Usually when a film claims to feature a
woman hunting for the world’s most wanted man it's about a love starved
Kathrine Heigl desperately searching for some buff bloke known only as “The
One”. Well that's not exactly what Zero Dark Thirty is about unless I
missed something and woman now go gushy over trampy old terrorists.
Released in 2012, the film details the long and difficult search for the
scabby, global mega-cunt, Bin Laden. In particular we follow Maya, a tough
young CIA agent who spends over a decade obsessing over his whereabouts before
eventually discovering the exact location of his fortified twat-hovel. The film
also goes to great lengths to accurately depict the way in which Bin Laden's
complex was raided by American forces in an assault that may or may not result
in his death. Spoiler alert- Obviously it fucking did- End of Spoilers.
 |
| I'm sure she'll be in a bikini soon... |
I suppose one of the things that would have
helped to get the people in to see Zero Dark Thirty would have been the
publicity it received from all of the torture controversy that erupted. I guess
nothing gets the punters in like some sad twat in an anorak moaning about the
glorification of violence. However, this time the sad sack in particular was
the American President as it was reported that The West Wings Martin Sheen was appalled by the
films moral leanings in depicting the benefits of torture.
To summarise what we see, the film
basically shows the CIA torturing the fuck out of some sinister cunt resulting
in the acquisition of information that became useful in their search. The
methods on display involve stringing the suspects up, stripping them naked and
occasionally walking them about with a lead like a dog. So not exactly
something entirely pleasurable but nothing that you wouldn't get at your local
sex dungeon either I suppose. I think if I was a terrorist being tortured like
this by the Americans, I'd just do my best to get an erection and confuse the
hell out of them. The two main issues that some people had with the film were
that firstly it glorified the use of torture and secondly that torture in
reality allegedly never aided the capture of Bin Laden. Well I suppose the
easiest way to defend both points is to highlight the simple fact that in Zero
Dark Thirty torture doesn't actually do either of this at all.
The film does show a suspect revealing a
useful name after being tortured but it turns out to be a name that they'd had
all along and just neglected to fully investigate. However there's also a scene
in which the same suspect refuses to talk despite the abuse which results in
the CIA failing to stop a bomb explosion. So presumably this shows that torture
doesn't actually work at all and that the ingenious detective work that the film
then goes on to depict is actually the more effective method of acquiring
reliable information. In many ways I think the film presents these scenes in an
unflinching, unbiased way so that it's kind of allowing you to take from it
whatever preconceived opinions you may already have. I suppose I should also
clarify that Martin Sheen actually later denied his opposition to this film
claiming that he'd actually signed something denouncing it by complete
accident. This might sound like a stupid thing for him to have done but
considering he's also the man that raised Charlie Sheen I'm guessing it
probably won't go down as his life's biggest fucking mistake.
Since then the film has been criticised for
several factual inaccuracies but in all honesty anyone getting into a fanny-flap about that can go fuck
themselves. Zero Dark Thirty is not a documentary but a movie and as
such needs to condense over ten years worth of history down into a three hour
running time. Obviously they've not just made shit up but things will have been
composited or skimmed over or perhaps even cut for the purposes of the
narrative. What the film does is give a feel as to what's happened since 2001
and then encourages the audience to have a conversation about it. If you can
imagine that the last decade is just some fat bloke chasing after an ice-cream
van then this film would be like a cocktail of his sweat in a mug. Drinking the
buttery salt-water down would give a flavour as to what's gone on but for the
full story you'd really have to do some extra research as well.
 |
| You know shit's going down when the soldiers have four eyes. |
I think that in the end though, what I
really loved about Zero Dark Thirty was in how it completely avoided
descending into triumphalism. There's a bit that I can't stand near the end of Superman
2 in which the Kryptonian do-gooder flies towards The White House whilst
carrying the American flag. Now I've nothing against America particularly, but
patriotic bullshit like that kind of causes me to violently puke cynicism down
my tits. In any other hands, a film about the execution of the world’s most
wanted many could easily have become a “three cheers for America” film. However
under the direction of Kathryn Bigelow it instead becomes a movie about how
shite and grim the world actually is. Yes the big bearded bastard might have
eventually had his evil fucking brains blown out but everything is still fucked
and a lot of people have died during his life. The controversy surrounding the
depiction of torture here is probably unfair but if a film can get us chatting
about issues like that then I guess that's no bad thing. Personally I'm against
the use of torture because I don't think it exactly gives us the morale high-ground
and is probably a pretty effective recruitment tool for more brainless human
bombs to be used against us. Also sometimes when I'm really lonely I Google
instructions for homemade explosives so that the Government starts watching
everything I do and I get a little free company.
Follow this blog or I'll fucking cut you.
No comments :
Post a Comment