After winning an Academy Award for Best Picture for her unofficial US military recruitment video The Hurt Locker, director Katheryn Bigelow's follow up film Zero Dark Thirty took a stab at depicting on film the lead up to the assassination of Osama Bin Laden, complete with endlessly annoying shaky cam and a thick topping of propaganda. If critics should have been taken to task for overlooking the pro-war sentiments at the heart of The Hurt Locker, with Zero Dark Thirty it was the film's portrayal of torture as an effective method to gain information which should have raised eyebrows. Bigelow's movie not only implies that torture does work, but that it was instrumental in leading to the capture of Osama bin Laden. Indeed, there was a considerable amount of controversy when it emerged that Bigelow had worked closely with agents from the CIA to create this impression, even as a report from the Senate Intelligence Committee found that "coercive techniques" did not lead to actionable intelligence. It's easy to dismiss this with "it's only a movie", but when that movie serves as propaganda for a deliberate deception critics should be ready to hold filmmakers to account. Just as American Sniper was lambasted for attempting to justify the killing of women and children, Zero Dark Thirty's shortcomings should have been pointed out - it was a far cry from a "compelling historical document worthy of praise." Do you agree that the movies on this list didn't deserve their critical acclaim? Let us know in the comments.
