PARK CITY, Utah -
Osama bin Laden movie "Zero Dark Thirty" may be an entertaining film,
but it fails to capture the true nature of the work of those involved in
his hunt and capture, according to three former CIA agents.
Nada Bakos, Cindy Storer and Marty Martin are featured in HBO
documentary "Manhunt," which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival
this week. It offers an alternative look at the long search by U.S.
agents for the al Qaeda leader, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011.
"Zero Dark Thirty," which has been nominated for five Oscars, portrays
the hunt for bin Laden through the eyes of a young CIA officer, played
by Jessica Chastain, and is described by the filmmakers as based on
first-hand accounts.
"It's entertaining. It's a
movie, that's the purpose of the film. What it's not, it's not a
documentary, it's not a completely accurate portrayal of how national
security works, or even how the CIA works," Bakos, a former CIA officer,
said of the Hollywood thriller in comments to Reuters.
"Manhunt" attempts to shed light on the larger scale of the operation,
dating back nearly 20 years. It focuses on "The Sisterhood" - a team of
female CIA analysts leading the search - and "Alec Station," the code
name for the larger group involved in the hunt.
All three CIA agents retired from service in 2007 or 2008 and were given clearance to talk to the "Manhunt" filmmakers.
They agreed that the U.S. Navy SEAL team raid scene on bin Laden's
Pakistan compound was well done in the Hollywood movie. But they were
irked by the "Zero Dark Thirty" portrayal of CIA agent "Jessica," based
on real-life agent Jennifer Matthews (played by Jennifer Ehle), who died
in a suicide bombing.
"I was so angry at this
heated depiction of Jennifer as some fluffy-headed schoolgirl ... I just
lost respect for it right there," said Storer, an analyst who tracked
bin Laden from 1995.
"The portrayal of who we're
supposed to assume is Jennifer Matthews is not accurate. This was not
representative of who she was as a person," Bakos added.
Bakos said the controversial "Zero Dark Thirty" torture scenes, included waterboarding and beatings, were "horrific to watch."
And Martin, who ran clandestine operations in top field cases in the
1990s, said, "the interrogation stuff - that was totally inaccurate as
well." He declined to be more specific.
In "Manhunt," the CIA search is juxtaposed with journalist Peter Bergen's own insight into al Qaeda.
Bergen produced a CNN interview with bin Laden and correspondent Peter
Arnett in 1997 that marked the first time the al Qaeda leader was
profiled on U.S. television, when he said he wanted to harm Americans.
Director Greg Barker said he wanted to present as many details as
possible by showcasing how both the CIA and how Bergen covered the
events, and to structure the documentary in a way that would inform and
captivate viewers.
"It was a story that I had to
understand for myself, and I saw it also as a spy movie. I make
narrative documentary features that play like movies so I wanted to find
very compelling characters, who through them, we can enter into the
last decade," Barker told Reuters.
Barker said
he hoped the documentary would give viewers a better understanding of
the detailed search for America's No.1 enemy, and a cause for reflection
in future.
"I think there's going to be another
crisis, and we'll all want the government to do something to prevent it
from happening again. That's what we all felt like after 9/11 ... It's
time now to step back and tell this story in a compelling way that
people want to watch but also so that people can reflect," Barker said.
"Manhunt" will be shown on cable channel HBO later this year. — Reuters
0 comments:
Post a Comment