What New Film ‘The Report’ Says About the Cia and Post-9/11 Torture Tactics

Scott Z. Burns:

The reason why Abu Ghraib was such a sea change in this whole story is, people saw these things.

And, obviously, someone who works in a visual art form, pictures do paint thousands of words. And I felt, unless I show the audience enough of what really happened, they wouldn't truly understand the trespasses against the law and against human dignity.

But when I shot it, I tried to make it more about the torturers than the torture, because a lot of these people did do criminal acts. And it wasn't to elicit sympathy for al-Qaida.