THE OSCAR ISSUE / HUFFINGTON / 02.10-17.13
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alex gibney
film is so well-made.
examination of more than six million pagLet me say, as many others have, that
es of records from the Intelligence Comthe film is a stylistic masterwork, an inmunity, the CIA did not obtain its first
spiration in terms of technique from the
clues about the identity of bin Laden’s
lighting, camera, acting and viscerally
courier from “CIA detainees subjected to
realistic production and costume design.
coercive interrogation techniques.”
Also, as a screen story, it is admirable for
I want to focus my concern on three
its refusal to funnel the hunt for bin Laden ways in which the film is fundamentally
into a series of movie clichés — love interreckless when it comes to torture.
ests, David versus Goliath
struggles, etc. More than
1) THE VERY STYLE OF THE FILM
that, the film does an adBeautifully lit, the film is
mirable job of showing how
often shot with a handheld
WHEN IT
complex was the detective
camera to emphasize the
COMES TO
work that led to the death
urgency of a cinema verite
TORTURE
THE
,
of bin Laden. It’s all the
documentary, which lends
FILM
FAILS
THE
more infuriating therefore,
the narrative a false sense
TRUTH TEST
because the film is so attenof “truthiness.” This is one
FOR BOTH
tive to the accuracy of dereason I bristled when Boal
tails —from wiretapping to
said he shouldn’t be held reACCOUNTANTS
use of informants to careful
sponsible for the film’s conAND POETS.
informed analysis — that it
tent because it is “a movie
is so sloppy when it comes
not a documentary.” If the
to portraying the efficacy of
notion of a documentary is
torture. That may seem like a small thing
so distasteful, why shoot it like one?
but it is not. If we believe that torture
On the other hand, Bigelow says this
“got” bin Laden, then we will be more
film is a “journalistic account.” So which
prone to accept the view that a good “end” one is it? You can’t have it both ways.
can justify brutal “means.”
According to those who have access to
2) THE TRUTH OF THE MATTER
the classified files, torture was not key to
ZD30 opens in darkness, with the
unearthing the first key to finding bin Lad- soundtrack haunted by the voices of vicen. One can refer to the press release of
tims and rescue workers on 9/11. Then
the Senate Intelligence Committee’s study
the film cuts to a CIA “black site,” where
of the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation
a man named Ammar is being tortured
Program, which concludes, following the
by a CIA agent named Dan (Jason Clarke)
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