Truth [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray]

Director: James Vanderbilt James Vanderbilt

Overview

James Vanderbilt wrote and directed this docudrama about the controversial 60 Minutes expos? on then-president George W. Bush's military service that aired just before the 2004 election. Cate Blanchett stars as Mary Mapes, the producer of CBS's newsmagazine series 60 Minutes, which was anchored at the time by the legendary Dan Rather (Robert Redford). Mapes gets a tip from a new source who claims to possess explosive documents proving that Bush received privileged treatment in the National Guard to avoid service in the Vietnam War. After the documents are presented to the American people, a whirlwind of controversy about the their veracity pits Mapes and Rather in a battle for their journalistic lives. Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, and Elizabeth Moss co-star in this ensemble journalistic thriller.

Product Details

Release Date:	02/02/2016
UPC:	0043396469525
Original Release:	2015
Rating:	R
Source:	SONY PICTURES HOME ENTERTAINMT
Language:	English
Time:	2:05:00
Sales rank:	32,864

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Robert Redford	Dan Rather
Cate Blanchett	Mary Mapes
Topher Grace	Mike Smith
Elisabeth Moss	Lucy Scott
Dennis Quaid	Col. Roger Charles
Bruce Greenwood	Andrew Heyward
David Lyons	Josh Howard
Toni French	NY Pedestrian
John Benjamin Hickey	Mark Wrolstad
Andrew McFarlane	Dick Hibey
Rachael Blake	Betsy West
Martin Sacks	Col. Robert Strong
Nicholas Hope	Marcel Matley
Steve Bastoni	Gil Schwartz
Suzie Steen	Reporter
Natalie Saleeba	Mary Murphy
Aaron Glenane	Fox News Reporter
Brandon McClelland	Lawyer
Stacy Keach	Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett
Dermot Mulroney	Lawrence Lanpher
Noni Hazlehurst	Nicki Burkett
Connor Burke	Robert Mapes
Felix Williamson	Mike Missal
Helmut Bakaitis	Dick Thornburgh
Lewis Fitz-Gerald	Louis Boccardi
Philip Quast	Ben Barnes
Zahra Newman	Dana Roberson
Elizabeth Nabben	CNN Reporter
Matt Ruscic	Burly Security Guard
Jo Turner	Brig. Gen. Mark Kimitt
Gael Ballantyne	Receptionist
Tim McCunn	Scott Johnson
Patrick St. Esprit	Brig. Gen. Buck Staudt
Chris Mulkey	Maurice Udell
Louis Herthum	Bill Hollowell
Rose Riley	Josh Howard's Assistant
Christopher Stollery	Reporter Jim Moore
Tom O'Sullivan	Newscaster
Adam Saunders	Editor Tom
Nancy Denis	Woman in Bakery
Eliza Logan	Emily Will
Marcus Johnson	Atlanta Anchor
Valerie Bader	Mrs. Hodges
Gareth Hamilton-Foster	CBS Employee
Brian Tyler	Composer
Stacy Keach Sr.	Lt. Colonel Bill Burkett
Katie McConnell	Journalist
Carma Sharon	CBS Employee
Hiroshi Kasuga	Traveller at Texas Airport
Melissa Thompson	CBS Receptionist
Matt Sigloch	Senior Non-comisioned Officer

Technical Credits

James Vanderbilt

Mary Mapes

James Vanderbilt	Director,Screenwriter,Producer
Brad Fischer	Producer,Producer
Doug Mankoff	Producer
William Sherak	Producer
Andrew Spaulding	Producer
Brett Ratner	Producer
Mikkel Bondesen	Executive Producer,Producer
Neil Tabatznik	Executive Producer
James Packer	Executive Producer
Michael Babcock	Sound/Sound Designer
Andrew Neil	Sound/Sound Designer
Angus Robertson	Sound/Sound Designer
Damian Wyvill	Camera Operator
Nikki Barrett	Casting
John Papsidera	Casting
Joseph White	Production Manager
Amy Greene Vines	Production Manager
Zsolt Magyar	Sound Mixer
Daniel McIntosh	Sound Mixer
Lloyd Finnemore	Special Effects Supervisor
Antonia Barnard	Producer,Executive Producer
Lindsay Adams	Special Effects
Glenn Butler	Sound Effects
Jed M. Dodge	Sound Effects
Mary Mapes	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

