Annoyed by “House of Dynamite,” the Pentagon flexes its muscles against Kathryn Bigelow

In an internal memo, the US Defense Department responded to the plot of Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, broadcast on Netflix, in which the United States is unable to stop a nuclear attack. The director and her screenwriter persist.

Un missile launched from the Pacific. An expected impact on a major American city within thirty minutes. And a failing defense system, whose members helplessly watch the countdown to annihilation. The pitch for Kathryn Bigelow’s latest film, A House of Dynamite — broadcast on Netflix since October 24 — is enough to send shivers down your spine. In an interview with Telerama on the occasion of its release, the director explained: “Today, while (the) nuclear threat continues to exist, we think that nothing is going to happen. (…) We truly live in a house full of dynamite, but we continue to act as if nothing is happening. I find this shocking. »

Is the United States as ill-prepared for this threat as the film claims, which claims the country’s missile defense system is only 61 percent effective? Stung, the Pentagon assures us that no. In an internal memo released on October 16 and obtained by the American site Bloomberg, the Missile Defense Agency wishes to “address false assumptions, provide accurate facts and better understanding” of the current defense system, including interceptors “have demonstrated a 100% success rate in testing for over a decade”according to the text — which simply ensures that the failures shown in the film “contribute to a dramaturgy to entertain the public”.

Aspect positif

Far from being discouraged by this clarification, Kathryn Bigelow and Noah Oppenheim (the screenwriter of the film) persist. On the MSNBC channel, the second recalls having spoken to “many missile defense experts” to write the film. And to continue with the Hollywood Reporter : “In our eyes, this is not a debate between us, filmmakers, and the Pentagon. But between the Pentagon and the community of experts on the subject. » A point of view also defended by the magazine The Atlantic, which clearly states that “The army’s defense system cannot be as effective as it claims to be. On this point, Kathryn Bigelow’s new film is more accurate than the Department of Defense itself. »

Philosopher, the director – who had already been entitled to her share of debates after the release of Zero Dark Thirty, his story of the hunt for bin Laden — chooses to see the positive aspect of these exchanges. “In an ideal world, culture has the potential to influence policy, and, if there is a conversation around the proliferation of nuclear weapons, that fills me with joy,” she assured the Hollywood Reporter.

Despite Kathryn Bigelow’s wishes, such a questioning seems very distant today. On Wednesday October 29, Donald Trump ordered the resumption of nuclear weapons testing in the United States. A decision that comes a few days after the Kremlin announced that it had successfully tested the Poseidon, a nuclear-capable underwater drone which, according to Vladimir Putin, “cannot be intercepted”. This development will perhaps remind series fans of something: in season 3 of The Diplomat — broadcast on Netflix since October 16 — the British and American authorities are precisely confronted with the threat of this famous Poseidon. The border between fiction and reality is definitely ever finer.