Top 5 Films of the Year So Far

[Shorty]

I'd like to redo my list now that I've seen a few more films.

1. The Dark Knight Rises
2. The Hobbit
3. The Avengers
4. Life of Pi
5. Looper

[The Man]

It's not just that it includes waterboarding. It's that it depicts waterboarding as doing something it did not do in real life. Waterboarding did not lead to the capture of Osama bin Laden. The fact that the film depicts it as doing so makes it film is pro-waterboarding in comparison to the actual historical record. The actual historical record indicates that torture is less than useless as a source of useful information, and may in fact have led us to an unnecessary war in Iraq based on faulty testimony, but as a person that relies on this film as a source of information would be unlikely to know this, it gives an inaccurate impression (and one tilted in favour of torture).

And it's not "just a movie". The film explicitly claims to be a chronicle of historical record, and now its defenders are trying to pretend that it does not make these claims. The film is trying to have it both ways - it's trying to pass itself off as a legitimate historical document, but at the same time when it is being called on its glaring and irresponsible inaccuracies, it's pretending to be "just a movie". It's bulltrout.

[charliepanayi]

Again, if the film (which you haven't seen and neither have I) was as explicitly pro-torture as you claim, I don't believe it would be this critically acclaimed. The fact there is a debate suggests it's not as black and white as you claim. And I look forward to watching it and making my own mind up.

[The Man]

There's only "debate" because people are in denial of the fact that the film depicts historical events that did not actually happen. Film critics can be as ignorant of history as the rest of the general public; they do not have any special claim to enlightenment on political matters, and in fact the film has been roundly attacked by many people for butchering history, so your claim that there would not be controversy if the film's butchering of history were not black and white is highly suspect.

[Sephex]

Hey, who spilled Eyes on Each Other into my Lounge? Waitress! WAITRESS! I demand a refund!

[blackmage_nuke]

I havent seen the film or read the entire conversation up until now, but I feel claiming the movie is pro-torture sounds a bit like the people who claimed American Psycho was pro-violence-against-women. Thats just the way the story went, it might depict the torture being sucessful but no doubt the theme is there to provoke arguement.

[The Man]

American Psycho pretty clearly doesn't approve of the acts of its main character, though; in fact, it's a pretty obvious satire of '80s attitudes about capitalism and the sociopathy involved in it. As far as I can tell, there isn't any such critical intent behind Zero Dark Thirty. Depicting something that didn't actually happen and then claiming that your film is factual equates to distorting history, and if that distortion involves making torture look more effective than it actually proved to be, then that equates to a pro-torture bias in my book.