A.C.’s Review: Every
city likely has a theater that plays movies in the genre loosely
labeled “Art House” which in plain terms the films are likely to have
subtitles as opposed to “shoot em ups”. Currently playing at our local
venue is this movie based on the 2004 incident that brought about the
downfall of CBS news legend Dan Rather.
It
seems with only a couple months to go before the election news producer
Mary Mapes and her team are contacted by a retired colonel in the air
national guard who purports to have documents showing current and up for
reelection president George W. Bush managed to avoid the Vietnam War by
being placed in the Texas Air National Guard and basically barely went
about his duties and was for all practically purposes AWOL for a year.
The
team did not properly vet the information and after the story aired on
60 MINUTES II it immediately came under scrutiny. Among the many
questionable things were the documents appeared to have been prepared
using MS Word as opposed to an early 1970’s typewriter that didn’t have
certain fonts and features as seen on the memos. Worse yet the retired
Colonel reveals he was given the documents by shadowy individuals that
quickly disappeared into the ether.
In
short order Rather and Mapes become the bigger story as bloggers and
other networks smelling blood in the water seize upon the legitimacy of
the documents and ultimately Mapes and her team fall to termination and
Rather himself is forced to end his storied career by having to step
down as the network’s anchor.
The
movie is a fascinating look not only into the behind the scenes world
of TV journalism but what can happen when you do not properly do your
job and the consequences there of. The movie has great star power in
Robert Redford as Dan Rather and Cate Blanchett as the news producer
Mary Mapes. Many familiar faces populate the rest of the cast such as
Stacy Keach, Elizabeth Moss and Dennis Quaid.
All
in all it was a really well done drama that kept you in suspense even
though as a fairly recent event with the outcome generally known…which
is a pretty neat trick for a movie. Also its very compelling in that the
movie makes a clear case that though the documents themselves appear to
be forgeries their contents revolving around Bush’s time in the air
guard and how he got there appear to be spot on leaving the viewer to
ponder if there were indeed original documents out there that these
forgeries were made from.
Best
Scene: It’s really hard to pick one…I am inclined to say the second
half of the entire movie as things began to fall apart around Rather and
the news team as it comes to light how carelessly they vetted the story
in a rush to get in on the air.
A.C.’s Rating: FULL PRICE
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