Welllllll, this movie—-detailing the 60 Minutes story about George W. Bush’s sketchy Vietnam War record and Dan Rather’s subsequent ousting from CBS News over it—-may be preaching to the liberal converted, but it sure is effective. Too few people will watch this movie, and too few reviewers are grading it properly, so it’s a natural “Lost Cause” for Alabama Liberal to pick up.
What Works: Robert Redford is a great choice for Dan Rather, and it’s fitting to watch the liberal lion take on the role of the beleagured Rather who was one of the last real journalists on televised-news and certainly the nightly news. It’s also a good film about exactly how stories get unmade and fits in nicely with last year’s underrated “Kill the Messenger” as an example of how investigative journalism is becoming an unappreciated lost art, while investigative journalism’s worthless cousin, public shaming, has never been more popular. [The film draws nice parallells between the real reporting they had to do to crack the Bush story vs. the unvetted public reaction that tore them apart afterwards.]
What Doesn’t: Although the movie is advertised as Rather’s story, it’s really more about Cate Blanchett’s news producer. Yet most of the best moments in the film involve Rather or people praising Rather—the movie opens with him receiving an award and towards the end he’s given a standing ovation, plus sprinkles of praise for his career throughout—so why focus so much on Blanchett?
What I Would Have Done Differently: “Truth” tells part of the story, but a full-on biopic of Dan Rather would be more than welcome. Maybe it could start with Dan’s reporting in Vietnam and end with the Bush scandal that is, ironically, about Vietnam.