LOS ANGELES -- Zero Dark Thirty is a hit with critics and early audiences, but a bipartisan thumbs-down from Washington may dim the once-bright Oscar chances for Kathryn Bigelow's fact-based thriller about the hunt for Osama bin Laden.
The film has come under fire for misrepresenting the role of torture in tracking down the al Qaeda leader. Last week, the battle took to the airwaves, as Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., went on radio and TV to decry the film.
"You believe when watching this movie that waterboarding and torture leads to information that leads then to the elimination of Osama bin Laden. That's not the case," McCain said on CNN's The Situation Room, adding that torture had yielded false information from detainees. The former prisoner of war explained that he was speaking out because "movies, particularly by very highly credentialed producers, directors and cast, [do] have an effect on public opinion."
The slam -- and on a subject as provocative as torture -- is part of a public relations nightmare in an industry where perception often trumps reality. McCain's remarks echoed complaints in a letter that he and Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Carl Levin, D-Mich., sent to Sony last week. The lawmakers asked Sony to correct the record; so far, the studio has not responded.
Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal have previously said that their movie "shows that no single method was necessarily responsible for solving the manhunt, nor can any single scene taken in isolation fairly capture the totality of efforts the film dramatizes."
Previous complaints
The senators' criticism follows accusations by conservative watchdog groups and politicians that the filmmakers improperly gained access to intelligence sources.
Zero Dark Thirty, starring Jessica Chastain, has been considered an Oscar front-runner after winning best picture from the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Board of Review; the film has also been nominated for several Golden Globes.
Around Hollywood, consultants working on the awards campaigns of rival films proclaimed that Zero Dark had suffered a hit.
Said longtime awards consultant Murray Weissman, who is working on several films from Sony competitor Paramount Pictures, "When you get people involved at the highest level of government condemning your movie, it puts a black cloud over it."
At the same time, some commentators are voicing support for the filmmakers and decrying what they regard as Capitol Hill grandstanding. Washington Post columnist David Ignatius accused the senators of sending an "intemperate" letter. "Why are the Senate's most prominent members seeking to intimidate film studios and writers from discussing an issue of critical national importance?" he wrote.
Zero Dark Thirty is a major Oscar hope for Sony Pictures. Though the studio didn't finance the $45 million picture -- money instead came from 26-year-old Silicon Valley financier Megan Ellison -- the studio is spending millions to promote the film in the hope that it can triumph at the Academy Awards.
Zero Dark follows a character named Maya, a CIA agent, on an eight-year quest to track down bin Laden -- a quest that ends in the deadly raid on the al Qaeda leader's Pakistan compound in May 2011.
The first section of the film portrays the torture of a detainee at a CIA "black site" that yields a critical intelligence lead.
Big early numbers
Box office has been strong since the film opened in very limited release. In its early days in five theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the picture earned an impressive average of nearly $25,000 per screen.
But a larger test of whether Zero Dark can weather the controversy will be its national rollout in January.
The movie opens in 25 cities (including some in North Texas) on Jan. 4 and everywhere else on Jan. 11, a day after Oscar nominations will be announced.
