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This is a dramatic thriller based on the remarkable true story of Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb. Webb stumbles onto a story which leads to the shady origins of the men who started the crack epidemic on the nation's streets...and further alleges that the CIA was aware of major dealers w… More
Initial release: October 10, 2014 (USA)
Director: Michael Cuesta
Running time: 112 minutes
Adapted from: Dark Alliance
Story by: Gary Webb, Nick Schou
Storyline:
Kill the Messenger is an American drama thriller film directed by Michael Cuesta and written by Peter Landesman. It is based on the book of the same name by Nick Schou and the book Dark Alliance by Gary Webb. The film stars Jeremy Renner (in his first film as a producer), Michael Sheen, Andy Garcia, Ray Liotta, Barry Pepper, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Rosemarie DeWitt, Paz Vega, Oliver Platt, Richard Schiff, and Michael K. Williams. The film was released on October 10, 2014.
Film director Michael Cuesta and writer Peter Landesman show Nancy Reagan early on, amongst a parade of presidents and government leaders, beginning with Tricky Dick Nixon, decrying drugs in America. Her "Just say No" became the oft-mocked mantra of the day, while hubby privately whispered, "Just say Yes," thus creating the specter of a constitutional crisis by flaunting the congressional Boland Amendment which expressly prohibited the government from financially supporting the contras.
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Movie Review:
Kill the Messenger raises daunting questions about the role of the press in society. Who would have believed that the San Jose Mercury News, publishing primarily local news stories, could possibly score a scoop of this magnitude? Webb succeeded in unmasking a scandal of far-ranging implications that the Los Angeles Times missed in its own back yard. South Central L.A. at the time, at least as depicted in the film with scenes of a drugged-out population, was awash in the scourge of the crack cocaine epidemic. Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles is shown in news clips enraged that her community has been devastated willfully and consciously by the pure evil of our own government.
