David,

I agree with Bowden that is hard to consider the movie as pro-torture. The film makes no explicit point about torture either way - which I think is critics biggest issue with the film.

The opening scene is intense: dog collars, waterboarding, sexual humiliation, some gimp box thing - it's like John Yoo's wetdream. But the story shows that the torture does not yield information to stop an attack - in this case the 2004 Khobar massacre.

The story also shows how smarter interrogation tactics prove more successful, and how the detainee program ultimately becomes radioactive.