Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House

First Hit: I loved learning more about Mr. Felt because he helped the country from the deceit of a corrupt and lying President.

Mark Felt (Liam Neeson) was a career FBI man. Thirty years he’d worked for the agency as Deputy Assistant to the Director, Herbert Hoover. As Hoover’s right hand man, he saw all the secrets the FBI collected about people.

During the Nixon administration, Nixon feared losing the next election more than anything, therefore he authorized the break-in of the Democratic Headquarters in the Watergate building. When Hoover dies, the White House installs L. Patrick Gray (Marton Csokas)  to run the FBI. He’s a shill for the White House and this infuriates Felt.

The FBI had a history of being separate from the White House and Congress. They held up the rule of law and, as much as possible, were apolitical.

When it appeared that Felt wasn’t going to be made the permanent FBI director, his wife Audrey (Diane Lane) becomes clearly disappointed because, as she explains, set aside her whole life for him and this opportunity and it won’t happen.

As he learns that the Watergate break-in is being buried and covered up, Mark’s patriotic side decides he cannot live with our country being told deceitful lies and telephones the Washington Post with information only he and few others know. One of the things he ensures is that he’s not the only one that knows the information he passes on to the reporters. He becomes, as they name him, Deep Throat.

The film is mostly shot with a dark undertone in its color reflecting the darkness of the times. To add to this darkness, we learn that his daughter Joan (Malika Monroe) walked away from her home never to be heard from again. We never learn why but we know that her mother Audrey wasn’t emotionally available to her.

Neeson is brilliant as Felt. His ability to be emotionlessness towards his work and protect the United States from the corruption in the Presidency was perfect. Lane was excellent as the woman who gave up her life for her husband’s and knew nothing about nurturing her child. Csokas was good as acting FBI director Gray, a man beholding to the president. Peter Landesman wrote and directed this film. I loved the integration of real film footage of the times with this film; it worked very well. The dialogue was wonderfully constructed to create suspense and historical interpretation.

Overall: The film also gave me hope that someone will expose the deceitful ways of our current President.

Concussion

First Hit:  Granted, the NFL did not know what was happening at first, but when they learned and refused to do something about it by letting their greed for money persevere, I wasn’t shocked.

Fact: Multiple hits on the head, like what happens on a football field, can cause CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy), a neurodegenerative disease. This brain damage has directly led to the deaths of many football players and more will needlessly die because of this.

This film tells the story through the eyes of an immigrant who came from Nigeria because he believed that America was the greatest of all countries. Bennet Omalu M.D. (Will Smith) came to the US with more doctorate and master’s degrees than probably any two or three of the most educated people you may know.

Despite being brilliant, people tried to denounce his discovery of CTE because he wasn’t born in this country, was black, and didn’t watch football.

The script was very strong from the get go and when it has him explaining why human brains are more susceptible to this type of injury than a woodpecker or a bighorn sheep you know that he's been careful and pragmatic in his work.

At first he believed that he was helping the NFL when he shared his research with them, but all they saw was economic ruin if the story got out.

The film uses the story of Mike Webster (AKA “Iron Mike”) an NFL center who was considered one of the greatest centers of all time. His untimely death at age 50 from apparent suicide was questioned by Omalu because, nothing in his body said he should have this sort of ending.

What Omalu discovered through detailed unprecedented research was that repetitive head hitting caused CTE. The result gave a reason as to why Webster was hallucinating and not be able to take care of himself. He lost his home, family, and lived in a pickup truck for years before dying.

Supporting Dr. Omalu on this path was his boss Dr. Cyril Wecht (Albert Brooks), former NFL physician Dr. Julian Bailes (Alec Baldwin) and Dr. Steven DeKosky. Together they wrote a paper for a scientific journal that when published scared the hell out of the NFL. The film also balances his fight to get the NFL to acknowledge his findings, with his meeting and falling in love with his wife, Prema Mutiso (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). She was amazing in her support of his work.

The film effectively used, hard to watch, scenes of football players hitting each other helmet to helmet and their heads hitting the ground after being tackled. The pacing of the film is perfect and there isn’t a minute wasted on fluff.

Smith was sublime and perfect in this role. He embodied a man who only wanted the truth to be told and would do anything to have it be heard. Brooks was amazing as Omalu’s boss. One got the sense that he admired Omalu as a man and a fellow physician. He wanted to be there to support him because he knew Omalu’s brilliance would reveal the truth. Baldwin was very strong as the former NFL physician who knew that Omalu’s science was correct and was willing to go against his old bosses and friends for the truth to be unveiled. David Morse as Mike Webster was scary great. He held the audience and his fellow actors with the tension he created in this role. Mbatha-Raw was wonderful in her supportive role as Omalu's wife. She provided a grounded sense throughout the film. Peter Landesman wrote and directed this film. His interpretation of the story and use of the actors make this a film to consider at awards time.

Overall:  This film has a lot to say to anyone who lets their sons play football: Do you want to risk the possibility of brain damages?

Kill the Messenger

First Hit:  Although not a great film, it was an amazing story and in the end, I really felt for the messenger.

This is the story about how the Reagan led administration allowed the CIA to promote selling drugs in the US to create cash to buy arms for the Nicaraguan Contra rebels.

Congress wouldn’t support arming the Contras so the CIA decided to fund the war by getting Americans addicted to drugs. The irony of course is the Nancy Reagan “Say no to drugs” campaign. Even worse are the deaths of children and adults as a direct result of the CIA action.

Was Reagan in on this - my guess is probably and I "don't know". Jeremy Renner plays Gary Webb the San Jose Mercury News reporter that wrote and broke this story. It so inflamed the government, they called in all their chips with other news agencies and made Webb’s story seem false, unsubstantiated and inaccurate. How this affects his work life and home life are what this film is about.

Shamefully, as history tells us, the CIA’s confession years later didn’t land in the news like the stories made up and published against him. The story ends sadly and is a matter of public record. What it does point out is the criminal nature of our government in the name of stopping “the spread of communism” – yeah right.

Renner is strong as a reporter of integrity. I’m glad this story was told. Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Webb’s editor was interesting and failed to trust her reporter. Rosemarie DeWitt as Gary’s wife Sue was superb. I so enjoyed her presence in the film. Lucas Hedges as oldest son Ian was sublime. Small and pivotal roles by Oliver Platt, Andy Garcia and Ray Liotta were wonderful. Peter Landesman wrote this script from Gary Webb’s own book and Nick Schou's book of the films’ name. Michael Questa adequately directed this film.

Overall:  This was a great story and it saddens me that we cannot trust our government - still can't.