Meet the Press in Illuminating ‘Kill the Messenger’

Printer-friendly versionE-mail page to friendPDF version

Rating: 4.5/5.0

CHICAGO – When journalists were heroes and exposed those in power for their sins, movies were made like “All the President’s Men.” Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News was one of those journalist heroes during the 1990s, but he wasn’t celebrated in his time. The indictments, induced paranoia and outright lies against him are distinctly chronicled in the luminary “Kill the Messenger.”

Jeremy Renner gives a riveting performance as Webb, who broke the story that the CIA partnered with drug lords to flood poor, minority neighborhoods in Los Angeles with crack cocaine, in order to fund the anti-communist Contras in Nicaragua (Central America). This Ronald Reagan administration effort was essentially true, as reported by Webb, but the corporate powers that had changed and controlled their media holdings since Watergate wanted the story to go away – and therefore wanted Webb to be brought down. Filled with head-smacking revelations, “Kill the Messenger” may be one of the most important films of the year, if only to point out that “journalism” is dead, especially if a story takes aim at people who control power. They want to squelch anything that will expose their evil and manipulation.

Gary Webb (Renner) is a mid-level reporter for the smaller market San Jose (California) Mercury News. Following up on a previous story, Webb begins to see links between a drug smuggler named Rafael (Aaron Farb) and a local drug runner named Quail (Robert Patrick), both persons of interest to the U.S. Government. Since it doesn’t make sense, a little digging leads Webb to Central America.

Jeremy Renner as Gary Webb in ‘Kill the Messenger’
Photo credit: Focus Features

The tightly established plan that the CIA put into place – to fund Contra rebels using drug money earned from poor neighborhoods in America, which replaced the lack of funding from Congress – begins to unravel under Webb’s reporting. At first the story is a sensation, but when the corporate media realizes that they missed the story and as it damaged powerful U.S. reputations, both the media and the government piles on to destroy Gary’s story.

This is a highly frustrating tale of woe, for the discovery of the story happened ten years after the high level bastards got away with it. The shadow government that funded the Contras merely for power purposes wasted American resources, money and lives, especially in the neighborhoods in which crack cocaine flowed freely. This was an instance of the President and his “men” funding a political war off the backs of drug addicts in the inner city. It is a disgusting piece of business from the now lorded Reagan administration.

The film is based on Webb’s book, “Dark Alliance” – the name of his series of articles – and “Kill the Messenger,” an overview of the history of the incident, authored by Nick Schou. Screenplay adapter Peter Landesman does an amazing job of keeping a complex story understandable, and deftly adds Webb’s family life as a beacon against his troubles.

Director Michael Cuesta must have studied some of those American paranoid classics from the 1970s, and even includes a “Deep Throat” type character named “John Cullen,” with a perfectly cast Ray Liotta adding just the right tone. The casting is interesting all around, with Oliver Platt representing the newspaper – he has aching pressure to give in to the power “upstairs” – and a maturing Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Webb’s newspaper editor. Even Andy Garcia, the old pro, kills a scene in which his drug lord character blithely plays golf in prison.

Meneses (Andy Garcia) Golfs While Rome Burns in ‘Kill the Messenger’
Photo credit: Focus Features

Jeremy Renner as Webb and director Cuesta up the ante as creative partners –as more pressure bears down on the reporter, the atmosphere decidedly thickens. Renner is superlative within the role, giving Webb with a shabby nobility and a convincing righteousness for the truth of his story. The jealousies of the big newspapers – the New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times – are all represented in their clean and cool corporate offices, in contrast to the tiny cubicles and political slime that Webb has to negotiate.

Webb was telling the truth, which is kryptonite to the overtly evil in power and government. The problem with evil, is that they keep being that way, as to become so omnipotent and frightening that the press backs off. Add the continuing financial losses to the newspaper and broadcast industry, and the balance of power that occurs through revealing investigative journalism becomes less likely. Have a nice day.

By PATRICK McDONALD Senior Staff Writer HollywoodChicago.com [email protected]