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The war on terror in all its strife and ambiguity.

Jan 21, 2013, Vol. 18, No. 18 • By JOHN PODHORETZ

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Mostly, though, the movie conveys a sense of the world that is surely as offensive to Michael Hastings and his brethren as its failure to turn into a denunciation of “torture.” Bigelow’s war-on-terror movies show the United States as enmeshed in an inhospitable and unfriendly part of the world, doing what it has to do, sometimes being stupid and self-destructive about it, and yet still ultimately engaged not in imperialistic evil but in self-defense.

John Podhoretz, editor of Commentary, is The Weekly Standard’s movie critic.