Truth

One of the more difficult aspects to swallow regarding the un-level playing fields of the 2004 Presidential Election Campaign were rather scurrilous claims regarding Senator John Kerry's Vietnam War record.  They proved to be totally unfounded but only after they had caused unrepairable damage. At the very same time there questions were raised about the service record of the other candidate, the sitting President George Bush, who had managed to avoid fighting overseas completely by opting for a much safer role in the Air National Guard. 

When Mary Mapes a senior Producer at CBS who was responsible for the prestigious 60 Minutes TV Program led by veteran newsman Dan Rather, got wind of a potential story about Bush managing to avoid even his easy stint with the Guard, she started a whole investigation.  With the approval of the Network's bosses, and encouraged by Rather, she got together a small very experienced team to check out documents purportedly from the files of Bush's commanding officer, the late Lieutenant Colonel Jerry B Killian that confirmed that Bush had been been AWOL for most of his alleged military service.  Mapes had learned that the then-Texas Lieutenant Governor Ben Barnes had admitted making phone calls to get Bush into the Guard, as he claimed to have done for the children of several other influential Texans.  The story was that Bush had received preferential treatment in passing over hundreds of applicants to enlist in the Texas Air National Guard in order to avoid being drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam after he had graduated from Yale in 1968.

When the 60 Minute team had gathered substantial evidence supporting the claims their aired their findings in a special edition of their show, but before Rather and Mapes could even celebrate their major news coup, they were immediately subject to some to some very virulent criticism. It all focused on the actual authenticity of the documents that they had received from Bill Burkett, who was a retired Lt. Colonel with the Guard.  Suddenly there was a very aggressive and effective campaign mounted to discredit the entire 60 Minute Team by some very influential and important political figures simply by rubbishing the validity of the evidence.   It eventually resulted in Rather prematurely ending his distinguished career in disgrace and ignominy, and Mapes and her entire team being fired.

This new feature film from screenwriter-turned-director James Valentine is based on a memoir by Mary Mapes so it is fair to assume that as the story is told from her point of view that she rightly comes out of this as the heroine of the piece.  What she insists on repeating was the fact that not once during this whole debacle did the debate ever touch on the more important issue and the crux of the whole matter which was the fact that the President shirked his easy and privileged  duties, from which he even managed to get released from early to go to Harvard. The opposition was always about the technicality of the evidence thus ensuring that the conversation remained firmly on that and that alone.

This is a powerful piece of partisan shenanigans and the reliving of which no doubt will enrage people from both ends of the political specter but obviously for entirely different reasons. With a central dynamic and electrifying performance by Cate Blanchett as Mapes which is a role that she delivers with such potent force that makes this whole wretched tale so completely compelling for each of the 120 minutes. Her co-star is Robert Redford, who in one of his best performances for years, is pitch perfect as the statesman-like Rather as he plays the wise sage to his passionate and provocative producer.

The 60 Minute team is played by Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace and Elizabeth Moss, and the manipulative CBS President who bails on his News room team to save his own neck and the future of the network is played by Bruce Greenwood.

Reference is made to the fact that Mapes had been in possession of the story about Bush's so-called military service before the 2000 election but the sudden death of her mother meant she shelved it then.  This was the US Election that resulted in Bush being awarded the Presidency by the US Supreme Court after Al Gore had won the popular vote. Maybe that would have turned out differently if it made our screens back then.  

Immediately prior to this drama unfolding at 60 Minutes, Mapes had produced the story that announced the US military's investigation of the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.  She won a Peabody Award for this, but the time that was announced in 2004 she has already been fired, never to work in television again.

It's a deeply sad part of our recent history and this powerful re-telling of exactly what happened should simply not be missed by anyone.