In the months before the 2004 presidential election, 60 Minutes producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) receives a tip from a co-worker about a potential cache of documents that call into question the military record of then-president George W. Bush. She assembles a crack team of investigative journalists (played by Topher Grace, Dennis Quaid, and Elisabeth Moss) and begins an investigation into Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard, looping in CBS News anchor Dan Rather (Robert Redford) with the goings-on of their probe. The group find what they believe are numerous inconsistencies regarding Bush's service, including substantial time spent AWOL and seemingly fudged flight records. Mapes is contacted by retired National Guard Lieutenant Bill Burkett (Stacy Keach), who promises 60 Minutes the sought-after documents and an account of the faulty record keeping surrounding Bush's service. Mapes and her team turn over their findings to Rather, and he decides to take the story to air as soon as possible. As the journalists struggle to meet the deadline, they end up bypassing important vetting procedures in the interests of time. Authenticating the documents or doing in-depth research become an afterthought -- Mapes feels that she has landed an even bigger scoop than the exposé on the Abu Ghraib prison that had aired on 60 Minutes earlier that year. The morning after the 60 Minutes special on Bush's military service, the Internet is set ablaze with criticism and efforts to debunk the information presented by Rather. Bloggers discover that the most crucial memo regarding Bush's time in the National Guard could be reproduced exactly with Microsoft Word's default settings. What could have been an explosive inquiry into the military history of a sitting president devolves into a disaster involving fonts and superscripts, and finally an order from CBS head honcho Andrew Heyward (Bruce Greenwood) forcing Rather to apologize on-air for the report. CBS then launches an internal investigation in an attempt to wash their hands of the debacle, which threatens the journalistic careers of the entire team -- including Rather, a fixture at the network. Indeed, Rather ends up facing the biggest fall from grace, as the debacle played a huge part in his unceremonious exit from CBS News the following year. In 2004, all the public really saw was the iconic newsman fumbling to salvage his legacy amidst the firestorm of controversy that this 60 Minutes report sparked. But Truth gives Rather, perhaps for the first time, a spotlight as the sympathetic character in all of this. His father-daughter relationship with Mapes created a bond of personal and professional trust -- he stuck by his producer's side until the bitter end. Considering that Mapes' real father went on the offensive with a smear campaign against her at the height of the controversy, Rather's behind-the-scenes role as Mapes' support system is a nice touch from screenwriter/director James Vanderbilt. It's a bit difficult to buy a luminary like Redford as the legendary journo Rather, especially since they have such different voices and vocal tics. But the veteran actor ultimately has enough gravitas to fill Rather's shoes (it helps that the newsman spends a lot of time in the background or offscreen). And the supporting cast of Grace, Quaid, Moss, and Keach are all outstanding, even if they're stuck in underwritten roles. Yet in the end, this is Blanchett's flick. Her turn as the fiery Mapes is infused with her trademark sincerity, and it shouldn't come as a surprise that she delivers another masterful performance. Truth works best as a commentary on modern journalism. Did Bush use familial connections to skirt responsibility in the National Guard during the Vietnam War? It's certainly not made clear by the time the credits roll. Vanderbilt's directorial debut is wise enough not to provide a definitive answer either way; despite some cloying moments, Truth is really a film about the public consumption of the news, the power of the Internet to discredit, and the willingness of a major network to drop its most storied anchor at the first sight of backlash. Once it was discovered that the memos could be duplicated digitally with ease, the court of public opinion quickly condemned Rather, Mapes, and anyone close to the story. Vanderbilt spins an engrossing journalistic thriller from Mapes' 2005 memoir, but Truth could have benefitted from a leaner script. The film is flooded with a cavalcade of under-explained names and dates, but its saving grace is its stellar cast, who more than make up for the sometimes uneven flow of the plot. It's a dense picture, rich with minutia about a subject that many had stopped thinking about after it happened more than a decade ago. Truth succeeds in invoking the air of frustration shared by Mapes and her team -- their desire to be judged by the accuracy of their claims instead of by the media quagmire that ensued. For fans of political/journalistic thrillers, Truth is a more than respectable entry in the genre.