During the 2004 US elections, CBS broadcasted a scandalous piece about President George Bush Jr. on the news show 60 Minutes. On the basis of what were thought to be missing military files, an investigative segment uncovered that the president fled to a safe home port of the National Guard during the Vietnam War and stayed away from the service. But it’s the responsible journalist Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) and well-respected anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) that got caught under fire because of the piece, not Bush. Like SPOTLIGHT, TRUTH deals with journalistic ethics and the freedom of the press. The fact that a blogger from the internet was the one who accused the documents of being fake is another topic, as it shows the media landscape at a time of upheaval during the beginning of the 00’s. The TV heads are interested in ratings, ad money, and political intrigue and less in critical reporting and expensive investigative journalism. Mapes’ faulty research, partially due to time pressure, is mostly sidelined. The partiality is probably due the fact that the screenplay is based on Mapes’ book “Truth and Duty,” which also explains the film’s solemn score. The directing debut of screenwriter James Vanderbilt (ZODIAC) isn’t a balanced analysis of the media scandal, which was coined “Rathergate,” but the acting is superb with Cate Blanchett as the tough but vulnerable journalist and Robert Redford who brings a bit of his role as journalist legend Bob Woodward in ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (Alan J. Pakula USA 176) to Dan Rather.

Christian Horn

Translation: Elinor Lewy