In fictional representations,

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogational torture, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. definitions of tortur ...

is often portrayed as a method for obtaining information through interrogation. Unlike the real world practice of torture, fictional representations of torture are often portrayed as being professional and efficient methods of obtaining reliable information, and as selective rather than indiscriminate. Torture can be a convenient

plot device A plot device or plot mechanism is any technique in a narrative used to move the plot forward. A clichéd plot device may annoy the reader and a contrived or arbitrary device may confuse the reader, causing a loss of the suspension of disbelie ...

to extract information, and when the hero is the torturer, it almost always works, usually quickly. Popular culture representations have an effect on how torture is practiced in the real world;

United States Army The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...

interrogators as well as the staff at Guantanamo Bay have copied torture techniques that they learned from TV. Positive depictions of

torture during the Algerian War of Independence Elements of both sides in the Algerian War—the French Armed Forces and the opposing Algerian National Liberation Front (FLN)—used deliberate torture during that conflict (1954–1962), creating an ongoing public controversy. Pierre Vidal-Naque ...

helped shape the public perception of torture, a trend that continued with American media produced after the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commer ...

Background

Torture, defined as agents of the government inflicting severe pain or suffering on someone, is illegal under international law under all circumstances.

Fictional depictions by conflict

Algerian war of independence

Fictional depictions of

, especially ''

The Battle of Algiers ar, Maʿrakat al-Jazāʾir , director = Gillo Pontecorvo , producer = Antonio MusuSaadi Yacef , writer = Franco Solinas , story = Franco SolinasGillo Pontecorvo , starring = Jean MartinSaadi YacefBrahim H ...

'', ''

Lost Command ''Lost Command'' (aka ''Les Centurions'') is a 1966 American war film directed and produced by Mark Robson and starring Anthony Quinn, Alain Delon, George Segal, Michèle Morgan, Maurice Ronet and Claudia Cardinale. It is based on the best-sell ...

'', and '' The Centurions'', were especially influential in shaping popular perceptions of torture, as they were much better known than actual events. ''The Centurions'' introduced the

ticking time bomb scenario The ticking time bomb scenario is a thought experiment that has been used in the ethics debate over whether interrogational torture can ever be justified. The scenario can be formulated as follows: Suppose that a person with knowledge of an immi ...

in which under torture, a National Liberation Front (FLN) operative quickly exposed the location of fifteen bombs. Political scientist

Darius Rejali Darius Rejali (born c. 1959) is an Iranian-born American academic specialized on torture, who teaches political science at Reed College. Biography Rejali obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Swarthmore College in 1981, a master in 1983, and a PhD in p ...

argues that "The point of 'The Centurions''is that failing to torture is the

sissy ''Sissy'' (derived from '' sister''), also ''sissy baby'', ''sissy boy'', ''sissy man'', ''sissy pants'', etc., is a pejorative term for a boy or man who does not demonstrate masculine, and shows possible signs of fragility. Generally, ''sissy'' ...

's response; only a real man knows what to do." ''The Battle of Algiers'' misrepresents the history of the battle in order to imply that selective French use of torture against insurgents caused its victory (in fact, the torture was much more indiscriminate than portrayed). During the

war in Afghanistan War in Afghanistan, Afghan war, or Afghan civil war may refer to: *Conquest of Afghanistan by Alexander the Great (330 BC – 327 BC) * Muslim conquests of Afghanistan (637–709) *Conquest of Afghanistan by the Mongol Empire (13th century), see al ...

, United States servicemen were inspired by these fictional portrayals for interrogation of enemies. In the twenty-first century, French films shifted to portraying torture as negative, including '' La Trahison'' (2005) and '' Mon colonel'' (2006). The 2007 French film '' Intimate Enemies'' explored perpetrator trauma resulting from the Algerian War.

