By Juliana Stumpp

A&E Editor

When the historic thriller “Zero Dark Thirty” was released in theaters on Jan. 11, Oscar buzz quickly surrounded the movie. After all, it tells the remarkable story about the fall of the world’s most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden.

However, with a powerful movie about the United States government and one of our country’s most inspiring yet haunting stories, a storm follows about what really happened.

“Zero Dark Thirty” started off strong by being already nominated for multiple awards before it was released in theaters. However, the film only won one Golden Globe award for Jessica Chastain’s performance as brutally tough and obsessive CIA agent Maya.

At the Academy Awards, the film was nominated for five awards but walked away with only one for Best Achievement in Sound Editing. The biggest concern of the film was the torture scenes that may or may not have left moviegoers under the impression that these methods helped track the military to Osama Bin Laden.

Senators like John McCain, Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin complained heavily about this issue simply stating that the methods of torture such as “waterboarding” did not result in Osama’s death. Like many movies, and even the movies that were nominated for Oscars this year, are heavily dramatized for the audiences.

“Zero Dark Thirty” is no exception. With politics aside, “Zero Dark Thirty” was a movie that our generation can relate to because we lived through it. We woke up in elementary school watching those two towers fall to ashes. We grew up in this war where families were broken because fathers, mothers, brothers and other family members died to reclaim justice.

We discussed in school if the military had been and would continue to make the right moves or what our president would need to do to end this struggle. We all gathered around the television in May 2011 to actually believe with our eyes that Osama Bin Laden died. Maybe “Zero Dark Thirty” didn’t win big this award season because it’s too soon to make a movie about this if there aren’t enough facts.

Or maybe the Academy was dodging more controversy to themselves or the movie itself. Either way, it leaves the audience unsure of the movie’s credibility. What do you think about “Zero Dark Thirty”? Do you think that it was snubbed winning awards it was nominated for? Or do you think that it got what it deserved? Email your thoughts to [email protected]