This follows a group of reporters at Knight Ridder's Washington Bureau from 9/11 to the Iraq War and a young man named Adam Green who was inspired by 9/11 to join the military. John Walcott (Rob Reiner) is the bureau chief. Jonathan Landay (Woody Harrelson) and Warren Strobel (James Marsden) are his best reporters. Almost immediately, they find various political players pushing Iraq as the culprit of 9/11. They are joined by veteran reporter Joe Galloway (Tommy Lee Jones).
Knight Ridder's truthful reporting is an important aspect of the Iraq war buildup. The question is how to tell the well-worn story in a dramatic fashion. The movie inserts the Green family which is fine and gets one great scene with the mother asking the son to point to Afghanistan. I was more dubious about inserting a dating story which does add an interesting dad confrontation. The movie needs a villain and it sets its sights on the administration. That's fair but it's not dramatic. Nothing is new. They even use old news footage. It only re-enforces the flat, old rehashing of old news that this movie needs to avoid. There are a couple of good scenes with their publishing partners which could be the real villains. It needs to concentrate on that much more and it needs Judith Miller. She would be a perfect foil for this group and could provide some juicy controversy. They should work harder to take down the New York Times. That's the drama with the Times getting all the headlines and Knight Ridder getting the truth.
Knight Ridder's truthful reporting is an important aspect of the Iraq war buildup. The question is how to tell the well-worn story in a dramatic fashion. The movie inserts the Green family which is fine and gets one great scene with the mother asking the son to point to Afghanistan. I was more dubious about inserting a dating story which does add an interesting dad confrontation. The movie needs a villain and it sets its sights on the administration. That's fair but it's not dramatic. Nothing is new. They even use old news footage. It only re-enforces the flat, old rehashing of old news that this movie needs to avoid. There are a couple of good scenes with their publishing partners which could be the real villains. It needs to concentrate on that much more and it needs Judith Miller. She would be a perfect foil for this group and could provide some juicy controversy. They should work harder to take down the New York Times. That's the drama with the Times getting all the headlines and Knight Ridder getting the truth.