Rockstar Games’ Grand Theft Auto 5 included a torture scene that was difficult to watch and caused immense controversy. In the grand scheme of things, however, the inclusion of the graphic scene in Grand Theft Auto V was completely unnecessary.
In the mission, titled "By the Book," Trevor Phillips is tasked with torturing Ferdinand Kerimov for information on the whereabouts of Tahir Javan, who is being accused of having ties to terrorism. Meanwhile, FIB agent Steve Haines sends Michael De Santa and Dave Norton to assassinate Javan, making them dependent on sourcing information from a reluctant Kerimov.
The problem with the scene is how graphic and brutal Trevor’s torture methods are. Through Grand Theft Auto's playable character Trevor, players are forced to violently brutalize the captive in four different ways. They can waterboard him, shock him with a car battery, or even remove one of his teeth with pliers. Players must also beat him to a bloody pulp with nothing but a wrench. Trevor gives Kerimov an adrenaline shot if he’s about to die in order to carry on with the torture.
In the end, Trevor chooses not to kill Kerimov, despite Haines ordering him to do otherwise. In fact, despite just torturing him to near death, Trevor tells Kerimov he needs to flee the country and then proceeds to drive him to Grand Theft Auto V's airport before the mission finishes. So, all of that torture was effectively for nothing (not that it would have been much better had Kerimov died), and Trevor does a somewhat-good deed by helping Kerimov out versus killing him. This is meant to show Trevor's erratic, unpredictable nature, as well as be a commentary on torture itself, but the execution begs the question: why was any of this necessary in the first place? Kerimov could’ve been interrogated in a much less brutal way, or at the very least, players could’ve not been subjected to having to move the controls themselves in order to simulate the torture.
Freedom From Torture, a British charity that provides resources and support for survivors of torture, spoke out against the controversial Grand Theft Auto scene when the game originally released. They criticized it for glamorizing torture as well as forcing players into the role of the bully. “Rockstar North has crossed a line by effectively forcing people to take on the role of a torturer and perform a series of unspeakable acts if they want to achieve success in the game," Keith Best, Freedom from Torture chief executive, said in 2013, according to The Guardian. "Torture is a reality, not a game and glamorizing it in popular culture undoes the work of organisations like Freedom from Torture and survivor activists to campaign against it.”
"By the Book" was actually meant to serve as Rockstar’s attempt at political commentary, but it missed the mark. At the end of the scene, it’s made explicit that its inclusion was meant to criticize the seeming inefficacy of torture in interrogation. While Trevor is driving Kerimov to the airport, he observes that the informant was ready and willing to supply information to the FIB without them needing to resort to torture tactics. Trevor describes torture as a method to “assert ourselves” but overall seemed skeptical of its use.
This is an obvious criticism of the use of torture by the U.S. government. Nevertheless, many critics felt the scene (and the point it was making) was poorly done. The clip was short and lacked context, yet packed on the graphicness, and its overarching point wasn’t made clear until Trevor finally sums it up after all the brutality (which he himself caused) is over. While the point Rockstar was trying to make with GTA 5’s torture scene may be valid, it’s clear that the inclusion of this scene was done in poor taste and was unnecessary.
Source: The Guardian
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