Kill the Messenger (2014)

Content by Tony Macklin. Originally published on October 5, 2014 @ tonymacklin.net.

Kill the Messenger redeems the image of embattled investigative reporter Gary Webb.

The redemption primarily is due to the strong and sensitive performance of Jeremy Renner as the intrepid, but vulnerable reporter.

Renner may be the most credible actor on the big screen today. In the worlds of deception - as action whirls around him - Renner is an actor who stands his ground. He is able to keep his wounded humanity mostly intact. Renner is the American Sean Bean.

Kill the Messenger - with a screenplay by Peter Landesman from books by Webb and Nick Schou - is the story of actual investigative newsman Gary Webb.

In 1996 Webb uncovered a conspiracy that involved members of the U.S. government, who worked with drug dealers to import cocaine into U.S. cities to make money to support a clandestine operation in Nicaragua.

Webb's three-part series was published in the San Jose Mercury News to great response. But since the big major papers had missed it, they tried to demean and destroy the story. Webb became their target.

Since they didn't discover the truth, it was not their truth. The Washington Post (what became of Woodward and Bernstein?), The New York Times, and especially the in-state competition, The LA Times, went on a furious assault. The LA Times had 17 members of their staff trying to destroy Webb and his story.

Kill the Messenger is the story of how Webb got involved in the story, its success, and its relentless ruination.

In the film, Webb says, "Bad guys are usually more honest than good guys." The modern world shows that when politics and power struggles are involved there are no good guys. There are only politicians.

Kill the Messenger is powerfully relevant today.

We live in petty times. In the contemporary world everything is propagandized. Lawyers are dedicated to winning, not to truth. Universities are corporations or web sites. Freedom is license for me and mine, not you and yours. The concept of the anti-Establishment is an archaic one.

One night of watching television - in its straitjacket of ads that are misleading to the point of fraud - will turn your mind to mush.

When there is a kernel of truth, the media makes it popcorn.

Lip service is the end, and it must be salty.

Some of Webb's evidence was skimpy, massaged, and hard to prove, but the core proved to be substantial. It didn't matter.

Truth is subservient to popularity. And the media feeds junk food to the populace.

It's too bad that Webb never experienced the blessing of this movie during his lifetime. He'd like this film.

Director Michael Cuesta has made a smart, effective creation. He utilizes myriad shots of Renner's expressive face - earnest, thoughtful, smiling, sober. It's an involving map.

Cuesta creates a world of uncertainty. There's not much violence, but it's drenched in nearly-constant dread.

Near the end he uses an ironic scene reminiscent of Shattered Glass (2003) in its effect.

Cuesta is aided by the powerful instrumentation by Nathan Johnson.

At one point, Fred Weil (Michael Sheen) says, "Some stories are too true to tell." This line reverberates through the movie.

Kill the Messenger could only be told after the fact.

Truth lurks in the distance.