This documentary shows the rise and fall of Daniel Ellsberg, the defense wonk who ultimately made the Pentagon Papers public, illuminating truths about the Vietnam War and how the defense department did not believe it was a winnable effort. The story focuses mostly on Ellsberg and his career path from the Defense Department to the RAND Corporation onto and off the ground in Vietnam and around the United States.
This is a very interesting story and one that the directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith tell very well. It could be rather complicated and difficult to understand, but here is told told in a straightforward, unflinching way. It lays out the complex diplomatic and military struggle as a clear narrative and shows that what Ellsberg did in outing the secret papers.
The biggest problem with the film is that it does show Ellsberg to be a contemporary superhero, which is somewhat hard to digest. He's shown as the only guy in the world who did this one heroic thing. He's also seen as a mad genius who risks his family's well being on this obsessive quest to tell the world what he learned. I would have much preferred a bit more restraint, possibly showing him as a career bureaucrat (which he was, albeit a well informed one with a good soul) who did a single daring thing. I don't need the hero worship - it's a bit silly. It also makes Ellsberg seems like a narcissist, which makes him harder to like.
This film is one of the five documentaries nominated for the feature doc category in the Oscars and it might be one of the best of that group (I did like Burma VJ and the Cove as well). Still, I wish the directors showed more of the contrary point of view, allowing me to see on my own that what Ellsberg did was a good thing (giving up state secrets and all).
More than anything, I appreciate how this is a subtle condemnation of Colin Powell, Lawrence Wilkerson, George Tenet and any number of Bush-era defenders who didn't speak up in the lead-up to the Iraq War, but sat silently in their offices. It doesn't matter that they now regret their silence. Today they are as guilty as Bush, I think. Ellsberg's story shows another path they could have taken.
Stars: 3 of 4
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I didn't find the movie deified Ellsberg. They just showed his evolution from a cold war warrior to a guy who realized the govt was lying to its people and knowingly risked everything to reveal that. I especially enjoyed the section detailing how newspapers around the country took turns printing sections of the Pentagon Papers till the court shut them down and another paper stepped in, etc, a story I didn't know. Didn't seem to show him as anything more than what he was: a guy who reluctantly did one brave thing because he felt it was the only moral choice and what happened when he did.
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