KILL THE MESSENGER - Tuesday 18th November 2014.

I saw 'KILL THE MESSENGER' at my local suburban cinema earlier this week with a couple of movie buddies, and largely enjoyed this retelling of the late 90's US true story exposed across the national press that shook the nation, and the upper echelons of both the government and the CIA. Jeremy Renner stars in the lead role as noted investigative journalist Gary Webb, and the film is based on his book 'Dark Alliance' and Directed by Michael Cuesta. Jeremy Renner is very watchable, and puts in a convincing turn as the journalist for the San Jose Mercury News whose brief 15 minutes of fame is quickly torn from under him as the Washington power brokers do everything they can to stop the truth from getting in the way of a good story!

The films cast list reads like a Who's Who of Hollywood talent including Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Oliver Platt, Robert Patrick, Michael Sheen, Barry Pepper, Paz Vega - all of whom have relatively fleeting, but nonetheless very important, screen time with the exception of Oliver Platt who plays Jerry Ceppos who manages the paper where Gary works, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Anna Simons the newspapers Editor. The roles of the latter two are much more pivotal as Gary Webb goes from hero to zero as his story unfolds, gets a foothold and then starts to unravel. Of course, Webb's family of Susan Webb his wife, played by Rosemarie DeWitt, and the three children are brought into the fray too and all of the performances are solid, grounded and believable in the context of the unfolding story arc.

Essentially, working for small town newspaper the San Jose Mercury News, Gary Webb is contacted by the wife of a suspected drug smuggler (Paz Vega) with a hot lead, and evidence, that high ranking officials in the government are linked to bringing crack cocaine into the USA from South America, selling it on the streets for vast sums of money with which to buy arms for the Nicaraguan Contra Rebels. In the process the US is gripped by a drug crazed portion of the populace who are buying the shit quicker than the CIA can bring it in to the country! 

Of course the more and more digging that Webb does the more he uncovers that goes high up into the Whitehouse, the CIA and the drug enforcement authorities who all have a hand in these shenanigans. Feathers get ruffled, and the more they get ruffled the more Webb keeps searching - to the point when he is hauled into a room with high level CIA officers and told to back off in no uncertain times - although of course 'they would never do anything to bring harm to his family' smirks one Agent! This is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back for Webb, and with this and enough information now to go to print, he publishes his story with the blessing of Ceppos and Simons at the paper. 

In no time the story is syndicated around the world - on the TV, the radio, the big print media publications and of course the fledgling Internet, and suddenly Gary Webb is hotly in demand for TV appearances, radio interviews, and chat shows. Naturally, the government and the CIA quickly go into defence mode and deny everything, and with this starts a smear campaign against Webb digging up just about every bit of historical dirt no matter how small and insignificant it may seem and promptly going public to now not only discredit Webb as journalist of repute in the pursuit of truth, justice and transparency, but also smear him forever as a human being, a husband, a father and a hardworking man. It gets ugly as his world starts to cave in around him from all directions, and those that did support him now turn their backs!

As the final credits role we read that certain officials in the CIA and the government stand down in the resulting enquiries, and that largely the whole sorry matter gets swept under the carpet as news breaks across the world of Clinton and Lewinski's dalliance which makes for more newsworthy fodder. Sad but true! The way that Webb is ostracised is also very sad and very telling, and for many wrapped up in this either directly or indirectly it didn't end well needless to say.

A strong cast, a solid performance from Renner, a gripping story and well told . . .  but in the end I felt a little cheated by the brisk running time that left me wanting more. I felt more of this story could have been told, and what Webb did in the years following this, and how in the fullness of time he was vindicated and his story was accepted as more factual now 15 years hence than it was at the turn of the century. Webb too was a Pulitzer Prize winner for Journalism, and various other awards in his time.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-