Truth

Most often films are created to entertain us so we can escape into another place, time and situation in which we can just zone out, however there are times in which filmmakers and/or actors want to give us a message--something to learn and hopefully will produce a different way of thinking. We've seen many: "All the President's Men", "JFK", "John Q", "12 Years a Slave", "The Help", "To Kill a Mockingbird", "Judgment at Nuremberg" "Schindler's List", to mention a handful. Well, "Truth" can be added to that exclusive list as to teach us once again.

This is the true story of The Killian Documents controversy (a.k.a. "Rathergate") in the days leading up to the 2004 presidential election. When veteran newscaster Dan Rather (Robert Redford) and CBS News head Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) choose to air a segment on 60 Minutes exposing how then president George W. Bush avoided being drafted in the Vietnam War through his father's political advantages, the resulting fallout ultimately costs them their jobs and reputations.
Mapes gets a tip from a new source, Lt. Col. Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach) who claims to possess these explosive documents proving, in fact, that Bush did receive preferential treatment in the National Guard to avoid service in Vietnam. With help from Mapes' team including Mike Smith (Topher Grace), Lt. Col. Roger Charles (Dennis Quaid), and Lucy Scott (Elisabeth Moss), they dig up the documents and other evidence and when presented to the American people, a whirlwind of controversy about their veracity pits all in a battle for their respective journalistic lives.

Others to round out the cast are Bruce Greenwood as Andrew Heywood, the then president of CBS News, John Benjamin Hickey as Mark Wrolstad, David Lyons as Josh Howard, Dermot Mulroney as Lawrence Lanpher, Rachael Blake as Betsy West, producer of CBS News, Andrew McFarlane as Dick Hibey, Natalie Saleeba as Mary Murphy, Noni Hazlehurst as Nicki Burkett, Bill's wife, Connor Burke as Robert Mapes, Mary's husband and Philip Quast as Ben Barnes.

This was surprisingly well directed by James Vanderbilt in that this is his directorial debut. He had to rely on his consummate actors, specifically Blanchett, Redford and Quaid in order to pull this off as well as he did. Of course, he could be a natural, but filmmaker's with this limited experience truly would reach out for assistance if they know what's good for them. He will go far. This was written well by Vanderbilt ("Darkness Falls" '03, "Basic" '03, "The Rundown" '03, "Zodiac" '07, "The Losers" '10, "The Amazing Sider-Man" '12, "White House Down" '13, "The Amazing Spider-Man 2" (screen story) '14). Part of the reason of his directing ability certainly could be of his writing ability, because one is already in the heads of the characters involved to realize what these actors need to do, so being an effective writer, in this situation certainly, became an asset. He knows a thing or two about what goes into a thriller, this being one, just by looking at his resume, so the final script was certainly polished enough to keep you on that proverbial seat. This is definitely a message film, replete with all the politics involved. Whether you're conservative or liberal, it is extremely easy to feel squirmy while watching this, because it brings out, healthily, pitfalls of both sides of the aisle.

Forewarned is fore-armed. This is not a film that just anyone can witness considering the 'politics' involved. This had me muttering under my breath in more than one scene, because as much as we want to avoid politics, the more we have a propensity to get caught in them. You be the judge.

Out of 4 Stars: 3.5                               Rated: R                              125mins.