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Zero Dark Thirty

Posted on August 17, 2018 by Village Vidiot

A very rough look at the hunt and killing of Bin Laden. It’s about Maya (Jessica Chastain) who hunts OBL for 10 years. Issues of bureaucratic lassitude abound, but the first half hour of torture has sparked a huge debate because the film states that a key clue is provided by torture in the early years and the fear of more torture promotes other answers. Critics of any use of this have argued this is false, a distortion of the truth, and should not be in the film at all as it promotes the idea that torture is legitimate if it yields this kind of result. That, to me, is not the issue, because of course it is shown a failure, it is against the rules of war, it is entirely illegal, it is immoral, and it usually yields nothing reliable. Well acted. Some have compared it to “Triumph of the Will” and others think “24”. I suspect torture does sometimes provide important information. It is wrong, wrong, wrong. It dehumanizes the victim and the torturer. This stuff matters, because the film portrays itself as historically accurate and for most people, this is what they will know about the matter. That is one reason why dramatic license is not acceptable in historical drama. Shows many of the CIA’s biggest failures in Pakistan and Afghanistan

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