Point Austin: Torture and History
Revelations of the Bush torture programs are only the first step
"...the most recent revelations of officially approved and sanctioned torture under the Bush administration. We learned a generation ago..."
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April 24, 2009 News Column by Michael King
What You Can Learn From Torture
Civil liberties lawyer tells UT about what the US can learn from torture in Guatemala (hint: it doesn't work.)
"...Boy, torture has been all over UT's radar these past couple..."
Feb. 20, 2008 News Post by Matt Martinez
Team Torture Named
Senate armed services committee pulls no punches over torture policy allegations
"...in U.S. Custody, blows apart the myth that somehow torture and prisoner abuses in the War of Terror were..."
Dec. 12, 2008 News Post by Richard Whittaker
Ban Torture
"...I encourage readers to support the McCain revision banning torture in all circumstances because: 1) Information gained from torture..."
Dec. 16, 2005 Postmarks
The Hightower Report: Why Won't the CIA Even Say the Word "Torture"?
If the CIA can't admit that they tortured people, then there's no doubt they'll do it again
"...beacon shines less brightly today because of one word: torture. Even as the Bush-Cheney regime was professing that "America..."
Dec. 19, 2014 News Column by Jim Hightower
U.S. Can't 'Move On' From Torture
"...we should “move on” or hold those accountable for torture that was crafted, approved, and instituted by the political..."
June 25, 2009 Postmarks
Rehabilitation or Torture?
Texas prison inmates say their 'therapy' has taken a dark turn
"...may be funding, wittingly or unwittingly, what amounts to torture. "Torture is defined as 'the infliction of intense pain.'..."
May 23, 2008 News Feature by Patricia J. Ruland
Chinese Torture Chamber Story
"...Kong export promises a very weird mixture of sadomasochistic torture, humor, and eroticism. A maid and her master are..."
Nov. 29, 2000 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
Stop the Torture!
March 2, 2016 Postmarks
Chinese Water Torture
One drop at a time. We are such suckers for Perez.
March 17, 2009 Qmmunity Post by Kate X Messer
Zero Dark Thirty
The film is suspenseful, dogged, relentless, and determined – amazing considering we already know the ending of this story about the 10-year hunt for Osama bin Laden.
"...– a word not chosen lightly, given that U.S.-sanctioned torture figures prominently here and has been courting controversy since..."
Jan. 11, 2013 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones
The Collection
This follow-up to the horror/torture film The Collector seeks to mold a new franchise.
"...The Collection is the follow-up to 2009’s torture-grunge picture The Collector, and time will tell if this..."
Dec. 7, 2012 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
The Collector
From the writer and director of Saw 4-6 comes this horror film about a handyman who tries to rob his employers' home but finds it rigged with a lethal maze.
"...tack on the rapidly bleeding-out horror subgenre handily labeled "torture porn." Stewart plays Arkin, a seemingly nice enough handyman/loner..."
July 31, 2009 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
Saw V
Jigsaw and his traps live on for another installment of demented torture.
"...Jigsaw, the unlikely star of this – the original torture-porn series – expired on an operating table while his..."
Oct. 31, 2008 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
Point Austin: About Us
A reminder of just how bad things have gotten
"...acquired the evidence against the six men partly through torture: sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures, stress positions, noise, various forms..."
Feb. 22, 2008 News Column by Michael King
Captivity
Captivity, wherein 24's Elisha Cuthbert is abducted and tortured, is the kind of film that gives torture porn a bad name; it's just soulless, hateful, and freakishly monotonous.
"...Alonso. Captivity is the kind of film that gives torture porn a bad name. It's disturbing in the most..."
July 20, 2007 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
Naked City
A series of legal memos document the Bush administration's ongoing attempt to justify and legalize torture for the 'war on terror'
"...George W. Bush administration's ongoing Secret Love Affair With Torture. Although both the Pentagon and the White House have..."
June 18, 2004 News Feature by Michael King
Sarafina!
"...the horror of race warfare with its accompanying death, torture and destruction. Almost by definition, the world of the..."
Oct. 2, 1992 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
Prisoners
Jake Gyllenhaal is a detective working a troubling case, and Hugh Jackman's wound-up father of the victim is just one of his problems.
"...intricate, puzzle-box scripting by Aaron Guzikowski. As the mental torture caused by the girls’ disappearance shifts into grim and..."
Sept. 27, 2013 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
The Strangers
First-time writer/director Bertino, a UT alum, scares up a solid horror-film success with this debut outing.
"...of the virtuoso visuals, bloody effects shots, and pure "torture porn" of the Saw franchise, and the crux of..."
May 30, 2008 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
Attorney General, or Witchfinder General?
Can’t get a straight answer from Attorney General Michael Mukasey as to whether waterboarding is torture or not? Just ask the UT History faculty!
"...from A.G. Michael Mukasey as to whether waterboarding is torture or not? Just ask the UT History faculty! In..."
Feb. 4, 2008 News Post by Matt Martinez
Rendition
Intelligent and well-meaning, Rendition is nevertheless an oversimplified and uneven attempt to arouse righteous indignation among its viewers.
"...African detention center, where he becomes witness to the torture of Anwar El-Ibrahimi (Metwally), the Egyptian-American husband of Isabella..."
Oct. 19, 2007 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
Standard Operating Procedure
The great documentary filmmaker Errol Morris delves into the notorious photographs taken at Abu Ghraib to discover the "truths" they contain and whatever culpabilities they might reveal.
"...notorious photographs which have come to signify all the tortured secrets contained within that Iraqi prison’s walls. No matter..."
June 6, 2008 Movie Review by Marjorie Baumgarten
Gringo
Long-delayed stoner comedy is a little stale.
"...United Kingdom? Whether he’s acting out by phone Harold’s torture at the hands of invisible kidnappers, drunkenly rambling on..."
March 16, 2018 Movie Review by Steve Davis
The Luv Doc: Backseat Driver
The most exquisite intellectual torture imaginable
"...knowledge to yourself must be the most exquisite intellectual torture imaginable, but you must be strong...."
March 2, 2018 Column by The Luv Doc
The Foreigner
Jackie Chan takes a page from Liam Neeson
"...carried out, necessitating a thoroughly bloody final bit involving torture and a fitting denouement. Chan is given some close-quarter..."
Oct. 13, 2017 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
What We Do in the Shadows
Cleverly executed, this vampire spoof by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, is a lot of fun.
"...the nightly routines of a group of vampire flatmates: medieval-torture-loving Vladislav (Clement), aka “Vlad the Poker”; former 18th century..."
Feb. 27, 2015 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
The Book Thief
This print bestseller about a girl's coming of age amid the horrors of Nazi Germany is swaddled in maudlin melodrama in this film adaptation.
"...him, you squirm in your seat, waiting for the torture to end...."
Nov. 29, 2013 Movie Review by Marc Savlov
Austenland
Keri Russell plays a woman who vacations in a Jane Austen fantasy camp, but the film is lacking in sense and sensibility.
"...easily be swoony for Star Wars, or Trollope, or torture porn. Any of those avenues might have yielded greater..."
Sept. 6, 2013 Movie Review by Kimberley Jones
American Mary
The plastic surgery performed in this horror film gives real meaning to going under the knife.
"...imbued with horror elements such as dismemberment, mutilation, and torture, but with all the blood drained from it...."
