some of the sentiments alternately expressed about the film might be more appropriately directed at those who instituted and ordered these U.S. policies, as opposed to a motion picture that brings the story to the screen."

She finished her statement eloquently by noting that...

"Bin Laden wasn't defeated by superheroes zooming down from the sky; he was defeated by ordinary Americans who fought bravely even as they sometimes crossed moral lines, who labored greatly and intently, who gave all of themselves in both victory and defeat, in life and death, for the defense of this nation."

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Torture is something entertainment fans see constantly in television and movies that depict war or conflict when intelligence methodologies are portrayed.  The entertainment consumer can see this kind of stuff on a weekly basis.  And to be honest, if a seasoned terrorist is captured and knows he will be given cable TV, 3 square meals a day and fine living quarters, I just don't see the motivations to give up any kind of information on anything, period.

But that's just me and I could be wrong.  Maybe they were treated so kindly that they felt compelled to help the U.S. capture and or kill their biggest hero.  Yea, I'm sure that's it.

As far as to what may have really happened, that's only in the heads of everyone who was involved in this campaign and we may never, truly know what happened.  All we know is that a wrong was righted.

There's more over at E Online, if you're interested.

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