In case you don’t know the story behind Kathryn Bigelow’s film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, let me catch you up to speed.
Last year, in the months following Bid Laden’s death, The White House granted Bigelow and screenwriter Mark Boal unprecedented access to a Seal Team 6 commander and classified records in order to help mold their upcoming dramatization of the events leading to the capture and killing of Bin Laden.
It was a bold and shocking move by Obama’s administration as never before have Hollywood heavyweights, much less investigative journalists, been given this kind of access to high-level, secured information. Basically, Bigelow and Boal got to interview the guy that helped plan and execute Bin Laden’s demise. That’s a pretty big deal.
Well, it wasn’t all handshakes and smiles between the government and Bigelow as once the Pentagon heard that the lady who made Near Dark interviewed arguably our country’s best assassin, a full investigation was launched into the matter.
The White House has since denied giving top-level C.I.A. access to Bigelow and Boal, and the investigation didn’t turn up anything that would suggest that the filmmakers now know intimate security secrets, but, it’s interesting to note a rumor abounding that Obama granted access in the hopes the film would paint him in a positive light. That makes sense to me, unless Obama secretly loves Strange Days (I know I do).
Side note: The film was pushed back to December, so it really doesn’t matter now whether the rumor is true or not.
So, here we are a year later and Bigelow’s film is finally seeing the light of day in the form of a teaser trailer. Bigelow is an über talented director so one should expect a grand experience as she continues her obsession with the military process.
Come December, we’ll all get a look at the film the White House wants you to see and The Pentagon is shitting themselves over.