The Pentagon Papers

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: D     Telefilm: B

 

 

In its glory days, the TV movie developed into either films that were bad-but-interesting, several TV series going on at once in rotation (The NBC Mystery Movie has Columbo, McCloud and McMillan & Wife, for instance), or even some classics (Night Stalker, Brian’s Song, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman).  A few were even so good that they received theatrical distribution in Europe (Steven Spielberg’s Duel) or even released in theaters in the U.S. (Joseph Sargent’s Tribes).   That was the kind of financial power the big three networks had consolidated by the late 1960s with color TV and the telefilm rising at the same time.  This all changed by the 1980s, because of cable channels and home videotapes, rendering these films a joke; just about anywhere they were being made.  Rod Holcomb’s The Pentagon Papers (2003) is one of the rare exceptions.

 

James Spader, one of the most underappreciated actors of his generation, is American hero Daniel Ellsberg, the man who exposed all the lies about genocidal cover-up by the U.S. Government in the Vietnam fiasco.  After reading through top secret documents that were following years of research he did to help the government do the right things to handle the situation and get the conflict over with.  It turns out, of course, that the Nixon Administration was doing everything they could to keep the bombing going at any cost for political reasons.  They were hiding tons of things that were outrageous beyond belief.

 

There is the woman (Claire Forlani, in a comeback role) who may or may not help him, the politically radical friend (Paul Giamatti) who also becomes a Nixon Administration target when the papers come into question, and the man with a family who begins the long process of xeroxing every single page on much slower, older machines of the time.  He goes to a New York Times contact and eventually convinces them to publish everything, but the Nixon Administration actually takes them to court to halt this and try the two men for treason.  The result and additional events in addition to this changed the course of the country for good.

 

Most films, especially telefilms, would just do a very run of the mill job of painting the events by numbers, but Jason Horwitch’s teleplay is much smarter, capturing the feel of the era and being much more thorough about it and the facts of this case.  This is good storytelling and Spader proves once again he can be more than just a bad guy.  Alan Arkin also stars.

 

The full frame image is on the soft side, especially surprising for a recent production.  Michael Mayers did a really good job of shooting this and making it look better that the endless sludge of flatly-lit TV movie garbage.  The film was co-produced by Paramount Television and Fox’s FX Network, the latter being a surprise considering how conservative the company is.  The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has healthy Pro Logic surrounds and is more like it.  There are no extras, sadly.

 

So, cheers to all involved.  This will not mark any kind of revival of telefilms anytime soon, but reminds us how good they could be at their best.  It is smart television telling us the truth about something without turning it into a stupid political argument.  It shows when wrong is wrong and that is rare on TV of any kind these days.  The Pentagon Papers is a must-see.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo