Torturetainment, again By Rodrigo Lazo, associate professor of English
In March 2016, presidential candidates began throwing shade at one another over campaign positions related to the use of torture by the United States as part of the ongoing war against terrorism. In a particularly crude exchange, Donald Trump compared his rival Ted Cruz to a part of the female anatomy for not supporting “waterboarding,” the euphemism for an interrogation technique that brings someone to the edge of drowning. Once again, torture was at the top of the news cycle. For students in Humanities Core, this presidential battle royal showed how topical the course can be. As part of the three-year Core cycle focused on “War,” students spent part of the winter quarter studying how torture had appeared in fiction, film, political memos, and public debates in recent decades. The presidential election
provided a contemporary backdrop to the syllabus. But it wasn’t only politics giving the Core students material to consider.
the phrase “This is torture” becomes part of a joke. This nexus of torture and entertainment is what I call torturetainment.
For years, filmmakers have introduced torture scenes into a variety of productions. Since the Abu Ghraib revelations of 2004, when it became apparent that the United States was using torture in various war efforts, films have commonly incorporated torture into their plots. In addition to shows such as “24” or certain horror films in which torture is at the center of the action, torture scenes have made their way into many genres.
Torturetainment often emerges in scenes involving interrogation, and it is used to drive movie plots, most commonly by placing a protagonist in danger. Torturetainment is sometimes deployed to create horror or repulsion but also sometimes comments on social or political conditions. More than anything, torturetainment is about making visible a practice that was once considered so heinous that its use was unacknowledged or even hidden.
What I call “the requisite torture scene” comes up in everything from “Star Wars: Episode VII,” in which Kylo Ren has a chair that he uses for his special talents, to “Minions,” in which
Let’s look at a recent example. Concurrent with my lectures in Humanities Core and the presidential campaign, Hollywood released the movie “Deadpool,” based on a comical