Kill The Messenger (2014) (English Language)

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Review

112min

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Rosemarie DeWitt, Oliver Platt…and more

Writers: Peter Landesman, Gary Webb & Nick Schou

Jeremy Renner stars in a mid-90s political drama based on the true story California investigative reporter Gary Webb’s shocking exposé of the crack-cocaine trade on the streets of America, after exposing the CIA’s involvement with the Nicaraguan “Contras” selling drugs to fund their violent revolution during the mid 1980s, Webb is persecuted by shadowy figures in the establishment as well as the mainstream media with devastating consequences for his private family life.

‘Kill The Messenger’ is clearly a dramatization of an extraordinary true story in the same vein as ‘All the President’s Men’ but with far less public knowledge of the events which are arguably more shocking even than the “Watergate” scandal, at the same time this film is also a human story about the effects of whistle-blowing on the families and society around the journalists that have the conviction to pull on the dangling threads of authority.

Jeremy Renner delivers another accomplished performance in trying to provide a human angle to a story of journalistic integrity and the perils of modern democracy, it’s perhaps ironic then that the human story that begins in the aftermath of the story coming out happens to be the less compelling half of the film.

The star of ‘Kill The Messenger’ really is the story itself, far more compelling than any film could ever be and one that brings up so many questions that will be timely as long as democracy exists.

Questions about what actions were justified in the fight against the great perceived evil of communism particularly under the Reagan administration, the searing hypocrisy of “the war on drugs” and the nature of free press in modern democracy, questions about the unchecked power of organizations like the CIA under the guise of “national security” and the tragic irony that in fighting the great external threats to democracy we are blind to the threats, whether conspiratorial or accidental, that come from within.

Certainly not a classic political drama by any means but more than competently executed and with a strong central performance by Jeremy Renner, ‘Kill The Messenger’ is a captivating true story about the abuse of power and we fear a story that is bound to be relevant for generations to come.

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All the President’s Men (1976)

Multiple Oscar-winning political drama about the events and journalists that broke the “Watergate” scandal of the early 1970s which exposed the involvement of the Nixon administration in anti-constitutional and illegal activities, these included the persecution of political opponents and eventually led to the resignation of the President of the United States in disgrace.

Directed by Alan J. Pakula and starring Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman and Jason Robards among others.