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Kathryn Bigelow Issues Statement About Controversy Surrounding Zero Dark Thirty

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While she and her writer/right hand man Mark Boal have been relatively quiet with regards to the controversy surrounding their film, Zero Dark Thirty, and its stance on torture, director Kathryn Bigelow has gone out of her way to change that entirely.

Issuing a statement in the form of an op-ed in the LA Times, saying that “those of us who work in the arts know that depiction is not endorsement,” the director has ultimately proved that this entire discussion has been burying the lead.

By that I mean, at the conclusion of her film, the first though most people have isn’t that a polarizing concept of its appreciation or skewering of the US policy surrounding enhanced interrogation techniques. One is gripped not by this subplot, but by a genuinely superb and beautifully crafted meditation on obsession and how that drives a person. Just because something is depicted, doesn’t mean that the act is condoned. Is the film murky on its political stance? Yes, but then again, isn’t that the age we live in?

All in all, this writer finds this discussion inherently silly, but then again, when politicians get involved, things can tend to get a little overblown.

Also, the director has recently been promoting the film, and you can find a handful of interviews with her, and her film’s star Jessica Chastain, below.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yg8eCg86VpA&version=3&hl=en_US] [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRnFcr7JeKg&version=3&hl=en_US]

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The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Jessica Chastain
www.thedailyshow.com
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Source LA Times

Joshua Brunsting

Josh is a critic, a member of the Online Film Critics Society, a wrestling nerd, a hip-hop head, a father, a cinephile and a man looking to make his stamp on the world, one word at a time.