Torture

Why I Probably Won’t Watch ‘Zero Dark Thirty’

Turns out they falsely link waterboarding with ascertaining the location of Bin Laden:

The film includes wrenching scenes of a terrorist suspect being waterboarded and subjected to other forms of torture by C.I.A. operatives; the suspect eventually surrenders information that helps lead to bin Laden. Bigelow maintains that everything in the film is based on first-hand accounts, but the waterboarding scene, which is likely to stir up controversy, appears to have strayed from real life. According to several official sources, including Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the identity of bin Laden’s courier, whose trail led the C.I.A. to the hideout in Pakistan, was not discovered through waterboarding. "It’s a movie, not a documentary," Boal said. "We’re trying to make the point that waterboarding and other harsh tactics were part of the C.I.A. program." Still, Bigelow said, "the film doesn’t have an agenda, and it doesn’t judge. I wanted a boots-on-the-ground experience."

Even with this egregious falsehood, and considering the war crimes being depicted, I might've seen it out of curiosity. But I simply can't endure torture scenes, and that tips the balance for me. Torture porn makes me oogy. I can watch death on film all day long -- certainly fights and the like. Torture, however, is intolerable. I feel the same way about scenes featuring abused animals. Call me squeamish but nope. No interest in watching a guy being relentlessly tortured, especially by American military personnel.