Reports: 'Zero Dark Thirty' Obsesses Over Waterboarding

“Zero Dark Thirty,” the film revisiting the hunt for Osama bin Laden, doesn’t hit select theaters until Dec. 19. An early peek at the film by two media outlets reveals a focus on waterboarding over President Barack Obama’s direct input into the raid which brought bin Laden to justice.

Showbiz411.com says the new film cares more about interrogation tactics than presidential maneuvering.

President Obama makes a brief appearance seen off a TV and it’s not necessarily positive. While American intelligence is water boarding prisoners, Obama is seen saying he doesn’t believe in torture. The whole first fifteen minutes or so is taken up with the waterboarding of a prisoner. Once you see it, you’ll be writing to your congressman to prevent it from happening again.

Information gleaned from waterboarding proved pivotal in the search for the elusive terrorist. Is that fact glossed over in the film in favor of finger wagging over the enhanced interrogation tactic? Sure sounds that way, and if so, it will certain curry favor with film critics and Oscar voters alike.

Time Magazine‘s Richard Corliss uses his media perch to bash both George W. Bush and Mitt Romney out of context while lauding the film. Corliss also confirms the waterboarding sequences as well as the lack of overt political content in the film.

Of course, the film didn’t have to be political to help Obama. Had the film hit theaters prior to the election, it would have given media outlets plenty of excuses to praise Obama’s decision to greenlight the raid on bin Laden all over again.

And we’ve already learned how the Obama administration aided the film’s creation, a fact Corliss conveniently ignores.