Bigelow’s Hurt Lockerand Zero Dark Thirty:Virtue Ethics and the War on Terror

Zero Dark Thirty: The Controversy

• ZDT was criticized by many for seeming to portray “enhanced interrogation” as crucial to the killing of Bin Laden• A factual question• A moral question

• Glenn Greenwald:• Premise A: The killing of Bin

Laden was “sacred,” cannot be questioned

• Premise B: According to the film, torture was necessary to eventually kill Bin Laden

• Conclusion: Therefore, the film glorifies torture

Reasons for Doubt• “I think that it's a deeply moral

movie that questions the use of force. It questions what was done in the name of finding bin Laden.“ – Kathryn Bigelow

• Criticisms of ZDT hinge on a number of Hollywood clichés• There are clear good guys and bad

guys• The good guys (almost) always do the

right thing• If the good guys do the wrong thing, it

messes things up and they see the errors of their ways

• The good guys win in the end• ““Bigelow's movies don't work that

way.” – Jessica Winter and Lily Rothman, Time

Quandary Ethics vs. Virtue Ethics

QUANDARY ETHICS (DEONTOLOGICAL,

CONSEQUENTIALIST)

VIRTUE ETHICS

Decisions Character

Difficult Situations Everyday Life

The Single Moment (Pointillism) Narrative

Conscience Community

“An ethic of virtue seeks to focus not only on such moments of great anxiety and uncertainty in life but also on the continuities, the habits of behavior which make us the persons we are.” – Gilbert Meilander

Key Concepts of Virtue Ethics(Alasdair MacIntyre)

• Practice:• Internal goods vs. external

goods (enjoying chess vs. playing for a reward)

• A standard of excellence• More than technical skill or

technique (a good cook vs. following a recipe)

• Virtue: • Excellence in life as a whole,

integrating many practices• A practice can be unvirtuous if it

detracts from an integrated life• Virtue includes right

relationships with others engaged in practices

• Narrative:• My actions take place within the

larger narrative of my life• My actions also take place within the

narrative of the communities to which I belong, large and small

• Institutions• Institutions are established to foster

practices and the external goods necessary to maintain them (e.g., a hospital)

• Institutions can become overly focused on external goods (money, power, status) in the absence of virtue

• Community• Sets the context in which practices

and virtues either flourish or wither

Practitioners• SFC William James and Maya

Lambert are practitioners• “James is something else, someone

we recognize instantly even if we have never seen anyone quite like him before. He is a connoisseur, a genius, an artist.” – A.O. Scott, New York Times

• “One hundred percent, he’s there. Okay fine, ninety-five percent, because I know certainty freaks you guys out; but it’s a hundred!”

• James and Lambert are contrasted with their peers• “You think I got what it takes to put

on the suit?” “Hell, no.”• “Pre-9/11 behavior”

Family• Both films explore the tension between

professional excellence and family• Both characters are pathetic, evoking pity,

because they lack virtue• Maya has “no existence outside of war.” –

Hannah Rosin, New Republic• In HL, James’s excellence as a soldier is

linked to his failure as a husband and father• “The older you get, the fewer things you really

love. By the time you get to my age, maybe it’s only one or two things. With me, I think it’s one.”

• Family life contributes to a lack of excellence as a soldier• “I’m done. I want a son. I want a little boy, Will.”

– Sgt. Sanborn• James’s attachment to Beckham leads to his

erratic behavior• In ZDT work substitutes for friends and

family for Lambert• “So no boyfriend. You got any friends at all?”• “Look, I know Abu Ahmed is your baby, but it's

time to cut the umbilical cord.”

Career• ZDT also focuses on the tension

between excellence and careerism• Jessica, a CIA agent, fails because

of her excessive focus on success• “The Director is in the loop. And I

wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't update the President.”

• “Facilitators come and go, but one thing you can count on in life is that everyone wants money.”

• CIA officials in Washington hesitate because of political fear for their careers• They want immediate action but

hesitate to act• “I think she’s fucking smart.” “We’re

all smart, Jeremy.”

The Army as an Institution• In the HL the Army clearly

fulfills the two roles of an institution outlined by MacIntyre

• It enables a practitioner like James to flourish• “Well that’s just hot shit. You’re

a wild man, you know that?”• The film portrays stewardship

as often hindering excellence• Risk avoidance leads to failure

and death, risk taking leads to success

• Lt. Col. Cambridge is ineffective

The American Context• Only now can we look at the

ethical issues in the films• If James and Lambert are the

ones America needs to fight the War on Terror, can the war be just?

• How and why has our own society failed James and Lambert?

• Does civilian society’s everyday concerns (family, career) tragically lead our nation to war?• “A really good bad guy hides out

in the dark, right?”

Why Look for Ethics in Film?• Film is well-suited to

explore issues of character• We make sense of

our own lives through story• A film does not

provide us answers, it spurs discussion and the telling of stories

Key Questions for the Army Profession

• HL and ZDT, through narrative, point out tensions in the Army ethic

• What tensions exist between developing military experts (practitioners) and an integrated life? (e.g., risk, single-minded focus)

• What tensions exist between promoting institutional stewardship and professional competence?

• How does the Army maintain its ethic and character when civilian authorities decide its ultimate objectives?

“I believe that was Kathryn's intention when she made the film — to open a conversation. She ends it with an unanswered question, Where do you want to go? She's asking the audience, Where have we been, and where do we go from here?” – Jessica Chastain