Tuesday, April 14, 2015
ethical dilemmas
The biggest ethical dilemma present in the film Zero Dark Thirty is the issue of torture. It is not psychologically healthy for the person being tortured or for the person doing the torturing. It was definitely difficult to see the scene where the prisoner was given food and a drink and he held on so tightly to the bottle and stuffed the food in his face and he was then stuffed in a box. I understand the importance of gathering information from guilty people and I guess the most effective way to gather the information is by any means necessary. The man who was torturing the prisoner in the beginning of movie eventually went back to the United States because he needed a break from the kind of life he was living. There are major psychological repercussions that are caused from imposing incredible physical harm to another person. The prisoner most likely ends in death, but the torturer has to live with the knowledge of causing someone's death. Life can be isolating especially in a foreign country.
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I like the concept that torture affects both the torturer and the victim psychologically. You have brought up a different topic I have not thought about. The fact that Dan (the interrogator) went back to the United States to escape it all tells that he isn’t a completely inhumane person just for the torture since it was ultimately to restore justice, however his overwhelming amount of guilt may have caused to not be able to go further. Dan is an example of an American trying to do right by his country meanwhile showing the dark side of U.S. intervention in the Middle East such as these actions of torture implemented on those protecting terrorists.
ReplyDeleteIt is good to point out how much the torturing affected Dan. It is also clear in the film that Maya does not look too comfortable when she observes people being tortured. It is one thing to be a soldier and fight for your country and kill other men, but torturing someone is slow, and personal, and cruel. It could definitely cause psychological problems on both sides. Though, of course, it cannot be disputed that it is worse for the person being tortured.
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