'Zero Dark Thirty' Director Kathryn Bigelow Offers Sobering Statement On Torture

Zero Dark Thirty

Kathryn Bigelow took to the LA Times this morning not to make a case for or against "torture," but to highlight the fact that the movie helps us to remember that it did actually happened.

From the LA Times:

Torture was, however, as we all know, employed in the early years of the hunt. That doesn't mean it was the key to finding Bin Laden. It means it is a part of the story we couldn't ignore. War, obviously, isn't pretty, and we were not interested in portraying this military action as free of moral consequences.

Some interpretations of Bigelow's film 'Zero Dark Thirty' assert that it endorses the practice of torture and misrepresents the role it played — one might remember a certain captive in the film pleading not to be tortured anymore, then providing key information.

Bigelow does note rightly that in the ongoing analysis of the effectiveness of torture "experts disagree sharply on the facts and particulars of the intelligence hunt, and doubtlessly that debate will continue." The controvertible history of torture has remained a sobering detail of the global war on terror.

Still, Bigelow's letter avoids giving an opinion on the morality of torture. About as close as it gets is to say:

This is an important principle to stand up for, and it bears repeating. For confusing depiction with endorsement is the first step toward chilling any American artist's ability and right to shine a light on dark deeds, especially when those deeds are cloaked in layers of secrecy and government obfuscation.