K72A7586.CR2 K72A7586.CR2
KILL THE MESSENGER
DIRECTOR: Michael Cuesta
CAST: Jeremy Renner, Oliver Platt, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosemarie DeWitt, Robert Patric
CLASSIFICATION: 13 DL
RUNNING TIME: 112 minutes
RATING: ***
Implication is the hallmark of Kill the Messenger. Inspired by the true story of Gary Webb – the reporter known for a series of articles suggesting a link between the CIA, the California crack epidemic and the Nicaraguan Contras – this drama begins and ends with innuendo. In between is a generous helping of insinuation.
The movie starts with a montage of anti-drug sound bytes from the 1980s, mixed with archival news footage of the war in Nicaragua. Delivered by the likes of president Reagan and his wife, Nancy, these clips set up the audience for the film’s central premise: that the US government only paid lip service to the War on Drugs while turning a blind eye to – if not condoning – the sale of Central American cocaine to our inner-city youth. The rationale goes as follows: as long as the drug proceeds were being funnelled back to support Nicaragua’s CIA-sponsored freedom fighters, the ends justified the means.
This, of course, was also the central premise of Webb’s 1996 Dark Alliance series, which appeared on the Mercury News website under a logo featuring a crack pipe superimposed on the CIA seal. Subtle? No. But it helped drive home Webb’s message in a way that would blind some readers to its underlying truths, while ultimately destroying him.
The film presents the reporter (Renner, pictured) as a misunderstood crusader whose reporting, while flawed, was unfairly maligned by larger newspapers.
It isn’t just other newspapers that are presented as villains. The CIA is portrayed as a gang of goons that stoops to intimidation and, it is implied, worse in their effort to silence Webb, who killed himself in 2004.
Despite the film’s effort at vindication, Renner delivers a performance that is complex and satisfyingly contradictory. Directed by Michael Cuesta and adapted by screenwriter Peter Landesman from Webb’s writings and Nick Schou’s 2006 book Kill the Messenger, the film presents Webb as an old-fashioned shoe-leather reporter with some questionable methods.
Despite some backstory about friction in Webb’s marriage, the film stays mainly in the web of intrigue that binds government and media in a relationship of symbiotic dysfunction. It’s an All the President’s Men that’s more tragic than triumphal, with a hero who gets taken down, leaving the bad guys standing. –Washington Post
If you liked Nightcrawler or State of Play, you will like this.