kitellis-98121 It's hard not to become enraged while watching this film, as the true events depicted are so disgraceful and appalling; so staggeringly unfair and unjust; so typical of human politics. It's a film that needed to be made, to set the record straight, and give some small sense of closure and justice to the situation. Because, as this is a true story, in reality the bad guys did not get their comeuppance, and the good guys did not get their lives back. But they can, perhaps, at least watch their story told on film and know that the truth finally came out. Even if it's really not compensation enough.This movie is excellent in every regard, with an eloquent and powerful screenplay, passionate and intense performances, and assured, focused direction. Every scene is fraught with tension and crackling energy, played-out brilliantly and simply by use of dialogue and performance alone, without need of flashy camerawork or overwrought music. The story is strong enough without bells or whistles, and the writer and director wisely keeps it front and centre.This is a film that can be re-watched multiple times, and each time is equally gripping and equally devastating.It's just a shame that however much truth you throw at corruption, however bright a light you shine upon it, there never seems to be enough truth or light to counteract the lies, deceit and corruption that exist at the heart of government. Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely. Everyone knows this. Few seem to care enough to fight it.

lindsncal Chronologically, at the begging and end of this thread, you'll see the same 1 star post in 2010 and 2018 ...bashing Sean Penn and calling this movie 'political lies and half truths'...and actually blaming Clinton, using what he doesn't realize are lies, to do it. Nothing could be further from the truth. It's stuff like that, that gave us our problems today and why movies like this should be seen by everybody. I know a review that talks about another review is not what this is supposed to be about, but anything like that post which is full of the exact things he complains about, and may keep someone from watching an excellent movie that shows is just how corrupt an administration can be and the damage and deaths it causes, is a big deal to me. The movie shows exactly why this country lost the respect of the entire developed world because of our invasion of Iraq. Millions of people, our allies, protested it in the streets all over the world.If you followed this story closely at the time like I did, you'd know that this movie is exactly the truth .. and Penn, considered one of best actors today, couldn't have been better in it.If this was all lies, why did Scooter Libby go to prison, indicted on five felony counts for perjury, false statements and obstruction of justice?Even more ridiculous, the commentor says this is just propaganda to make Bush look like a war monger.....ignoring everything that came out later and all the proof that came out that showed us that the entire Iraq war was based on lies...from the Bush administration and the real fake news was on the you know what news station.

Rick Conrad Naomi Watts and Sean Penn were magnificent as Valerie Plame Wilson and Ambassador Joseph Wilson, and the t-i-g-h-t film by Director Doug Liman (who also did "The Bourne Identity"), is s-e-n-s-a-t-i-o-n-a-l! The DVD has awesome reality to it and includes much actual material extras from Valerie and Joe - who stood up against hideous White House lies - particularly over invading Iraq - and who both deserve much credit as national / public heroes. Geo. Bush, Dick Cheney, Scooter Libby, and Karl Rove all could have gone to jail for their acts and their lies r/t Iraq (and r/t the Wilsons) - as could quite a few others. Scooter wound up as the sole 'patsy'.Scooter Libby interestingly, was sentenced to a few years in jail, a couple in paroled supervision, and about 400hrs. of community service and he was fined a quarter million (not a problem as he was worth as much as 25 million) - but Bush kept him from going to prison. He was / is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since John Poindexter, the national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan in the Iran–Contra affair. My theory is that like with Nixon, Libby was made the "fall-guy" partly because he was Jewish. Nixon had failed to shift much blame for various things onto Kissinger, but clearly had planned to and even attempted it a few times.

sddavis63 With regards to the above quote, all these years later, we know how empty those words were. The Iraq War was an unnecessary tragedy. The Bush administration was neither seeking peace nor striving for peace. They were out for the oilfields. And woe to anyone who got in the way of the project.Enter Joe Wilson (Sean Penn.) Wilson was a U.S. ambassador sent to Afirca on a classified mission to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was buying uranium from Niger. Wilson came to the conclusion that it wasn't happening, and he submitted his report and then watched in disbelief as the United States continued on the path to war with Iraq, using the story of uranium buys in Africa as justification. After going public, the Bush Administration declared war not only on Iraq, but on Wilson's wife - CIA operative Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts.) The title "Fair Game" basically seems to mean that Plame, Wilson and the children and families became fair game, to be torn down and destroyed in order to continue to justify the war in Iraq. It's a frightening story of people at the highest levels of power playing with people's lives and careers, deliberately setting out to destroy those who oppose them, and adopting a definite "take no prisoners" mentality. I suppose those who supported Bush and the Iraq War will have denounced this as leftist Hollywood propaganda. I thought it was a quite credible portrayal of what goes on behind the scenes at the top. (9/10)