Comments on: “Zero Dark Thirty” — deplorable propaganda http://www.criticaltwenties.in/mediapopularculture/zero-dark-thirty-deplorable-propaganda Powered by Webshore Sat, 21 Mar 2015 06:59:42 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Nick http://www.criticaltwenties.in/mediapopularculture/zero-dark-thirty-deplorable-propaganda#comment-12261 Nick Mon, 07 Jan 2013 00:00:22 +0000 http://www.criticaltwenties.in/?p=5206#comment-12261 Having seen the film, it at best expresses an ineptitude on the part of the United States' intelligence-gathering community (who spend ages using torture to glean inaccurate details from a detainee only to find that the correct information they so desperately wanted was actually just laying forgotten at the bottom of a drawer for five years). Showing a CIA agent torture a man makes the CIA agent look like a calculating monster. Showing a team of U.S. soldiers carrying out a raid on a compound filled with women and children and only two armed men makes U.S. soldiers look like cold-hearted murderers. All of this was depicted by the filmmakers with a very measured hand and you'll take away from this movie exactly what you bring to it, yourself. To call it "deplorable propaganda" is an incredible stretch, as it did not for an instant try to dissuade me from being infuriated by the actions of the protagonists. It could be faulted for being too neutral and dispassionate about a topic that demands outrage but that doesn't make it propaganda. Having seen the film, it at best expresses an ineptitude on the part of the United States’ intelligence-gathering community (who spend ages using torture to glean inaccurate details from a detainee only to find that the correct information they so desperately wanted was actually just laying forgotten at the bottom of a drawer for five years).

Showing a CIA agent torture a man makes the CIA agent look like a calculating monster. Showing a team of U.S. soldiers carrying out a raid on a compound filled with women and children and only two armed men makes U.S. soldiers look like cold-hearted murderers.

All of this was depicted by the filmmakers with a very measured hand and you’ll take away from this movie exactly what you bring to it, yourself. To call it “deplorable propaganda” is an incredible stretch, as it did not for an instant try to dissuade me from being infuriated by the actions of the protagonists.

It could be faulted for being too neutral and dispassionate about a topic that demands outrage but that doesn’t make it propaganda.

]]> By: Lekha http://www.criticaltwenties.in/mediapopularculture/zero-dark-thirty-deplorable-propaganda#comment-12196 Lekha Sat, 05 Jan 2013 11:47:23 +0000 http://www.criticaltwenties.in/?p=5206#comment-12196 Very interesting read Suhrith. As much as I do subscribe to Oscar Wilde's view that art is amoral, movies like these do raise perplexing questions. I was about to cite Leni Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will -- a much acclaimed film even though the message is so disgusting but then, few (except the openly racist) will look to Riefenstahl's film for anything except technical brilliance. While I havent watched Zero Dark Thirty, it is clear that pop culture does shape policy: http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/07/25/the-fiction-behind-torture-policy.html Very interesting read Suhrith. As much as I do subscribe to Oscar Wilde’s view that art is amoral, movies like these do raise perplexing questions. I was about to cite Leni Riefenstahl’s Triumph of the Will — a much acclaimed film even though the message is so disgusting but then, few (except the openly racist) will look to Riefenstahl’s film for anything except technical brilliance.

While I havent watched Zero Dark Thirty, it is clear that pop culture does shape policy:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2008/07/25/the-fiction-behind-torture-policy.html

]]> By: Sundaresan http://www.criticaltwenties.in/mediapopularculture/zero-dark-thirty-deplorable-propaganda#comment-11969 Sundaresan Fri, 28 Dec 2012 16:58:03 +0000 http://www.criticaltwenties.in/?p=5206#comment-11969 Beautifully written. Exhaustive and well researched...Seemed like reading Arun Shourie and that's an awesome thing for me. Beautifully written. Exhaustive and well researched…Seemed like reading Arun Shourie and that’s an awesome thing for me.

]]>