John McCain and Dianne Feinstein were two of the senators who wrote a letter to Sony condemning the portrayal of the crime.
Now streaming on Netflix, Chris Pratt played a member of Seal Team Six in the film, even playing the character that killed Osama Bin Laden himself.
Guardians of the Galaxy movie was significant for Chris Pratt's career. He had transformed into a ripped-action hero from his well-known character playing roles for comedic relief. The actor also tried his luck in another film before becoming a part of the Marvel series. In that film, he packed on muscle and totted a gun for a mission, technically for a film that wasn't an action movie, 2012's Jessica Chastain-starring Zero Dark Thirty.
The movie was surrounded by controversies. One controversy is that the movie was released in October, ahead of a presidential election. This was seen as a partisan move by Sony Pictures. Some others accused the filmmakers of having access to classified material that shouldn't have been distributed to anyone in the public (though investigated by the CIA, nothing ever came of this).
Amongst the many critics of this part of the film was Academy Award winner Alex Gibney, who wrote in a guest column for Huffington Post: "When we go to war, our politicians will be guided by our popular will. And if we believe that torture 'got' bin Laden, then we will be more prone to accept the view that a good 'end' can justify brutal 'means.'"
The major debate about the movie was that many thought the film purposefully portrayed a picture of the effectiveness of torture. John McCain and Dianne Feinstein were two of the senators who wrote a letter to Sony condemning the portrayal of the crime. Multiple scenes used in the movie depicted it and the narrative seemed to create a clear distinction between how useful it was and also how important it was to find bin Laden—a fact that is largely disputed.
Despite all the controversies and questions raised against it, the film was a huge success. The film earned five Academy Award nominations including Best Original Screenplay, Best Actress for Chastain, and Best Picture.
"In the process of doing (Zero Dark Thirty), I got to go down to Coronado and meet the SEALs down there and meet some guys who were training," Pratt said recently on the Smartless podcast. "All the tough Navy SEAL training is done there in Coronado. So I met a guy down there who I ended up kind of shadowing for the character I was playing. He, to this day, is like my best friend. We've worked together. He was considering going onto Team 6 at that point but also had always had the calling to do acting and to be in Hollywood. So our paths crossed."
Zero Dark Thirty is now streaming on Netflix and The Terminal List just premiered on Amazon Prime Video.
Share on Facebook
