I remember the 2004 election. I remember it being one of the first during which I paid a bit more attention to candidates and positions (rotely following the herd in my past). I remember being in the midst of an internal shift in the way I viewed politics. But I don’t clearly remember the events in this movie. I’m certain I did not watch the report.
Truth is a good film that showcases the events of the Sixty Minutes report investigating then-President Bush and his admission into (and service in) the Air National Guard. Dan Rather reported the segment, and based on issues surrounding this segment, he eventually resigned from CBS. But much more happened behind the scenes, and those events are the movie, Truth. Specifically, it’s about the producer of the segment, the only one involved to be fired from CBS—rather than asked to resign.
Cate Blanchett plays producer Mary Mapes. She, as in other recent roles, owns this part. I felt her angst, her tenacity, her drive, her defeat. Robert Redford does a good job helping the viewer see and hear Dan Rather on the screen, easily forgetting most of the time that it is, instead, Redford. But it is Blanchett who absolutely lifts this film from bland to something more.
What the movie itself does especially well is to highlight how much is built into news segments that are investigative journalism. Stories might be alive for years. Sources might or might not be what they seem. And the back room wink-and-nudge type of deals and brokering that occurs, well, yes, that occurs. On all sides. From all angles. In many nuanced manners. Can people really ignore their political leanings? Do networks cower to their corporate owners? Is it all about money? Power? Fame? Interestingly, in spite of the movie’s name, I cannot say there is an absolute truth that answers any of those questions.
But I appreciated how the movie handled the issues here. It felt honest to me and seemed to present a fair enough portrait, casting enough doubt on motives and personal biases. Then again, I can admit my take-away might be because I completely bought into Blanchett’s Mapes’s closing remarks during the interview, even if those were against advice of counsel, and perhaps remarks that ended Mapes’s career.
And what a shame. In a world where we desperately need people to dig deep and ask the hard questions, we need even more to make sure that profit and money and greed don’t conceal the answers.