★★★★★★★★★

CITIZENFOUR

After you have watched Laura Poitras's powerful documentary on the NSA Whistleblower Edward Snowden you will never want to use your bank debit card, cellphone or even turn your computer on ever again. Whilst it's not always easy to totally understand the intricate technical details of what Snowden reveals, it is however impossible not to avoid his very serious warning that Big Brother is most certainly spying on every single one of us. 

What's remarkable about this extraordinary movie is that is that Poitras was part of the whole process of Snowden going public with his astonishing information, so what we see is a blow by blow account as she films this unprecedented event from the very beginning.   Oscar nominated Poitras ('My Country My Country') was in the middle of making another film about surveillance when Snowden contacted her anonymously, using the pseudonym 'Citizenfour', and asked for her help in exposing the government's practice of indiscriminately wholesale spying on all its citizens. Unlike others with conspiracy theories Snowden, a computer intelligence expert who worked for one of the NSA's main contractors, had hard proof to back up all his claims but as this was classified information he knew that revealing the details would be both difficult and dangerous.

In May 2013 he flew from Hawaii from Hong Kong where he had arranged to meet up with Poitras and Washington Post journalist Glenn Greenwald. They had deliberately chosen this Chinese Territory as it has no extradition treaty with the US and both Poitras and Snowden knew that the moment they started to go public with the story the US Government (and maybe the British one too) would want to skin them alive.

When the three meet Snowden makes it clear about his intentions to reveal how widespread these surveillance programs are, but he is unsure about exactly what information he should make public without compromising national security.  Here the journalists take the lead, and they with British journalist Ewan MacAskill, make the decisions on what to release to the media and when.  These few days in with the 'team' in Hong Kong holed up in Snowden's undisclosed hotel room are tense and nerve racking to witness, and asides from worrying about future consequences. Snowden also wants to ensure that when the story breaks that it focuses on the revelations themselves and not about him personally.

It turns out he was right to be concerned as when the world starts to reel with the news of the far-reaching relentless spying that Government agencies have been doing aided and abetted by the likes of the major cellphone and broadband providers, the NSA and the US Government desperately try to move the focal point by accusing Snowden of traitorous acts rather than attempting to explain why all this surveillance is happening.  His life is definitely in danger and the UN Consulate in Hong Kong help spirit him away to a safer location whilst they can work out his next move.

The one thing that one is sure of after seeing Snowden at close quarters and intently watching and listening to him as he shares the information he is about to reveal and explain exactly why he feels the need to take such actions, is that this very regular-type-joe simply thinks that the world has a right to now. He is devoid of any committed political convictions and he even takes great strides to ensure that his actions do not place even the smallest risk to national security. Whatever doubts one may have had about him previously thanks to the highly personal vitriolic backlash in the media that followed the disclosures, they are totally banished when one realises what a responsible and sincere individual Snowden is.   He is in fact a true patriot and hero.

Once he was publicly identified as being the Whistleblower, there is a very tense time when he is talking with his long-term girlfriend back home who had no inkling at all of his plans for her own good. Now he worries that the Authorities will put pressure in her in retaliation, but one of the high points the movie finishes on, is seeing the two of them re-united in their flat in Moscow after the Russians eventually gave him Asylum. 

Credit is also due to the intrepid Greenwald who became both the moderator and the front-man who articulately dealt with the world's media throughout the whole process.  His 'reward' was British Immigration Authorities 'detaining' his partner at Heathrow airport for 4 hours to 'question' him.  In fact less we should think that this is whole surveillance thing is a problem for just the American public, Snowden makes it very clear that the UK agency GCHQ have far less legal restraints placed upon them and their spying on all British citizens is probably even more intense and widespread.

Although the movie ends with the concern of Snowden's future (the Russians gave him 1 year Visa for the moment) there is naturally the much more vexing question of what will happen to all this wholesale spying once this current furor dies down. The sad thing is, we know the answer.

P.S. This excellent movie has just won the IDA's Best Documentary Award and has also been shortlisted for a Nomination for the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

★★★★★★★★★