[8] Political scientist Darius Rejali argues that "The point of [The Centurions] is that failing to torture is the sissy's response; only a real man knows what to do.
[1] In the twenty-first century, French films shifted to portraying torture as negative, including La Trahison (2005) and Mon colonel (2006).
[15] Scriptwriter Jorge Semprún said that the intent of the film was not to overdo torture scenes that would alienate the viewer, but rather show "the slow erasure of a man through isolation, hunger, cold, exhaustion".
[21] In order to combat the unrealistic portrayal of torture in American television and movies, in 2006 Human Rights First went to Hollywood with Stuart Herrington, a former intelligence officer during the Vietnam War, Patrick Finnegan, the dean of West Point, and FBI interrogation expert Joe Navarro.
[22] They met with LOST producer Jeff Pinkner, who told them that he had never considered that "what we came up with in our fevered minds might have any impact on the way these things were done in the real world".
[23] Kiefer Sutherland, the actor who played Bauer, explained that the TV show is just supposed to be entertainment, rather than influencing political debate.
[26] According to Rejali, the documentary Taxi to the Dark Side inaccurately portrays a CIA science of torture that did not exist and exonerates low-level soldiers for the killing of Dilawar "in nonemergency conditions and using ordinary military techniques".
[35] Celebrities such as Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia, Bush administration officials John Yoo and Michael Chertoff, former president Bill Clinton, and Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo all cited 24 during debates on torture, often to excuse or normalize it.