Maybe they're right, maybe ON THIS OCCASION they didn't use torture, good for them, what saints.

McCain represents Arizona, not Arkansas...

this is water boring.

... fact-based drama...

I have no idea what that could mean. Is Harry Potter a 'fact-based drama' because there is a King's Cross Station?

Many films with military stories have the assistance of the Pentagon. If you're making a film that has a number of planes, tanks, or high-end weaponry, the Pentagon contributes - with stipulations.

Can't comment until I see the film. But leaving out torture from it (even if it isn't factual) would miss representing a zeitgeist of the "war on terror".
All the commentators of this issue have missed the point about torture. It doesn't matter if it leads to information or not. If you have a moral principle of not torturing human beings, that is all that matters.

Kathryn Bigelow, head of America's Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda.

Can't comment until I see the film. But leaving out torture from it (even if it isn't factual) would miss representing a zeitgeist of the "war on terror".
All the commentators of this issue have missed the point about torture. It doesn't matter if it leads to information or not. If you have a moral principle of not torturing human beings, that is all that matters.

Its relevant- if you show torture directly leading to the capture of Bin Laden some might think its justified in certain circumstances.

It wasn't- and its not.

No denial that the US tortures..... that's the key. Its appearance in this particular movie is at worst artist's license. Bottom line... the US IS a torture nation.

And I should add, I'm ashamed.

Since when has historical veracity been at all a matter of concern in American films?
For example, who was it that retrieved an enigma machine from a captured U boat? Certainly not the USN ship that Hollywood portrayed.

Part of the role of the American film industry is to 'big up' the US.
Pip pip

Warerboarding... Never. Now Rendition, that's completely different and ok. If you trust McCain's analysis, please remember this is the same guy that agreed Sarah Palin would make a fine vice president. That kind of judgement call raises more questions about his comments than anything else.

Like The Hurt Locker, this is just more Hollywood war-violence-porn. Kids get murdered in schools in America, while they make movies like this showing that violence is the answer to everything, and wonder why? Start arming the teachers is the next step. Then Bigelow can make a movie about teacher shootouts.

Most "movies" are fiction and therefore, by there very nature, "inaccurate".

McCain is insinuating that he knows what happened. The whole story is BS. BL was on ice for over a year, as a retirement present for Robert gates. lol

Yes that's right John.

In other news - Bambi's mother revealed as "mostly paint"

Bigelow undoubtedly included torture in her film because she knows that, like sex, torture sells. The very popular FOX tv action series "24" had its hero, Jack Bauer, torturing a bad guy about every other episode. Such scenes appeal to the aggressive impulses in the audience, are the source of sadistic pleasure. It's about helping the audience to get off.

Should not be surprising coming from Bigelow. She made her name as a director of action films that appeal to a testosterone-driven young male demographic. People were astonished that a female could successfully direct in this genre. Her previous, "The Hurt Locker," is probably the least realistic of the Iraq war features -- least realistic and, therefore, the most popular. A wild ride in the company of a reckless hero who spits in the face of authority. Never mind that any bomb-disposal expert who behaved the way her hero was depicted as behaving would have been taken out of the field immediately and probably court-martialed.

Most people who go to war films don't want a serious-minded reflection on the ugly reality of war. That's a downer. They want an action film, with a lot of explosions and bad guys getting shot in the head. Bigelow delivers.

Diane Feinstein? The same Feinstein that is trying to back legislation around guns?

Trying to get a little too much publicity all at once. Pathetic.
Well I guess the gun scenes were authentic then were they?

McCain is an old bag of water who would criticize his own granddaughter if she refused to eat raw venison that he killed with his AR-15.

Just because McCain didn't break under extreme conditions doesn't mean that others will not.

There is no argument that KSM gave up information that helped to save lives, and info given may have helped to locate UBL. Any sane person will do everything they can to avert more deaths, and Bush's enhanced interrogation techniques did exactly that.

Golly gee whiz. I guess that means that Patton didn't actually kick Rommel's butt like the movie had it. Or that John Wayne didn't win Vietnam single handedly. Wow - how disillusioning.

