The horrifying images of the terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center on 11
September 2001, in which three thousand civilians were killed, have become some of the most
famous images ever committed to film or television. In the decade following the attacks, a wealth
of war films were released, including Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007), The Hurt Locker (Kathryn
Bigelow, 2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012) amongst many others. Many films
from this period of US cinema addressed both the 9/11 attacks as well as the US military’s conflicts
in various countries suspected of harboring terrorist groups. When analyzing the ways the military
and intelligence agencies (such as the CIA) are represented in some US films from this period, it
becomes clear that such representations changed over just a few years: Redacted showed the
military to be polarized–a place for pacifists, rapists and murderers. The Hurt Locker later depicted
successful soldiers as having a “gung ho” attitude, and the military as a permanent fixture in Iraq.
Finally, Zero Dark Thirty included scenes of CIA torture, which is suggested as being necessary
and justified. Surprisingly, however, the ways the military and intelligence agencies are
represented in these films did not necessarily mirror the political change that was occurring.
Innovating the frame: Kathryn Bigelow in close-up
