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From: mebrahtu (mebrahtu@shaw.ca)
Date: Fri Feb 26 2010 - 11:43:02 EST
http://www.calgarysun.com/entertainment/movies/2010/02/21/13022286.html
Last Updated: February 26, 2010 12:00am
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THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA:
DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS
By BRUCE KIRKLAND,
During the odious Richard Nixon regime in the United States, think tanker Daniel Ellsberg suddenly found himself branded a traitor and "the most dangerous man in America." That is what happens when you tell the truth in the face of a corrupt government.
Now, 40 years later, this labyrinthine story remains as fascinating and as relevant as ever. And it is told with intelligence and effectiveness in the Oscar-nominated documentary, The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers.
The doc is living history. Ellsberg is still alive, still active as an anti-war activist. He narrates this film in his own voice (although some passages sound too scripted, a problem with using a non-actor as narrator).
Formerly a hawk during his early run as a presidential advisor, Ellsberg became enlightened and turned into a dove during the height of the Vietnam War. He risked prison and leaked the Pentagon Papers, a massive history of America's participation in the war dating back to World War II and then the early post-war period when the French faced a military debacle in Vietnam that the Americans would later repeat.
The Pentagon Papers, uncensored and prepared by the U.S. Defense Department, contained a stinging analysis and indictment of all the presidents of every political stripe - Roosevelt and Truman through Johnson and Nixon - because every one of them made monumental military blunders for political reasons. And lied about it!
The beauty of the doc - if there is beauty in such ugly reality that cost countless innocent lives - is that the film is a big-picture historical document. It is too easy just to brand Lyndon Johnson a vicious war-monger or Richard Nixon a corrupt madman prone to profane outbursts. It is more difficult to see how the entire political apparatus of America was hell-bent on wreaking destruction in Indo-China - even when senior people, all the way to the White House, knew their strategies were hopeless, useless and guaranteed to shed blood. Plus they all brazenly lied about it, not just Johnson or Nixon but every president, sainted John. F. Kennedy included.
Given the time that has lapsed since Ellsberg's defiance and the struggle that newspapers of the day had in printing the Pentagon Papers, the filmmakers do get fancy with cinematic tricks. Perhaps too much so. But they do create a sense of the thrill, suspense and cloak-and-dagger nature of Ellsberg's actions.
Most importantly, this is not just a chapter in the pages of history. It is critical to understanding what is happening now in geopolitics and in the war on terrorism. No matter who runs the country, no matter which war America lies about for political gain, the truth is more important. No democracy can function on officially sanctioned lies. This film eloquently makes the case.