Unless you are a French New Wave director using the title ironically, you should not pick TRUTH as the name of a film. Then again, the director, James Vanderbilt, also penned the counterfactually titled AMAZING SPIDER-MAN.
Which isn’t to say TRUTH doesn’t have some merits — it does. But its one-sidedness is exactly what holds it back from achieving the greatness that was within its grasp. Though to be fair, it is not one-sidedness, exactly, more like 1.9 sidedness. But that matters when you call your film TRUTH.
This is the story of the 60 Minutes scandal about George W. Bush’s National Guard service, the provenance of the documents involved, and the subsequent firing or resignation of some CBS news staff members, including Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes. As in SPOTLIGHT, here we have a star-studded cast playing journalists: Cate Blanchett as Mary Mapes, Robert Redford as Dan Rather, Elisabeth Moss as Lucy Scott, Topher Grace as Mike Smith, and Dennis Quaid as Colonel Roger Charles. Director James Vanderbilt, Topher Grace, Elisabeth Moss, and Dan Rather attended the Toronto International Film Festival premiere where I saw the film.
Though Dan Rather is a strong supporting character, this is really Mary Mapes’ story. She was the producer of the 60 Minutes story in question, and the film is based on her book TRUTH AND DUTY: THE PRESS, THE PRESIDENT, AND THE PRIVILEGE OF POWER. This is where the film both succeeds and fails. Her story is compelling and she was indeed thrown under the bus. And in the process we as a nation both focused on the wrong things and had a great news anchor sacrificed in the aftermath. However, she’s a little too close to the story to tell an objective version. Opposing points of view are presented, but they aren’t given the same screen time as hers. This is unapologetically the Mary Mapes version of events.
The best thing about TRUTH is the performance of Cate Blanchett. Yes, she’s amazing in everything, but here we get to see her in full force as she truly embodies the spirit of this hard-charging yet beleaguered reporter. Robert Redford as Dan Rather is more of a curiosity. Rarely has such a famous star played another living person whose mannerisms are so well known. It is always obvious that this is Robert Redford wearing a wig, doing a mild impression of Rather. Though it is never quite believable, it is always strangely captivating.
For those who don’t know the story, in 2004, 60 Minutes was working on a story about how George W. Bush, and other wealthy and powerful men, had strings pulled so that they could serve in the National Guard instead of going to Vietnam. Then, apparently, Bush didn’t actually show up for large parts of his service, but this was covered up by higher ups. Documents were given to CBS news allegedly showing this, though they also had statements by Bush’s contemporaries corroborating it. Most now believe the documents to be forgeries, although they were never definitively shown to be so. Dan Rather and CBS news defended their reporting for a couple of weeks, but ultimately an independent (though highly partisan) investigation was called. The end result was that many staffers, including producer Mapes, and anchor Rather were either fired or forced to resign.
TRUTH is expertly crafted and fun to watch. We’ve heard this story, but we haven’t really. It is fascinating to know what’s coming, see all the mistakes, and then watch a train wreck in slow motion. But just when you’ve reached the end of the story you know, it turns out there is more that you didn’t. This gives the film a certain revelatory power.
Everything about TRUTH turns on the authenticity of those documents. Critics charge that they can easily be reproduced on a modern word processor using the default settings, but they could not have been produced on a typewriter from the time period. The claim is that those typewriters couldn’t do superscripts and didn’t have Times New Roman, a proportionally spaced font (though others dispute this). Also, the man who gave CBS news the documents lied about how he got them. To me, the balance of evidence indicates that the documents are probably forgeries. At any rate, the burden of proof is on CBS news, and they failed to make the case for their authenticity.
TRUTH has an air of righteous indignation about it. Even if the documents were fake, the argument goes, nobody from the Bush side challenged all the other evidence presented that Bush dodged service. Meanwhile, his political opponent, John Kerry did serve in Vietnam, and yet ads were produced against him questioning her service that were outright fabrications. Also, the inquiry into what went wrong at CBS was quite politically charged. Dan Rather was also treated poorly after a lifetime of service to the network.
The problem I have with TRUTH is one of focus. While, to the best of my knowledge, it doesn’t say anything wrong, or leave important details out, it does emphasize a certain point of view strongly. There is a reasonable case to be made that this is because it is the side we haven’t heard. But there is more to it than that — it is trying to build a Hollywood narrative out of a decidedly messy situation by amplifying certain details and minimizing others. Plus, I think the real story here is one of journalistic failure. A focus on what causes us make mistakes and why we often can’t admit when we are wrong would have been much more interesting. That stuff is kind of in the atmosphere here, but isn't emphasized.
I’ll illustrate my feelings with one of my favorite stories from science. In 1991, Andrew Lyne announced the discovery of the first planet around another star. He was scheduled to give a keynote address about it at the January 1992 meeting of the American Astronomical Society in front of thousands of astronomers. Yet when he got up, he instead explained that he was wrong. He had done some calculations incorrectly, and there was no planet. Rather than disdain, he got a standing ovation from the crowd. That’s exactly how science is supposed to work, and journalism too. But when Mary Mapes was confronted with fairly compelling evidence that she didn’t get things right, she didn’t seem to take a fresh look at the the facts in this new light, she doubled down on her original position. I think it was entirely justified that she was fired, even if the manner in which it was done was problematic.
A democracy depends on a well-informed public, and journalists have an extraordinary responsibility to be above reproach. In our two-party system, too often things degenerate into “sides” and scoring points on the other team. Yes it isn’t fair when one side can lie and change public opinion, and the other can make an honest mistake, face enormous penalties, and have other correct points ignored. But whining about what’s fair is a children’s game. Responsible adults who want to be taken seriously should do the upstanding thing and lead by example.
TRUTH had all the raw ingredients for greatness, and just missed it. By taking a side, it did exactly what it is castigating the media, and the country for — failing to see the real story because it is bamboozled by the simpler narrative it wants to hear rather than the more complex reality.
Copernicus (aka Andy Howell). Email me or follow me on Twitter.
