Martin Sheen had been one of the voices protesting Zero Dark Thirty, urging Academy members not to vote for the film. After Bigelow was snubbed by the Academy as a result; the most critically acclaimed film was a standout this year specifically for the directing, and yet there was no party for Bigelow as there was for Ben Affleck. At any rate, the reversal: On consideration,...
In an eloquently written column by director Kathryn Bigelow she directly addresses the many criticisms against Zero Dark Thirty: “Experts disagree sharply on the facts and particulars of the intelligence hunt, and doubtlessly that debate will continue. As for what I personally believe, which has been the subject of inquiries, accusations and speculation, I think Osama...
Did you hear the one about the guy who won his second term as president with a bad economy? If you were online this past election season you no doubt felt the pulse of people power as shot through Twitter, Facebook and various other media streams. If Congressman Paul Ryan was caught faking a photo op at a soup kitchen, or Mitt Romney caught handing out checks to people...
Steve Pond talked exclusively to Mark Boal and Kathryn Bigelow about the issue of whether Zero Dark Thirty advocates torture, as in, torture was used and torture worked. But in so doing, he kind of denies that the film makes a very clear line from torture to name of courier, courier to Bin Laden: “The movie has been, and probably will continue to be, put in political...
Guest Essay by Zade Constantine Film provides a vast canon to explore, retroactively, trends and ideologies. The distinct relationship between society and film is suited for scholars of history and those who understand the dense social, political and economic landscapes that surround a particularly creative time for film. So specific and noteworthy are chunks of American...
Written by Craig Kennedy What do you do when you have, what I and many think, is the best American movie of the year and it also turns out to be the most controversial movie of the year? That’s Kathryn Bigelow and Mark Boal’s Zero Dark Thirty for those of you keeping score at home. In a vacuum, it probably doesn’t matter, but in the Oscar bubble, it...
It hasn’t been easy, these past few days, watching the war rage on about the torture depicted in Zero Dark Thirty. On the one hand, you have people like Chris Hayes, Boing Boing’s Xeni Jardin, US senators and the chief of the CIA all condemning Zero Dark Thirty for saying, basically, yeah, we tortured, and yeah, it worked. On the other hand, if you live in...