Dexter Filkins, a war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan, says Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty appears to have "strayed from real life" in a water-boarding scene.
In the latest issue of The New Yorker, Filkins details Bigelow's efforts to accurately portray the hunt for Osama bin Laden - including consulting with Navy SEALs and CIA staff who took part.
But the waterboarding scene may be the exception, writes Filkins, who covered the wars for the New York Times.
"According to several official sources, including Dianne Feinstein, the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the identity of bin Laden's courier, whose trail led the C.I.A. to the hideout in Pakistan, was not discovered through waterboarding."
Filkins quotes the film's screenwriter, Mark Boal, explaining: "It's a movie, not a documentary. ...
We're trying to make the point that waterboarding and other harsh tactics were part of the C.I.A. program."
