Rating: 3/5.
So, what happens when you decide to make a movie about a big American government organization and its involvement in various drug deals and other nefarious activities, going on in the country? Well, to put it nicely, your movie gets threatened, you have to hide the harsh reality and you end up making a movie which has a good story, but one that never really conveys what actually happened to Gary Webb. The story was good enough to give the film a touch of reality, though (rather obviously) the CIA had to butt in movie productions to hide their misdoings just like the movie suggested.
Beautiful idea, great scope for improvement, though its makers cannot be blamed for not showing the audience everything, with the government who threatening and thwarting them. Also, the fact that they had a very very small budget for the film speaks volumes of how many aspects of the film weren't good enough (or let’s just “not say up to the mark” of a regular true story based Hollywood film). The cinematography to start with, was near horrible. The shots were taken very badly.
There was a huge ensemble of a cast for this film though Renner had the most to do while the rest were mere players in the entire plot. Also, except for Renner, the rest of the cast did a pretty bad job. Not going to name all of them as there were way too many, but even with a small budget, a much better set of actors could have been hired to do the job than better known actors: A major disappointment.
Jeremy Renner on the other hand gave one of his best performances since ‘the Hurt Locker’. He seems to fit in to old American roles like ‘American Hustle’ very well, with different kinds of moustaches and beards and his acting, of course. His anger, the madness in him to seek the truth and prove the world wrong, his eagerness and temperament shown, all were incredible. Perfect choice for Gary Webb I suppose.
The music: soundtrack and score were average. Not much attention was paid to them thanks to the story nor did they stand out much by themselves. The dialogues were nice and smart though. Not too tacky - subtle, short and good. The array of sets the movie was shot on was impressive. The hotel, small newspaper office, the court and Washington post especially were good choices.
The end of the movie was an utter disappointment. It was very abrupt. Like all of a sudden it just ended. It was nice that they ended with actual videos of Gary Webb, his kids and the head of CIA's statement, but it was very abrupt. It did highlight that this entire case wasn't in the limelight when the CIA finally agreed to the alleged charges thanks to the Ronald-Reegan-elections going on then, but people might’ve made more sense of it with a few more details. Not showing what the CIA actually put Gary Webb through was another thing that made the movie less intense. It was supposed to be all about that, but this seems to be just another effect of the CIA’s intervention during the making of the film.
Overall it was a good movie with an abrupt ending and concealed stuff that could have or should have been shown. As I mentioned earlier, it is more of an edited version of the harsh reality butI suppose a truer version would have been much better. Can skip this if not too interested in CIA and politics. Not an entertainer.
"American kids did die and are still dying, just not the ones you care about apparently."
-Rishabh Kothari
So, what happens when you decide to make a movie about a big American government organization and its involvement in various drug deals and other nefarious activities, going on in the country? Well, to put it nicely, your movie gets threatened, you have to hide the harsh reality and you end up making a movie which has a good story, but one that never really conveys what actually happened to Gary Webb. The story was good enough to give the film a touch of reality, though (rather obviously) the CIA had to butt in movie productions to hide their misdoings just like the movie suggested.
Beautiful idea, great scope for improvement, though its makers cannot be blamed for not showing the audience everything, with the government who threatening and thwarting them. Also, the fact that they had a very very small budget for the film speaks volumes of how many aspects of the film weren't good enough (or let’s just “not say up to the mark” of a regular true story based Hollywood film). The cinematography to start with, was near horrible. The shots were taken very badly.
There was a huge ensemble of a cast for this film though Renner had the most to do while the rest were mere players in the entire plot. Also, except for Renner, the rest of the cast did a pretty bad job. Not going to name all of them as there were way too many, but even with a small budget, a much better set of actors could have been hired to do the job than better known actors: A major disappointment.
Jeremy Renner on the other hand gave one of his best performances since ‘the Hurt Locker’. He seems to fit in to old American roles like ‘American Hustle’ very well, with different kinds of moustaches and beards and his acting, of course. His anger, the madness in him to seek the truth and prove the world wrong, his eagerness and temperament shown, all were incredible. Perfect choice for Gary Webb I suppose.
The music: soundtrack and score were average. Not much attention was paid to them thanks to the story nor did they stand out much by themselves. The dialogues were nice and smart though. Not too tacky - subtle, short and good. The array of sets the movie was shot on was impressive. The hotel, small newspaper office, the court and Washington post especially were good choices.
The end of the movie was an utter disappointment. It was very abrupt. Like all of a sudden it just ended. It was nice that they ended with actual videos of Gary Webb, his kids and the head of CIA's statement, but it was very abrupt. It did highlight that this entire case wasn't in the limelight when the CIA finally agreed to the alleged charges thanks to the Ronald-Reegan-elections going on then, but people might’ve made more sense of it with a few more details. Not showing what the CIA actually put Gary Webb through was another thing that made the movie less intense. It was supposed to be all about that, but this seems to be just another effect of the CIA’s intervention during the making of the film.
Overall it was a good movie with an abrupt ending and concealed stuff that could have or should have been shown. As I mentioned earlier, it is more of an edited version of the harsh reality butI suppose a truer version would have been much better. Can skip this if not too interested in CIA and politics. Not an entertainer.
"American kids did die and are still dying, just not the ones you care about apparently."
-Rishabh Kothari