10 Controversial Movies Everyone Misunderstood
4. Zero Dark Thirty
Kathryn Bigelow's dramatisation of the hunt for and assassination of Osama Bin Laden was one of the most critically acclaimed movies of 2012, but its release almost immediately sparked a debate about its depiction of torture.
Some commentators felt that, by showing torture resulting in actionable intelligence which aided in Bin Laden's discovery, it was taking a distinctly pro-torture stance.
But Bigelow's film is trying to take a more "objective," journalistic approach than that, presenting the "facts" of the case - embellished as they undeniably are - and allowing the audience to decide.
The film certainly doesn't sadistically relish any of its torture sequences, which are depicted as harrowing and incredibly unsettling, and as many will conveniently forget, Zero Dark Thirty also features numerous scenes where torture isn't an effective means for gathering intel.
To call the film pro-torture is too simplistic a reading of a complex film that aims to be matter-of-fact about what the U.S. government did in order to locate Bin Laden, much of it terrible.
Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have categorically denied the film to be pro-torture, and though its subject matter naturally invites strong emotional reactions across the political spectrum, it is in no way the piece of propagandist apologia for the government's misdeeds.