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Many shameful stories from the Bush Administration era, which are fit for being presented cinematically, exist. Those stories only grow all the more powerful as a society and culture presses onward and does not confront the reality that it could all happen again.
The U.S. government could direct its intelligence agencies to find certain evidence to support a "necessary" war, individuals who work for agencies collecting intelligence could find it hard to go along with manufacturing consent for war, and they could find their identity instantly lost--stripped from them callously because the agenda of government is more important than the conscientious or professional objections of one or more individuals.
The film, directed by Doug Liman, tells the human story of what Valerie Plame (Naomi Watts) and Joe Wilson (Sean Penn) faced when the U.S. government chose to leak Valerie Plame's identity as a CIA agent to the press. It shows the resiliency of a human being who was taught not to break finally mentally and physically breaking down because all that she knows is lost.
The opening of the film shows that Plame was sent around the world to places like India, Egypt and Jordan and to track down individuals and collect information. As the film progresses, it becomes clear that Plame is looking for people who can be connected to Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program.
Wilson, a diplomat with experience in Africa, is asked by the CIA to go to Niger and find out whether reports of yellow cake uranium being exported to Iraq are correct. Wilson arrives in Niger and checks up on the country's uranium mines to find that there is no shipment. As explained, even if done off the government's books, one could see many trucks leaving out of the mine and there is no activity like that happening at all.
The screenwriters, Jez Butterworth and John-Henry Butterworth, craft the film so that the audience is finding out how Cheney and others in the Bush Administration are leading the CIA on with the hopes of fabricating a case for an Iraqi invasion. In a chapter of the movie that fictionalizes a section of James Risen's book "State of War," Plame goes to Cleveland to have Dr. Zahraa (Liraz Charhi) go find her brother, who is a scientist in Iraq, and gain information on Hussein's weapons program for the CIA. Dr. Zahraa sneaks her way in to ask her brother questions without the Iraqi authorities knowing she is there only to hear her brother explain there is no program; it was abandoned in the mid-1990s.
Wilson's character does not necessarily seem like a hothead, but he is capable of being a firebrand on issues he has knowledge about from experience. A university speaking event depicted in the film shows Wilson declaring how much of a tyrant Hussein is. At this point, there is little tension between Wilson and the Bush Administration. One could imagine Wilson would have, at this point, wholeheartedly supported a war on Iraq. But, Wilson is sitting in an airport waiting for his plane to depart when he hears Bush lie about his report on uranium from Niger in his State of the Union address.
There's a feeling of moral bankruptcy in that scene that lingers on from that scene to the end of the movie. "Shock and awe" attacks on Iraq play unfold next. The scientists whom were originally thought to have knowledge of Hussein's weapons program appear on screen. They are told by Plame the CIA will try to get them out of Iraq so they can survive. Next to the scenes of anguish and powerlessness with Plame, this may be the most gut-wrenching part of the movie.
Doug Liman places a camera somewhere in the back seat of a
car and shows the scientist brother and his son trying to navigate in a car
through an attack. The son is crying out afraid of what might happen to him.
The scene puts a human face on what really happens when a country is lied into
war. The palpable tension that comes through in this action sequence comes through tremendously well.
Wilson publishes an op-ed in the New York Times, "What I Didn't Find in Africa," to prove the slogans being used by the Bush Administration on Iraq were false. Karl Rove and Scooter Libby, who seems to be one of the smuggest bastards that served in the Bush Administration, choose to take action that ultimately leads to the leaking of Plame's identity.
The film moves through this story treating many dark aspects of the story in a nonchalant manner. The agency has tools within the CIA willing to fabricate reports about aluminum tubes that can be used to go to war. The agency has people willing at the drop of a hat to turn against agents they once worked with to protect their standing in the agency. The agency seems outraged when Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney appear on television saying things about "smoking guns" and "mushroom clouds," but for the most part, openly manipulating evidence the CIA didn't have for war becomes a decision nobody within the agency is willing to challenge. (In fact, one could say this film shows why the world needs organizations like WikiLeaks.)
The media send self-interested hacks to harass Wilson and his wife. Wilson admirably tries to go on television to defend himself but winds up being caught in the tentacles of the media echo chamber. The pundits, as they do so well, ask a second question about the identities of Wilson and Plame. When Wilson wants to talk about the criminality of the leak and even the fabrication of evidence to go to war, the media diverts attention away from crimes to discuss whether Wilson is a hypocrite or a fraud or someone who hates America's troops or whether Plame was really ever of any value to the CIA at all, as if that would somehow make the leaking of her identity acceptable.
The news clips masterfully raise the tension. The audience, having watched the truth unfold, can see the smearing and slandering impact the media is having on Wilson and Plame. In fact, it contributes to a conflict that almost leads to the end of their marriage.
Wilson, in an argument with Plame, tries to get Plame to defend herself. She has been reluctant to go on television, possibly afraid of breaking down on air. She was able to make it through SERE training in the CIA, but this really traumatizes her. Wilson can see that yet he understands that they have to go out and fight or else the slandering messages will just continue.
As he says, "Do you think if you
shout louder that makes you right?" They lied and they deserve to be called out
for the lies, Wilson believes. The administration hopes it renders people like
Wilson and Plame powerless, but when people like them find their voice, when they find the
courage and guts to fire back, the administration know that can change everything. That's exactly why the two are intimidated.
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