'Zero Dark Thirty' Writer: Torture Worked

Screenwriter Mark Boal may have officially kissed his chances at a second Best Screenplay Oscar goodbye.

The Academy Award winning writer behind The Hurt Locker penned the screenplay for Zero Dark Thirty, a film the Left has accused of endorsing “torture” tactics to find Osama bin Laden.

Boal answered those critics during a speech at Loyola Marymount University last night, saying the film made that connection because that’s how it all went down.

” … If we left the torture out, we’d be whitewashing history. Interrogations were clearly part of how this lead developed.”

Boal wasn’t done. He then turned his attention to the U.S. senators who launched an investigation into Zero Dark Thirty because they didn’t agree with that historical interpretation.

“You know, it’s fine for some senators to say they think I’m wrong about some of the scenes depicted in the movie. It’s an entirely different matter for them to launch an investigation over it,” he said, adding, “As far as I know, Congress hasn’t launched a formal investigation of filmmaking since the House UnAmerican Activities Committee did so in the late 1940s. I really don’t think we need a remake of that.”

The term “brave” is used so loosely in Hollywood these days, often when describing an actor who dares to make a public statement that 98 percent of his or her peers thoroughly endorse.

What Boal said yesterday was brave, period. He dared to support a position considered anathema to most of his industry colleagues, spoke out for the First Amendment and poked a figurative thumb in the eye of Oscar voters more than eager to put politics above craftsmanship.