Edward R. Murrow. Walter Cronkite. Dan Rather. Three names from the “Tiffany” days of CBS News.
Those days are gone, and have been for some time. The most recent blow came with the sale of Paramount (which in turn owns CBS), owned by Sheri Redstone, to Skydance, a media company run by David Ellison, son of Larry Ellison, the second richest man in the world and a close confidant of Donald Trump.
This eponymous biopic is about the last of the three great CBS newsmen mentioned above, Dan Rather. The first two were products of war coverage in the 1940s who went on to, in the case of Murrow, to become a legend and exemplar of incorruptible journalism. The second, Cronkite was known as “the most trusted man in America” for years.
But Dan Rather, from a younger generation, had a different although spectacular background. He began as a reporter in his home state of Texas, where his first break was his coverage of a terrific Hurricane Carla that inundated Galveston in 1961. It became national news, and he was subsequently hired by CBS. Thus began his storied career: the Kennedy assassination, the disaster of the Vietnam War, the infamous 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago, his sparring with President Richard Nixon, his time on the CBS Evening News, replacing Walter Cronkite, and so much more. If there was a story to be covered, Dan Rather was there. And often, wherever he went, his relentless digging after “the story” made him stand out – even as a target himself.
He became a fixture on the new CBS news magazine, “60 Minutes.” This assignment was yet another opportunity for bulldog Rather to go after the big story.
And then came the Bush II administration. There was talk about how “W” has gotten out of service in Vietnam by joining the Texas Air National Guard (after all, his Dad was a big player in Washington then) and had even shirked that duty for as much as a whole year. But where was the “smoking gun” that would prove all this was true? Rather thought he had it, but in his haste, announced the scoop without fully checking it out. The proof was tainted.
Whether this was a setup to get Rather, or an honest mistake, he owned up to it and apologized on air, effectively ending his network career.
Director Frank Marshall (“The Beach Boys”) and writer Dan Crane (“Carville: Winning is Everything, Stupid”) have given us a thoughtful and thereby slow-paced documentary/biography of not only one of the great journalists of our time, but of that time itself. The subject was, after all, on TV practically the whole time, so there is plenty of historic footage to work with, and Rather, now in his 90s, is still around and still sharp.
If I have an objection to the production, it is the choice made to handle Rather’s career according to different subjects. The result is a repeated back and forth between early and late career, without adequate notice to the viewer, resulting in confusion.
The story of Rather’s life is told, beginning in a car moving through rain in a city. Rather sits in the back seat, looking out on the passing city streets, and reminiscing about his life. The director comes back again and again to this ride, and there is, early on, an incisive statement by his subject:
“Sometimes you investigate and you get to the end of the alley and what you thought would be there is not there.”
Note: Keeping with the times, he even has his own podcast – two of them in fact. One covers music and the other contemporary news. As his predecessor, “Uncle Walter,” would have said: “And that the way it is …”
Runtime: One hour, 35 minutes
Availability: On Blu-Ray and DVD; streaming on Netfix
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