You won't be disappointed!

Great Film overall

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Yes, it's a film that sheds light on the finest parts of journalism. But I value this movie because it's a story of a woman who had been harassed by her father all her life. If it weren't for that father, the protagonist may have not become the fighting woman she is now today.The most moving scene of all, however, is when we find out the reason she married her husband. A girl like her would marry a guy like him for that sole reason, and I know because I am that girl.So is this too personal to be a movie review? I hope not. There are probably tons of women out there who live family lives like that of the protagonist. And to know the true value of this precious piece of work, you need to see it, and then you need to get your partner to see it, and then you need to find a way to talk about that scene with your partner, and just a few words exchanged about that scene will make your life so worth it. For that reason, this is one of those great movies like "The Machinist" or "Gone Baby Gone" which cannot get enough attention because the gorgeous part is only in its spoilers.

If you couldn't tell by the title, Truth is a true story. Cate Blanchett plays the producer of 60 Minutes, Robert Redford plays Dan Rather, and Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, and Elisabeth Moss play the supporting crew. In 2004, right before the presidential election, Cate hears of a potential story that President George W. Bush's military record might have been fabricated. With something that serious, they'd better make sure they have a reliable source and can defend such an accusation, otherwise they'll face a terrible backlash from the American public, their own network, and the government! If you remember what happened in 2004, you won't be that surprised by the plot of Truth. But if you're too young to remember, or you weren't paying attention to politics back then, it's a very suspenseful and tense story. Cate Blanchett gives one of the finest performances in her career; I was baffled as to why she was nominated for an Oscar for Carol that year instead. Robert Redford is also very good, and before you get mad at him that he's not doing a good Dan Rather impersonation, you should know he chose not to imitate. He wanted, well, a truthful performance, rather than one that would garner gasps and giggles from the audience as they say, "Wow, he's just like him!" Dan Rather himself was very pleased with the film, and with Redford.Not all politicos will like this movie, even though James Vanderbilt's screenplay is very thoughtful and suspenseful. If you're a die-hard Republican or thought Robert Redford should have minded his own business in All the President's Men, you might not like this one.

This film came out in the twilight of the Obama years, and it's now 2017, and how the country has changed. I resisted seeing this film because I knew it would make me angry. And it did. But that does not take away from the story, and especially the acting. This film is more about Mary Mapes than Dan Rather, and the roller-coaster ride she and her crack team of reporters (all beautifully played by Dennis Quaid, Elizabeth Moss, and particularly Topher Grace) took while investigating the military background of soon-to-be-re-elected George W. Bush. Although I have not researched this myself to confirm, the film mentions that Mapes, Rather and CBS wanted more time to verify the sources and evidence, but "60 Minutes" and other hard news programs were being relegated to late hours with millions of less viewers, to be replaced by evangelical programming and reality TV shows. In the end, the film is about how hard news was once, as Rather says at the end, a big draw for viewership. Americans had an insatiable appetite for the truth. The Watergate Hearings in the summer of 1973 was the top rated show of the summer. I am old enough to remember the days when "60 Minutes" was the number one viewed show for years in a row. This was when most Americans had only 4 or 5 networks on TV to pick from (the big three, plus an independent station or two, and PBS; Fox did not arrive until much later). The elimination of the FCC Fairness Doctrine in 1987 by the Reagan Administration allowed news networks to air on cable presenting woefully one-sided material without a requirement to present the other side. This led to Fox News on the right, and MSNBC on the left (although I would argue MSNBC does in fact present the other side with Morning Joe and other conservative- leaning anchors). Fox News does not...liberal guests or, in the case of Alan Colmes, anchors, were there to be whipping material, and were shouted down or cut off completely by the conservatives.We are now living in an era of over 500 cable channels, not to mention the internet (and the internet will probably be the one place where Americans can get unfiltered truthful journalism; that is, if the Trump administration does not eliminate net neutrality). Americans are more interested in sports, reality TV, and Game of Thrones, and have been turned off by the news, with the exception of the 70+ Fox News addicts out there (who are akin to heroin addicts). When Dish Network threatened to drop Fox News from their roster, because NewsCorp raised the rates (and it was Dish's free market decision to do so), I saw posts by Fox News addicts complaining that they could not sleep "without their fix of Fox News." Thanks to this brainwashing, the New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, Time Magazine, etc. have been dubbed "fake news," while the National Enquirer and New York Post are trusted by this group as "legitimate." Something the real Rather has been fairly vocal about. But I digress. If they could turn back time, would Mapes, Rather, and CBS had waited until after the election to present the story, or not, if the sources had been revealed to be inaccurate as they were? Who knows. It is a fascinating story, and although many right wingers in my family adamantly refuse to watch the film because of its story, the "liberal actors," and their irrational hatred of Dan Rather ("a traitor and a commie" to them), the movie is not the extreme left wing film they may imagine. The Oscar-winning "Spotlight" actually had more of a left slant than "Truth."Robert Redford as Dan Rather is a revelation. Redford doesn't look much like Rather, but he's mastered Rather's mannerisms and vocal style in the same way Christopher Plummer mastered Mike Wallace in "The Insider." Seeing this film some 40 years after "All the President's Men" was released is also interesting; how much news has changed, regardless of media outlet. And Cate Blanchett as Mapes...what can I say, an incredible performance. Watch out Meryl Streep--Cate Blanchett is on your heels as the greatest female actor on the planet today. The film could have been a little longer to flesh out some characters (Moss more or less disappears after the first half), but highly recommended. Especially in this era when "facts" are being deemed as "fake news" by the current President, while conspiracy theories (as the Republicans called the story Mapes broke in 2004) are being called "real news." I didn't hear a fraction of the anger the Republicans displayed in 2004 from the Democrats when Fox News called Barack Obama a "non American."

This is a dramatic re-creation of the fall from grace of CBS news anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford). Controversy swells after erroneous reporting is blamed on newscaster Dan Rather and his CBS News head Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) following a segment on 60 Minutes exposing how President George W. Bush received preferential treatment to avoid being drafted to the Vietnam War. The aftermath's bottom line cost their highly respected jobs. The R rated presentation also features a cast including: Dennis Quaid, Elisabeth Moss, Topher Grace, Dermont Mulroney, Stacy Keach, Bruce Greenwood and Rachel Blake.