Screenwriting : How will screenwriters do CIA interrogation scenes now? by Rosa Lafantastica

Why don't you put these under the Anything Goes section? You're loosely disguising them as screenwriting questions but they're not, are they? This is basically the same question as your cops one and the answer to both, in a screenwriting sense, is that nothing will change.

No, I'm definitely posing the question to screenwriters. I do realize that torture sessions ("enhanced interrogations") have become common on television, but on television, it usually results in important information and a life saved, right? I'm wondering if that will change, since this report disputes that.

This is a sincere question to screenwriters. (And I've posted threads on some timely topics, but I am not linking them, and it's certainly not the same issue in scriptwriting.)

This is a totally legit screenwriting question. It's so legit, I don't have an answer for it. I think about all the good-guy torture we were subjected to on TV and in movies in the post 9/11 era, and it makes me so bummed out, I don't know what else to say.

Just like they did in ZERO DARK 30. (though they neglected to show the hummus up the butt thing)

Thanks for trying to be sheriff, Erik, but I guess he scared off anybody else that might have been interested in having an actual dialogue about this topic. Thank you to the others that offered thoughtful comments.

Sensationalized torture sessions aren't going to fade from television anytime soon. They're dramatic, visceral, frightening parts of story, just like murder, crime, revenge, sex, etc. Plot comes out of conflict and torture is a very intense conflict in a story. Boring Interrogation: Question asked, mildly threatening/cajoling, suspect breaks or volunteers information very quickly. Often, any interrogation that goes this smoothly, if not misleading or revealing character, can be skipped over narratively, because it doesn't up the stakes or add tension. Interesting Interrogation: A conflict, information like pulling teeth. Could involve threats, mind tricks, bribes, etc. Torture, while not effective IRL, is often the only way in fiction because it forces a moral, psychological, and physical aspect to the conflict of extracting information. Now, is torture shown as morally wrong and innaccurate in television/movies, and will it be more so now? Occasionally, but not as often perhaps as it could. It depends on writing it in such a way as to make the conflict, resolution, and the story, interesting. Burn Notice was really good for this though, a noteable exception wherein torture was called out for it's fallibility often, preferring more clever methods of information extraction. I think failure of enhanced interrogation may trickle in, but there's only a handful of shows featuring CIA and effective torture sessions for interrogation. I don't see things changing anytime soon.

Again, thank you for the thoughtful posts! Conflict is drama, as they say. Do any of you happen to watch "Forever"? I was shocked they had a water-boarding scene in the last episode! It was set in the past, in a British mental hospital! They were trying to get the patient to admit something, but they were not satisfied with his answer. But torture in comedy? I loved the show "Chuck", but I think now some of those interrogation scenes would trouble me. And I had one friend who was so sensitive to violence that she could not even stand to watch the torture scene in "Princess Bride", even though it was intended to be absurd and over the top. She was too shaped by personal experience with violence. For many people, violence is not a part of their personal lives, and torture probably seems like something that only happens to bad people. (BTW, I deleted the other thread after some sort of angry religious argument broke out--that thread was totally hijacked.)

"Rendition" was an excellent film about this topic, BTW, if anybody is interested. Starred Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhal.

Would be interesting to see films or TV episodes examine the issue of the CIA officers who protested but did not go public because of their fear of prosecution for revealing state secrets. Beyond Edward Snowden, what is the line between a whistle-blower and a traitor? People are really arguing that these days.

Well, I'm hoping people with a lot more direct information will do that. And I could not even handle writing about torture sessions. (I recently watched "Black Beauty" and had to skip past the scenes where the horse was abused!) I think somebody will come through. (Kelly Sane? Gavin Hood? Angelina Jolie?)

Still not reading anything you post, dude.

Anyway I need to that fits the story. They have no rules, I have no rules.

But you DO make excellent lentil stew, Erik.