I note that when looking at reviews of her film 'The Hurt Locker' on Amazon there were a surprisingly large amount of negative comments from soldiers who had served in Iraq. Their criticism? The film was wholly inaccurate in its depiction of the war.
It seems drama will always trump accuracy in Bigelow's world.

Since when have film-makers bothered about historical accuracy?

"Pearl Harbor" or that Enigma-machine film "U571" were examples of "artistic licence" being applied to tell a story.

Ignoring torture issues - Chris Pratt is great and I hope this movie sorts his career right out. Interestingly enough John McCain had a guest spot on Parks and Rec, starring none other than Chris Pratt.

As a general point, I understand that this film is a work of fiction, not depicting real events around Bin Laden's killing......................

It's my impression that The Guardian allows "Skip to comments" to allow readers to remain unburdened by facts, allowing not readers, followers, to blast the usual anti American schadenfreude. I haven't seen the film, but am under the impression that under Obama has stopped, though black sites persist. They use U.S. as foil to allow Brits to not focus on, for example, UK Drones Now sent from UK. HIghlighted in blue is "Sociopathic Joe Klein says it's either their kids or ours." No need to think about the certainty that UK drones hit children, not on purpose, mind you. But those evil Americans must be doing it on purpose. I'm still trying to find out if Bloody Sunday is on one of the massacre stones on The Beeb's new grounds. I'd like to know if a British PM ever apologized for your imperialism. Which was just wonderful, I'm sure. The Anglican Church caves on woman bishops to keep Africa churches. In America there are numerous Episcopalian, same as Anglican, woman bishops and gay priests. Did the Guardian post or print that? What about people in Charlotte, NC, locals with no Southern accents. dressed as clowns telling Neo Nazis they look silly. The Neo Nazis withdraw. Perhaps you could google/ charlotte/clowns vs KKK. On the Southern Poverty Hate site, one woman said most of her Neo Nazi husband's hits came from England. I told the Beeb and Guardian. Watch to see if they come up with some truth about the Uk. The SPLC works with foreign press, as I informed them.

I left out word "torture'" (has stopped). It's awful your government is torturing people. Obama did try to close Guantanamo. Congress wouldn't let him.

There was never this kind of backlash with 24.

and there I was thinking Avatar was a true life depiction, I am totally stunned and disappointed.

'My" country, though when a friend asked me at dinner just after I flew into England last summer, "So you torture" or was it "tortured". I said "So did you", and he agreed. Where? Ireland? When I said our prison industrial complex is almost entirely blacks and latinos, a lady said, "Ours is mostly black and Irish".

Kathryn Bigelow's film about hunt for Bin Laden is 'grossly inaccurate'

As was The DaVinci Code...

America doesn`t torture, my arse!

Obviosly Obama has never listened to Country and western

Nothing in the film contradicts the historical record. Nothing in the film contradicts any claims made in this letter.

They're desperate to make it seem that way. They're adamant to discredit the depictions in the film, because they're sickening and shocking, they bring shame upon the United States, and setting aside the whole "evidence" and "who knew what when" questions, probably accurate.

It's been proven time and again that torture does not result in reliable intelligence. Water boarding and torture were rife during the Bush administration, and they never got Bin Laden did they? Whether John McCain is right or wrong, who cares? He's already made his bed and nobody gives a crap what he has to say about anything.

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You're all missing the big story. Read carefully,

"They claim that Zero Dark Thirty is "grossly inaccurate and misleading in its suggestion that torture resulted in information that led to the capture".

I'm not sure what McCain is complaining about. Who knows if they used torture (sorry, enhanced interrogation techniques) in tracking down bin Laden. But they still have done that. I recall Cheney's thowaway remark regarding the use of stress positions: what's wrong with standing for eight hours? I often stand for eight hours. Does he think that denial of it in this case amounts to denying it has happened at all?

Its a movie, not a documentary.
Idiots who form worldviews based on movies are just that...idiots.

John McCain should take up comedy to go with singing of Beach Boys songs.