If you haven’t seen Zero Dark Thirty—Kathryn Bigelow’s breathtaking dramatization of the hunt for Osama bin Laden—that’s understandable. It’s a busy time of year. Apparently, the Senate Intelligence Committee has seen Zero Dark Thirty, though, and they’d like to know just how Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal got all the information they did. They’re saying the CIA may have given out classified information, and the senators want to find out “whether CIA personnel are responsible for the portrayal of harsh interrogation practices, and in particular the suggestion that they were effective.” This comes on the heels of Sen. John McCain going positively ballistic over the film’s implication that torture was involved in figuring out where exactly bin Laden was hiding out. So, depending on who you ask, the Senate probe is either to criticize Zero Dark Thirty for its inaccurate portrayal of torture or its much too accurate portrayal of torture. The CIA’s acting chief, Michael Morrell, issued an exceedingly rare letter addressing the issue last month, saying, “What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts. CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product” …
