Cate Blanchett is outstanding as Mapes. Sony Pictures Classic is releasing Truth domestically. Presumably accurately, or the filmmakers wouldn’t have included the detail, Redford’s Rather is very often seen with a cocktail in hand and more than once admitting that he’s already had three; several of the other characters, including Mapes, clearly enjoy their booze as well, a testament to the habits of many generations of journalists past. The film, based on Emmy-winning news producer Mary Mapes’ 2005 memoir “Truth and Duty: The Press, the President, and the Privilege of Power” chronicles what would eventually become the last days of Dan Rather’s tenure as anchor of the “CBS Evening News“. “But I say that as objectively as I can”, he said.
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Throughout the Q&A, Rather seemed genuinely moved, whether by the movie or the audience’s reaction to him. After the screening, Rather appeared on stage with director Vanderbilt and actors Elizabeth Moss and Topher Grace (Redford did not attend). “I’ve certainly made my mistakes, I have the scars to show for it. Of course, there are plenty of things I would do over, which is one of the reasons I spend a lot of my time now practicing humility, modesty and tremendous gratitude”. They interview former Lt. Gov. of Texas Ben Barnes, who claims he personally recommended Bush for the TexANG; Killian’s pal Robert Strong, who ran the TexANG administrative office and says the letters seem consistent with Killian’s beliefs; and Mapes dictates the contents of the letters by phone to General Bobby Hodges, Killian’s superior at the time, who corroborates their content. Then, they enlist the services of four document experts to examine the content of the Killian letters. In the film, Rather and producer Mapes are depicted as crusading journalists whose story is attacked by critics with a political agenda.
Supporting roles are all well filled, notably by Keach as the ambivalent and ailing key source and Bruce Greenwood as the increasingly perturbed head of CBS News, Andrew Heyward.
“Truth” is clearly on their side, portraying the controversy as a journalistic tragedy, with Mapes and Rather sacrificed by a corporation with motivations beyond truthful reporting. Time has not dulled the weird edges of Rather’s hate.
The legacy of what happened to our story on George Bush and his career in the Texas Air National Guard lives on to contaminate both our politics and our journalism today. The same dirty thread stretches all the way to the selectively edited ACORN “documentary” and the birther movement. It’s enough to get CBS on board with her and Rather determined to report it. With some, as it turns out, nefarious tips, CBS News thought they had a scoop that would change the course of the election: that Bush used his father’s buddies to get him out of Vietnam, and that there were new uncovered documents to prove that Bush pretty much disappeared during his service.
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The film, “Truth“, in which Robert Redford plays Rather, examines Rather’s 2006 departure from CBS over a “60 Minutes” report on alleged Vietnam-era draft-dodging by President George W. Bush – an incident some observers have dubbed “Rathergate”. Vlessing does note, as I did Thursday, that the film is produced by Mythology Entertainment, which ought to have given him a hint.
