Senate Ends ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Probe
The Sentate Intelligence Committee has closed an investigation into whether Zero Dark Thirty filmmakers had “inappropriate” contact with the CIA, Reuters reports, a day after the film lost out to Argo for Best Picture at the 85th Academy Awards.
The news came from an anonymous congressional aide who said the committee had gathered information from the CIA and from director Kathryn Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal, and would not take any further action.
Zero Dark Thirty, which tells the story of the decade-long hunt for Osama bin Laden, caused a stir in Washington, with Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Carl Levin (D-Michigan) and John McCain (R-Arizona), calling the film’s depiction of torture “grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the location of” bin Laden. The now-closed Senate panel initially said it was looking into whether Boal and Bigelow were given “inappropriate” access to secret material.
Bigelow addressed the criticisms in interviews as well as in a piece for the Los Angeles Times, in which the director said while the film could not ignore the subject of torture, she believed bin Laden “was found due to ingenious detective work.”
Many believe the political fallout of Zero Dark Thirty led to its dry night at the Oscars, as well as a snub for Bigelow in the Best Director category.