Representing torture in <i>Zero Dark Thirty</i> (2012): Popular culture as a site of norm contestation

Schlag, Gabi

doi:10.1177/1750635219864023

Cited by 8 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…When protagonists in top grossing films employ torture, they tend to use it instrumentally and successfully to counter a threat (Delehanty and Kearns 2020). Scholars have documented the persuasive effect that these fanciful scenarios have on public endorsement of torture and on the public belief that torture “works” (Flynn and Salek 2012; Schlag 2021; Green 2005; Mayer 2007; Kearns and Young 2020).…”

Section: Torture Provides Fragmentary and Slow Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

Persuasive and Unpersuasive Critiques of Torture

Hassner¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Torture critics have offered two types of arguments in the hope of swaying public opinion against torture: A pragmatic (consequentialist) argument that “torture doesn’t work” and a moral (deontological) argument about the immorality and cruelty of torture. I present findings from two survey experiments about public support for torture among U.S. adults. The great majority of the respondents in these surveys did not endorse pragmatic arguments. They believed that torture was a quick and effective means of extracting information from detainees who had information about terror attacks. Respondents were unpersuaded by the suggestion that evidence extracted by means of torture might be fragmentary, outdated, or merely corroborative. However, when respondents were informed about the protracted nature of torture, which often requires weeks or months of interrogation before yielding results, their support for torture was lower by 14% in one survey and by 30% in a second survey. Survey participants refused to endorse prolonged torture not because they perceived torture to be ineffective, but because they felt that prolonged torture was cruel. Torture critics would be well advised to steer away from less persuasive arguments about torture inefficacy and instead confront audiences with sobering truths about the cruelty of torture.

show abstract

Section: Torture Provides Fragmentary and Slow Intelligencementioning

confidence: 99%

Persuasive and Unpersuasive Critiques of Torture

Hassner¹

2022

Perspect. polit.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Further, depictions show divergence between two intelligence officers, one of whom is less brutal and intended to represent the audiences’ gaze. Throughout the film, torture is depicted as both common and exceptional where the perpetrators do not suffer any psychological or legal consequences for their actions (Schlag 2019).…”

Section: Entertainment Media and Torturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, focusing on The Bourne Ultimatum and 24 , Brereton and Culloty (2012) describe both lead characters as traumatized protagonists who serve as surrogates for the American audience, combat internal enemies, and provide escapist entertainment. Similarly, drawing from Bordwell’s (1985) film analytic approach to examine Zero Dark Thirty , Schlag (2019) describes the film’s protagonist as a traditional cowboy (or cowgirl in this case) who reluctantly embraces unsavoury means to accomplish her mission. In the film, torture scenes are shot in partial darkness with an up-close, handheld camera to give the viewer a sense of participation in the events.…”

Section: Entertainment Media and Torturementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the clear depictions of torture, the word “torture” itself only appears in Zero Dark Thirty twice (Schlag 2019), which mirrors news media framing of Abu Ghraib (Bennett, Lawrence, and Livingston 2006). Importantly, while the U.S. public is generally tolerant of torture in entertainment media, photographs of actual torture from Abu Ghraib were shocking and served as a “critical prism through which elite and popular views on U.S. foreign policy are refracted” (Andén-Papadopoulos 2008, 24).…”

Section: Entertainment Media and Torturementioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Wait, There’s Torture in Zootopia? Examining the Prevalence of Torture in Popular Movies

Delehanty¹,

Kearns²

2020

Perspect. polit.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Roughly half of the U.S. public thinks that torture can be acceptable in counterterrorism. According to recent research, dramatic depictions of torture increase public support for the practice. Yet we do not know how frequently—and in what context—torture is depicted across popular media. What messages about the acceptability and effectiveness of torture do Americans receive when they watch popular films? To address this question, we coded each incident of torture in the twenty top-grossing films each year from 2008 to 2017 to analyze how torture is portrayed in terms of its frequency, efficacy, and social acceptability. Results show that the majority of popular films—including films aimed toward children—have at least one torture scene. Across films, the messages sent about torture are fairly consistent. As expected, movies tend to depict torture as effective. Further, how movies portray torture is also a function of who is perpetrating it. Specifically, protagonists are more likely to torture for instrumental reasons or in response to threats and are more likely to do so effectively. In contrast, antagonists are more likely to use torture as punishment and to torture women. The frequency and nature of torture’s depiction in popular films may help explain why many in the public support torture in counterterrorism.

show abstract

“…For example, her cinematographic style has been theorised in terms of its relationship with culture and mythology, but less attention has been paid to locating gendered subjects in key scenes (King 2017;McSweeney 2019). So too are there critical debates surrounding the ethics of torture portrayal, the framing of history and of Maya's female identity, although not in relation to technical and spatial composition (Coll 2013;Schlag 2019). Similarly, much has been written about gendered relationships, spatial com-position and viewer identification, particularly in the opening torture scene of the film, but these debates have not explored the mythological and cultural foundations for its visual cartography (Åhäll 2016;Mantoan 2018;Purse 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%