TRUTH SEEKINGDEFINITELY HAS CONSEQUENCES
It is no coincidence that in 2004 George W. Bush was re-elected and Dan Rather resigned from CBS news. Truth, directed by James Vanderbilt, explains why but focuses most attention on the career of Mary Mapes (played by Cate Blanchett), who engaged in investigative reporting for Rather (Robert Redford) and Sixty Minutes and was also fired that year. Although Mapes and Rather get credit for breaking the Abu Ghraib scandal early in 2004, she pursues a lead that Bush’s record of service in the Texas Air National Guard was phony. Interviews, personal and over the telephone, are considered insufficient on the subject. But when Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach) provides documents, Mapes and Rather feel that they are on solid ground to break the story. Yet they must authenticate the documents by comparing signatures and verifying their contents over the phone with reliable sources. After the story breaks, the attacks begin—primarily that the documents are forged. Right-wing media and ABC News lead the public to believe that CBS had a liberal political agenda, wanting to prevent Bush’s re-election. Whereas Deep Throat was behind All the President’s Men, brought to the screen in 1976, they find a cut-throat conspiracy—that Burkett lied about how he obtained them, and the implication is that the story was planted by someone in the Bush camp so that even true facts would be discredited. Dan Rather then has to apologize for the inaccuracy of the story on the air, and Mapes is fired, never to work again within the industry. Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power (2005), her account of the caper, is the basis for the film, though the book has no reference to a Boston Globe article disputing Burkett’s documents that appeared before Mapes got hot on the trail of the story. For showing the perils of contemporary behind-the-scenes news gathering, with the implication that investigative reporting is a dying art, the Political Film Society has nominated Truth as best film exposé of 2015. MH
CHAOS IN CENTRAL AFRICA REIGNS IN BEASTS OF NO NATION
Continual civil war reaches the town where 12-year-old Agu (played by Abraham Attah) is living with his family soon after Beasts of No Nation begins. When government forces are about to enter the town to track down rebels, women and babies flee, men stand their ground, and Agu joins other children in disbelief that disaster will happen. Soldiers enter, round up suspects for execution, and Agu sneaks into the jungle (filming is in Ghana) in fear of his life. Ultimately, Agu reaches a rebel army, becomes a child soldier, and is initiated into the role of gun-toting killer by the Commandant (Idris Elba). In time, however, he tires of all the blood and smell of death. One of the army decides to defect, followed by Agu and the other children, and they are rescued by UN forces. Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga and based on the novel by Uzodinma Iweala, Beasts of No Nation sketches the context in which orphaned children become soldiers to avoid death by starvation who could be pacified if only the UN had more resources. For that reason, the Political Film Society has nominated Beasts of No Nation as best film promoting peace in 2015. MH