Cold War

Torture in preparation for show trials in the Eastern Bloc was depicted in the 1970 French film '' The Confession'', based on the memoirs of Slansky trial defendant

Artur London Artur London (1 February 1915 – 8 November 1986) was a Czechoslovakia, Czechoslovak communist politician and co-defendant in the Slánský Trial in 1952. Though he was sentenced to life in prison, he was freed in 1955; he then settled in Fr ...

. Scriptwriter

Jorge Semprún Jorge Semprún Maura (; 10 December 1923 – 7 June 2011) was a Spanish writer and politician who lived in France most of his life and wrote primarily in French. From 1953 to 1962, during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, Semprún lived clande ...

said that the intent of the film was not to overdo torture scenes that would alienate the viewer, but rather show "the slow erasure of a man through isolation, hunger, cold, exhaustion".

War on terror

After the

, the United States started a state-sanctioned torture program as part of the

war on terror The war on terror, officially the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT), is an ongoing international counterterrorism military campaign initiated by the United States following the September 11 attacks. The main targets of the campaign are militant ...

. The

George W. Bush administration George W. Bush's tenure as the 43rd president of the United States began with his first inauguration on January 20, 2001, and ended on January 20, 2009. Bush, a Republican from Texas, took office following a narrow victory over Democratic ...

rejected the label "torture" for its practices, calling them " enhanced interrogation techniques". Effectiveness of the United States torture program was limited, with many detainees refusing to talk or providing false information. The amount of torture depicted on American television increased dramatically. The United States TV series '' 24'' (2001–2010) was inspired by the earlier depictions of the Algerian War, and other 2000s TV shows such as ''

Star Trek: Enterprise ''Star Trek: Enterprise'', titled simply ''Enterprise'' for its first two seasons, is an American science fiction television series created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga. It originally aired from September 26, 2001, to May 13, 2005 on Uni ...

'', ''

The Shield ''The Shield'' is an American crime drama television series starring Michael Chiklis that premiered on March 12, 2002, on FX in the United States, and concluded on November 25, 2008, after seven seasons. Known for its portrayal of corrupt pol ...

'', and ''

LOST Lost may refer to getting lost, or to: Geography *Lost, Aberdeenshire, a hamlet in Scotland * Lake Okeechobee Scenic Trail, or LOST, a hiking and cycling trail in Florida, US History *Abbreviation of lost work, any work which is known to have bee ...

'' also portray the heroes as torturers. The hero of ''24'',

Jack Bauer Jack Bauer is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Fox television series '' 24''. His character has worked in various capacities on the show, often as a federal agent of the Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU) based in Los Angeles, and w ...

, is regularly depicted torturing antagonists using a variety of torture methods; hardened terrorists are depicted as giving in quickly and revealing important information. David Danzig, the director of

Human Rights First Human Rights First (formerly known as the Lawyers Committee for International Human Rights) is a nonpartisan, 501(c)(3), international human rights organization based in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 2004, Human Rights First started its " ...

's campaign against torture, calls the TV series "an advertisement for torture" that targets both villains and torture opponents. The only person who is not successfully tortured is Bauer, who temporarily dies from torture in the second season. In order to combat the unrealistic portrayal of torture in American television and movies, in 2006 Human Rights First went to Hollywood with Stuart Herrington, a former intelligence officer during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

Patrick Finnegan Patrick Finnegan (September 20, 1949 – July 2, 2018) was a United States Army Brigadier General, and the president of Longwood University. Finnegan served 39 years in the U.S. Army, retiring in 2010 after serving as the 12th Dean of the Acade ...

, the dean of

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

, and FBI interrogation expert Joe Navarro. They met with ''LOST'' producer

Jeff Pinkner Jeff Pinkner (born November 16, 1964) is an American television and movie writer and producer. Life and career Born to a Jewish family,Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who played Bauer, explained that the TV show is just supposed to be entertainment, rather than influencing political debate. One reason why torture scenes are preferred according to industry experts is that they can be done quickly, fitting in to a short runtime.

