10 Movie Messages Everybody Misunderstood

8. It's Not Pro-Torture - Zero Dark Thirty

What Everybody Thinks

Kathryn Bigelow's thriller about the epic manhunt for Osama Bin Laden was released to its fair share of controversy, largely pertaining to its portrayal of "enhanced interrogation" - that is, torture.

Torture is shown to result in actionable intelligence throughout the film, and Bigelow's "detached" approach to its depiction was condemned by some as condoning and even glorifying its apparent "necessity."

The Real Message

But it's tough to watch Zero Dark Thirty and really make a good faith argument that it is a flattering endorsement of torture, which is shown in all of its expected brutality and ruthlessness.

Screenwriter Mark Boal himself said, "It's just misreading the film to say that it shows torture leading to the information about bin Laden", and Bigelow herself said, "Do I wish [torture] was not part of that history? Yes. But it was."

Documenting the torture in an un-emotional, unsentimental way as the film does might strike some as cold and even taking a "both sides" approach to the issue, but the focus on the dehumanising nature of torture really says it all.

Bigelow could've shied away from this if she had a different agenda, but she didn't.