The director of “Zero Dark Thirty’’ has fired back at critics who say the grisly torture scenes of al Qaeda prisoners in the controversial movie about the hunt for Osama bin Laden are distorted and inaccurate.
The Hollywood Reporter states that Kathryn Bigelow, in accepting awards for best picture and director from the New York Film Critics Circle Monday night, told the group:
"I thankfully want to say that I’m standing in a room of people who understand that depiction is not endorsement.
“And if it was, no artist could ever portray inhumane practices; no author could ever write about them; and no filmmaker could ever delve into the naughty subjects of our time."
The CIA has been criticized for helping Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal during production and the Senate Intelligence Committee is trying to determine if the agency improperly gave them classified information.
But echoing Bigalow, Boal told the film critics, “In case anyone is asking, we stand by the film.
“I think at the end of the day, we made a film that allows us to look back at the past in a way that gives us a more clear-sighted appraisal of the future."
Some critics say the film’s implication that the use of torture helped lead to finding bin Laden is wrong.
Sen. John McCain, who endured confinement and torture during the Vietnam War, said the film’s interrogation scenes, which include waterboarding are unacceptable.
“It is hateful. It is harmful, incredibly harmful to the United States of America. To somehow make people believe that it was responsible for the elimination of Osama bin Laden is, in my view, unacceptable.’’
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