YukoK
Yes, it's a film that sheds light on the finest parts of journalism. But I value this movie because it's a story of a woman who had been harassed by her father all her life. If it weren't for that father, the protagonist may have not become the fighting woman she is now today.The most moving scene of all, however, is when we find out the reason she married her husband. A girl like her would marry a guy like him for that sole reason, and I know because I am that girl.So is this too personal to be a movie review? I hope not. There are probably tons of women out there who live family lives like that of the protagonist. And to know the true value of this precious piece of work, you need to see it, and then you need to get your partner to see it, and then you need to find a way to talk about that scene with your partner, and just a few words exchanged about that scene will make your life so worth it. For that reason, this is one of those great movies like "The Machinist" or "Gone Baby Gone" which cannot get enough attention because the gorgeous part is only in its spoilers.
bobzmcishl
I saw The Post this week and decided to also watch Truth at home to compare two stories about journalism and the media. I found Truth to be just as compelling a story as The Post, with a steller cast and screenplay, with plenty of drama, even though I knew the general outlines of the story and the outcome for those at CBS News. I did not know a lot of the details about how CBS, Mary Makes, and Dan Rather were caught up in some unfortunate mistakes that had little bearing on the veracity of the claims about Lt. George W. Bush and his time in the Air National Guard. This story paints an even larger story about how corporations react to bad publicity and right wing pressures that if anything have gotten worse over time. The movie does a good job in presenting how much fact checking is involved in major news stories, and how easily it can all become unraveled through a series of small errors that add up to one large error. The movie makes a strong case for the truth of the story hence the title of the movie. Cate Blanchett is outstanding as Mary Mapes and Robert Redford is excellent as Dan Rather, and the supporting cast is uniformly excellent. This is a movie that contains top flight actors across the board. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. It is a worthwhile two hour investment.
katz6
This film came out in the twilight of the Obama years, and it's now 2017, and how the country has changed. I resisted seeing this film because I knew it would make me angry. And it did. But that does not take away from the story, and especially the acting. This film is more about Mary Mapes than Dan Rather, and the roller-coaster ride she and her crack team of reporters (all beautifully played by Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Moss, and particularly Topher Grace) took while investigating the military background of soon-to-be-re-elected George W. Bush. Although I have not researched this myself to confirm, the film mentions that Mapes, Rather and CBS wanted more time to verify the sources and evidence, but "60 Minutes" and other hard news programs were being relegated to late hours with millions of less viewers, to be replaced by evangelical programming and reality TV shows. In the end, the film is about how hard news was once, as Rather says at the end, a big draw for viewership. Americans had an insatiable appetite for the truth. The Watergate Hearings in the summer of 1973 was the top rated show of the summer. I am old enough to remember the days when "60 Minutes" was the number one viewed show for years in a row. This was when most Americans had only 4 or 5 networks on TV to pick from (the big three, plus an independent station or two, and PBS; Fox did not arrive until much later). The elimination of the FCC Fairness Doctrine in 1987 by the Reagan Administration allowed news networks to air on cable presenting woefully one-sided material without a requirement to present the other side. This led to Fox News on the right, and MSNBC on the left (although I would argue MSNBC does in fact present the other side with Morning Joe and other conservative- leaning anchors). Fox News does not...liberal guests or, in the case of Alan Colmes, anchors, were there to be whipping material, and were shouted down or cut off completely by the conservatives.We are now living in an era of over 500 cable channels, not to mention the internet (and the internet will probably be the one place where Americans can get unfiltered truthful journalism; that is, if the Trump administration does not eliminate net neutrality). Americans are more interested in sports, reality TV, and Game of Thrones, and have been turned off by the news, with the exception of the 70+ Fox News addicts out there (who are akin to heroin addicts). When Dish Network threatened to drop Fox News from their roster, because NewsCorp raised the rates (and it was Dish's free market decision to do so), I saw posts by Fox News addicts complaining that they could not sleep "without their fix of Fox News." Thanks to this brainwashing, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, etc. have been dubbed "fake news," while the National Enquirer and New York Post are trusted by this group as "legitimate." Something the real Rather has been fairly vocal about. But I digress. If they could turn back time, would Mapes, Rather, and CBS had waited until after the election to present the story, or not, if the sources had been revealed to be inaccurate as they were? Who knows. It is a fascinating story, and although many right wingers in my family adamantly refuse to watch the film because of its story, the "liberal actors," and their irrational hatred of Dan Rather ("a traitor and a commie" to them), the movie is not the extreme left wing film they may imagine. The Oscar-winning "Spotlight" actually had more of a left slant than "Truth."Robert Redford as Dan Rather is a revelation. Redford doesn't look much like Rather, but he's mastered Rather's mannerisms and vocal style in the same way Christopher Plummer mastered Mike Wallace in "The Insider." Seeing this film some 40 years after "All the President's Men" was released is also interesting; how much news has changed, regardless of media outlet. And Cate Blanchett as Mapes...what can I say, an incredible performance. Watch out Meryl Streep--Cate Blanchett is on your heels as the greatest female actor on the planet today. The film could have been a little longer to flesh out some characters (Moss more or less disappears after the first half), but highly recommended. Especially in this era when "facts" are being deemed as "fake news" by the current President, while conspiracy theories (as the Republicans called the story Mapes broke in 2004) are being called "real news." I didn't hear a fraction of the anger the Republicans displayed in 2004 from the Democrats when Fox News called Barack Obama a "non American."
