Kill the Messenger (FILM REVIEW)
Kill the Messenger
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Jeremy Renner Riveting in True Tale as Intrepid Investigative Journalist
In August of 1996, the San Jose
Mercury News published an eye-opening expose’ detailing exactly how the Central
Intelligence Agency had orchestrated the importation of crack cocaine from
Nicaragua as well as its distribution in the black community of South Central
Los Angeles. Entitled “Dark Alliance,” the 20,000-word series was written by
Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner), an investigative journalist who’d risked life and
limb to release the incendiary information.
For, in the midst of conducting his research, he had been asked
“Do you have a family?” by a CIA operative trying to intimidate him into
killing the article. The spy agency was ostensibly determined to suppress any facts
which might shed light on its covert dealings with the Contras, the rebels attempting
to topple the government of Nicaragua.
But Webb, already a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, would not be intimidated
and went with the piece. And even though he had supported his shocking allegations
with declassified documents obtained via the Freedom of Information Act, the
Establishment secretly enlisted the assistance of the New York Times, the
Washington Post and the L.A. Times to discredit him.
These prominent papers pooh-poohed the very notion that the CIA
could possibly be behind the dissemination of crack in the inner-city.
Nevertheless, “Dark Alliance” became the biggest story of the year, especially
among African-Americans, many of whom surfed the internet for the first time in
order to read the damning report.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) took to the floor to warn that
“Somebody’s going to have to pay for what they have done to my people.” Yet, the
revelations seemed to take the greatest toll on Gary Webb, who lost his good name,
his job, his career, his home, and even the love of his wife (Rosemarie DeWitt
) in due course.
This shameful chapter in American history is the subject of Kill
the Messenger, a sobering biopic directed by Michael Cuesta and starring Jeremy
Renner. The film features an A-list cast also including Ray Liotta, Barry
Pepper, Tim Blake Nelson, Andy Garcia, Oliver Platt, Michael Sheen, Robert
Patrick and Paz Vega.
However, make no mistake, this riveting thriller is a Renner
vehicle, and the two-time Academy Award-nominee (for The Hurt Locker and The
Town) delivers another Oscar-quality performance as a family man/respected
writer slowly turned into a paranoid soul haunted by demons and hunted by Machiavellian
mercenaries drunk with power.
A cautionary tale about
what might easily transpire whenever the Fourth Estate is willing to serve as
the Fifth Column rather than as a government watchdog.
Excellent
(4 stars)
Rated R
for profanity and drug use
Running time: 112 minutes
Distributor: Focus
Features
To see a trailer for Kill the Messenger, visit:
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