Dark Zero Thirty, Torture & Kathyrn Bigelow

The Phantom has just returned from the theater, where he spent two hours watching Zero Dark Thirty,  a film he expected to detest because it is said to suggest we would never have found and killed Osama Bin Laden without the use of torture. 

The Phantom is always particularly annoyed by film makers who depict a historical event or events depicting what happens in hospitals or newsrooms which would never have happened that way in real life because the screenplay writer has got the essence of what makes those worlds work all wrong. These auteurs defend themselves with the old "Well, it's not supposed to be real. It's just entertainment."  

A disingenuous dodge if ever there was one.  If you are creating a world for the viewer, and you get it wrong for the sake of a cheap thrill or a Hollywood moment, you have failed. Just admit it. You don't know what you are talking about and you have no business writing or filming what you don't know.

So, the Phantom entered the movie theater in a snit. 

But, and here the Phantom must confess, he must have missed something, because, as he watched the film, and he was looking for this, the statement that information obtained from torture was critical to tracking down Osama Bin Laden went right by his notice. In fact, it seemed to the Phantom most if not all the torture scenes led to no useful information, or to information which was later found in other ways and the most important information was sitting in a file, overlooked until some young eager beaver uncovered it. The information in the file was obtained by interrogation, but the clip shown of the man who claimed he had buried the messenger showed no torture at all.

The only quibble with the film from the Phantom is they spent way too long on repetitive torture scenes which led nowhere, and no time at all showing the model of the Osma Bin Laden compound built in the American desert and the practice and training of the SEALS who would attack the actual compound later. That would have been interesting to see.

What was interesting to the Phantom is the extensive competence implied or shown in the film, with the use of GPS to track down the actual messenger, the use of trade craft to follow him and, ultimately the flight of the stealth helicopters through the mountain passes of Afghanistan and Pakistan to Abbotabad and Osama's compound.

There was a helicopter crash, but unlike the helicopters of Jimmy Carter's mission which went down in a dust storm, there were back ups. What sunk Carter was the symbolism of American helicopters burning in the desert, which seemed emblematic of the incompetence of Carter's presidency. He just could not seem to preside over any successful government operation.

But here we have a difficult mission executed effectively, overcoming obstacles and the vicissitudes of combat and logistics and everyone home safely.

So,  the Phantom has no beef with Ms. Bigelow, or with Zero Dark Thirty. There was no Hollywooding it up, no gratuitous sex, no Hollywood moment, just tough, tense drama.  What's wrong with that?