Films and the advancement of knowledge

Through the dissemination of fresh data, concepts, and ideas, movies significantly contribute to the advancement of knowledge. In the film industry, the study of criminology has received extensive representation and examination, depicting both factual and fictitious aspects of crime. However, the TV series 24, which stars Jack Bauer as the main actor among other actors, is one of the most well-known films about international crime and terrorism. In this movie, Jack Bauer, a senior member of the Los Angeles Counter Terrorist Unit (CTU), participates in the politically heated thriller by employing both unethical and legal methods to solve crimes. Beginning from his tactics in tracking down criminals to interrogation and justice, Bauer applies the “end justifies the means” strategy including torture, killing of criminals and aggression (Surnow and Cochran).

The contemporary world with incredibly high terrorism activities and international crime, presidential assassination plots, political conspiracies, corruption and most of all, cyber-attacks and weapons of mass destruction. The film generates significant knowledge regarding the occurrence of such activities with considerable accuracy, for instance, the film highlights the CTU hacking, bombs, corrupt government officials, greed for money and power to the extent of treason and even murder to escape justice. These are happenings that take place even today. However, the greatest lesson from the film lies on the contentious issue of using unorthodox approaches for interrogating and handling criminal terrorists. The film implies that if terrorists and criminals that do not cooperate, then all measures necessary to make them reveal crucial information is justified for the good of all other innocent lives at risk (Velencia). Jack Bauer himself, during a court proceeding, mentions that the world needs people like him who are willing to sacrifice their morals for the greater good.

In a nutshell, the film does justice to the field of criminology by showing how and why harsh interrogation methods have repeatedly been used in the past. The debate today is between the efficiency of revenge-motivated interrogation versus rapport-based techniques and the film shows this controversy when Bauer is court-martialled for his actions. While it is accurate that harsh interrogation may work in some cases it is not entirely correct it works better than rapport-based strategies (Alison and Alison 266). Changing this viewpoint to include alliance-oriented questioning and the importance of adhering to ethical standards and human rights laws would have made the film much more realistic.

Word Count - 404

Works Cited

24. Dirs. Joel Surnow and Robert Cochran. Perf. Kiefer Sutherland, et al. 2010. DVD.

Alison, Laurence and Emily Alison. "Revenge versus rapport: Interrogation, terrorism, and torture." American Psychology Vol. 72, No. 3. 2017, pp. 266-277.

Velencia, Janie. "Most Americans Say Torturing Suspected Terrorists Is Justifiable." 5 January 2017. Huffpost. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/torture-suspected-terrorists-polls_us_56fbea2ce4b0a06d5804284f. 19 November 2017.