Adam Fierro Adam Fierro is an American television writer and producer. Biography Fierro began his television career as a freelance writer. He wrote two scripts for the first season of ''Resurrection Blvd.'' in 2000. In 2002 he returned as a co-producer and w ...

, the producer of ''24'', realized that realistic depiction of torture was an unfilled market niche, which he decided to fill with his TV series ''

'', which features an innocent man who is tortured to death. Human Rights First created an educational film '' Primetime Torture'', that it distributed to military educators in order to help them explain that TV depictions of torture are not realistic. According to Rejali, the documentary ''

Taxi to the Dark Side ''Taxi to the Dark Side'' is a 2007 American documentary film directed by Alex Gibney, and produced by Gibney, Eva Orner, and Susannah Shipman. It won the 2007 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It focuses on the December 2002 killing of ...

'' inaccurately portrays a CIA science of torture that did not exist and exonerates low-level soldiers for the killing of Dilawar "in nonemergency conditions and using ordinary military techniques". The CIA was involved in the filming of the 2012 film ''

Zero Dark Thirty ''Zero Dark Thirty'' is a 2012 American thriller film directed by Kathryn Bigelow and written by Mark Boal. The film dramatizes the nearly decade-long international manhunt for Osama bin Laden, leader of terrorist network Al-Qaeda, after the ...

'', which has been criticized for its portrayal of torture.

Israeli–Palestinian conflict

Israeli films set during the intifadas have also featured torture.

Science fiction

'' Star Trek'' television shows have depicted torture in numerous episodes. The protagonists are only depicted as torturers in four out of 21 cases of torture; torture is depicted as effective in 11 out of the 21 cases. The most in-depth depiction of torture is in the episode "

Chain of Command A command hierarchy is a group of people who carry out orders based on others' authority within the group. It can be viewed as part of a power structure, in which it is usually seen as the most vulnerable and also the most powerful part. Milit ...

" from '' Star Trek: The Next Generation'' in which Captain Jean-Luc Picard is captured by the Cardassians and tortured by Gul Madred, who repeatedly shows Picard four lights and tries to get him to say there are five. Although in ''Star Trek'' the torture victims usually recover at once, Picard requires rehabilitation after being rescued.

Effects

A 2018 study found that viewing media that depicted torture as effective increased support for it, while a 2021 study did not find evidence that watching cinematic depictions of torture affected public opinion on torture. In 2003,

the Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense. It was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As a symbol of the U.S. military, the phrase ''The Pentagon'' is often used as a meton ...

screened ''The Battle of Algiers'' as an example of what tactics they might face during the

United States invasion of Iraq The 2003 invasion of Iraq was a United States-led invasion of the Republic of Iraq and the first stage of the Iraq War. The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 (air) and 20 March 2003 (ground) and lasted just over one month, including ...

. Celebrities such as Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, Bush administration officials

John Yoo John Choon Yoo (; born July 10, 1967) is a Korean-born American legal scholar and former government official who serves as the Emanuel S. Heller Professor of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Yoo became known for his legal opinions ...

and

Michael Chertoff Michael Chertoff (born November 28, 1953) is an American attorney who was the second United States Secretary of Homeland Security to serve under President George W. Bush. Chertoff also served for one additional day under President Barack Obama. ...

, former president

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

, and Republican presidential candidate

Tom Tancredo Thomas Gerard Tancredo (; born December 20, 1945) is an American politician from Colorado, who represented the state's sixth congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1999 to 2009 as a Republican. He ran for Pres ...

all cited ''24'' during debates on torture, often to excuse or normalize it. Popular culture representations have an effect on how torture is practiced in the real world;

interrogators as well as the staff at Guantanamo Bay have copied torture techniques that they learned from film. United States military instructors report that their trainees often cite ''24'' as a reason why torture is sometimes justified.

Citations

Cited works and other sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * {{refend Torture Topics in popular culture