The new film Zero Dark Thirty has received rave reviews, and has even been nominated for a Golden Globe for best picture of the year. The film is about the CIA's multi-year hunt for Osama bin-Laden - a hunt that was ended earlier this year when he was killed by Navy Seals in Pakistan. And I have to admit, that sounds like a pretty exciting premise for a film. There's only one problem -- the film is not true.Now you may ask why that's a problem. There are a lot of very good fictional films produced every year. That is true, but when a film is based on actual events, most people expect those events to have actually happened -- and that is not the case here (even though far too many people will leave the theater thinking what they have seen is true, because they know parts of it like the death of bin-Laden is true).
The problem is that the film leaves the distinct impression that valuable information, that led to the killing of bin-Laden, was gained through the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- or torture as it is commonly and truthfully called. And that is just not true. It has been reported by several of the CIA agents involved that no useful information was ever derived from the torture authorized by President Bush. In fact, some of the information gotten from torture actually impeded the hunt for bin-Laden, because it was untrue and led agents in the wrong direction. Here is what the Acting CIA Director had to say about the torture:
". . .the film creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding Bin Ladin. That impression is false."
I know that some people believe people will tell the truth when subjected to torture, but that is simply false. What they will do is tell the interrogator what he/she wants to hear, so the torture will stop -- and that may be far from the truth. In fact, it probably won't be the truth -- especially if the truth is an unlikely scenario (which the interrogator is not likely to believe), or the person being questioned doesn't know the truth (which the interrogator is also unlikely to believe).
I'm not a big fan of Republican Senator John McCain, but I appreciate his stepping forward to blast this film for its erroneous premise. McCain probably knows more than any other person in Congress about torture -- because he is the only person in Congress to have been repeatedly tortured (as a prisoner in the Vietnam War of the North Vietnamese). He has also sat on senate committees that were privy to the uselessness of the torture techniques that were used.
Sadly though, many people will leave this movie thinking they have witnessed the truth, and they will be inclined to support using torture in the future since they'll think it worked this time. But it didn't. It just justified the use of torture against our own soldiers by our enemies, and that's all it will do in the future.
I'm sure this is a well-made movie, because it was made by some very talented people. It's just a shame that they didn't think they could make a good movie by telling the truth -- because the truth about the hunt for bin-Laden (who was NOT found using torture) is a very compelling story.
