Hollywood in bed with the CIA and glorifying torture on way to winning 2013 best film Oscar
16 December 2012 Glenn Greenwald USA and the War on Terror
It is a sign of the times that Liberal Hollywood has produced the ultimate hagiography of the most secretive arm of America’s National Security State and bestowed it with every accolade.
By Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian
15 December 2012
Glenn Greenwald explains in this article extract, and in the video, why he believes Zero Dark Thirty — the film which purports to show how the CIA discovered Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan — is politically and morally reprehensible, and a glorification of torture. The film is already being touted as a front-runner for the 2013 Oscars. If you do not want to see "spoliers", do not read the article.
Glenn Greenwald on the morally and politically reprehensible pro-torture propaganda of Zero Dark Thirty.
THE MOST PERNICIOUS propagandistic aspect of Zero Dark Thirty is not its pro-torture message.
It is its overarching, suffocating jingoism. This film has only one perspective of the world – the CIA’s – and it uncritically presents it for its entire 2 1/2 hour duration.
All agents of the US government – especially in its intelligence and military agencies – are heroic, noble, self-sacrificing crusaders devoted to stopping The Terrorists; their only sin is all-consuming, sometimes excessive devotion to this task.
Almost every Muslim and Arab in the film is a villainous, one-dimensional cartoon figure: dark, seedy, violent, shadowy, menacing, and part of a Terrorist network (the sole exception being a high-level Muslim CIA official, who takes a break from praying to authorize the use of funds to bribe a Kuwaiti official for information; the only good Muslim is found at the CIA).
Hollywood in bed with the CIA and glorifying torture on way to winning 2013 best film Oscar
16 December 2012 Glenn Greenwald USA and the War on Terror
It is a sign of the times that Liberal Hollywood has produced the ultimate hagiography of the most secretive arm of America’s National Security State and bestowed it with every accolade.
By Glenn Greenwald
The Guardian
15 December 2012
Glenn Greenwald explains in this article extract, and in the video, why he believes Zero Dark Thirty — the film which purports to show how the CIA discovered Osama bin Laden’s hideout in Pakistan — is politically and morally reprehensible, and a glorification of torture. The film is already being touted as a front-runner for the 2013 Oscars. If you do not want to see "spoliers", do not read the article.
Glenn Greenwald on the morally and politically reprehensible pro-torture propaganda of Zero Dark Thirty.
THE MOST PERNICIOUS propagandistic aspect of Zero Dark Thirty is not its pro-torture message.
It is its overarching, suffocating jingoism. This film has only one perspective of the world – the CIA’s – and it uncritically presents it for its entire 2 1/2 hour duration.
All agents of the US government – especially in its intelligence and military agencies – are heroic, noble, self-sacrificing crusaders devoted to stopping The Terrorists; their only sin is all-consuming, sometimes excessive devotion to this task.
Almost every Muslim and Arab in the film is a villainous, one-dimensional cartoon figure: dark, seedy, violent, shadowy, menacing, and part of a Terrorist network (the sole exception being a high-level Muslim CIA official, who takes a break from praying to authorize the use of funds to bribe a Kuwaiti official for information; the only good Muslim is found at the CIA).
Other than the last scene in which the bin Laden house is raided, all of the hard-core, bloody violence is carried out by Muslims, with Americans as the victims.
The CIA heroine dines at the Islamabad Marriott when it is suddenly blown up; she is shot at outside of a US embassy in Pakistan; she sits on the floor, devastated, after hearing that seven CIA agents, including one of her friends, a "mother of three", has been killed by an Al Qaeda double-agent suicide-bomber at a CIA base in Afghanistan.
News footage is gratuitously shown that reports on the arrest of the attempted Times Square bomber, followed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s pronouncement that "there are some people around the world who find our freedom so threatening that they are willing to kill themselves and others to prevent us from enjoying them." One CIA official dramatically reminds us: "They attacked us on land in ’98, by sea in 2000, and by air in 2001. They murdered 3000 of our citizens in cold blood."
Nobody is ever heard talking about the civilian-destroying violence brought to the world by the US.
The CIA and the US government are the Good Guys, the innocent targets of terrorist violence, the courageous warriors seeking justice for the 9/11 victims. Muslims and Arabs are the dastardly villains, attacking and killing without motive (other than the one provided by Bloomberg) and without scruples. Almost all Hollywood action films end with the good guys vanquishing the big, bad villain – so that the audience can leave feeling good about the world and themselves – and this is exactly the script to which this film adheres.
None of this is surprising. The controversy preceding the film arose from the deep access and secret information given to the filmmakers by the CIA. As is usually the case, this special access was richly rewarded.
From start to finish, this is the CIA’s film: its perspective, its morality, its side of the story, The Agency as the supreme heroes.
It is a true sign of the times that Liberal Hollywood has produced the ultimate hagiography of the most secretive arm of America’s National Security State, while liberal film critics lead the parade of praise and line up to bestow it with every imaginable accolade.
Like the bin Laden killing itself, this is a film that tells Americans to feel good about themselves, to feel gratitude for the violence done in their name, to perceive the War-on-Terror-era CIA not as lawless criminals but as honorable heroes.
Nothing inspires loyalty and gratitude more than making people feel good about themselves. Few films accomplish that as effectively and powerfully as this one does. That’s why critics of the film inspire anger almost as much as critics of the bin Laden killing itself: what is being maligned is a holy chapter in the Gospel of America’s Goodness.
Glenn Greenwald’s full Guardian article, from which this was extracted is Zero Dark Thirty: CIA hagiography, pernicious propaganda
