Truth

Do not fail to see the movie "Truth." In its way it is more important than the movie that eclipsed it, "Spotlight." I have not always loved Cate Blanchett's work, but she is luminous in this one as Mary Mapes. And, Redford is a very credible Dan Rather. Breaks your heart, because there was no happy ending to this tale. Nor, has there been a good coda to the stories of either of these films. This film is not about George W. Bush's service (or lack thereof) in the Texas Air National Guard. It is about the ongoing failure of American "journalism" to support its troops.

I suppose in this day and age one shouldn't be surprised at the number of people who completely miss the point and importance of this film. Dan Rather, successor to Walter Cronkite as the most trusted man in America, courageously and truthfully reports (along with producer Mary Mapes), on the scurrilous, cowardly and hypocritical character and conduct of George W. Bush in avoiding combat in Viet Nam using the influence of his family to get into the National Guard and who then deserted even those light duties. But, behind the scenes the same network of interests that let George Bush escape the war, are able to manipulate and distract the "main stream media" from the real story into a thicket of minutiae that focuses not only on the trees rather than the forest, but on the twigs and branches. Were the documents authentic? Was the informant truthful (let's not look at the pressures that may have been brought upon him to make him equivocate). And so, for the average American, the truth of the story is no longer important--what the corporate media tells them is important is to put Dan Rather and Mary Mapes on trial. In the process, the last vestiges of an independent press are brought to heel by the corporate press. Accordingly, a double standard whereby some consistently get a pass and others are cast in the worst light by the mainstream (now corporate) press becomes the norm. Too many Americans swallow the myth of "the liberal media" that has just been destroyed. Dan Rather (who famously signed off his broadcasts with one word "Courage") is brought down, Mary Mapes is destroyed and the Fourth Estate becomes the tool of the profit-seeking corporatocracy. This film brings us the "Truth" about why this country and its citizenry has become so ignorant and ill-informed. Robert Redford, as Dan Rather, chillingly conveys the fundamental truth in his soliloquy describing how he has seen the news business change from truth seeking to profit seeking. Yes, the Truth is there to see for those who have the courage to open their eyes--the film is brilliantly acted and written and is as important as any movie of the last 50 years--but too few of us will notice.