Gary Webb (Jeremy Renner) is a hard-charging investigative reporter for the San Jose Mercury and he stumbles upon the story of a lifetime in 1996 when he uncovers a link between the CIA and Central American drug smugglers and that cocaine profits were used to fund the Contra army against the Nicaraguan government in the 1980s.   He ignores the warnings of the government agencies as he tries to prove a hard link between the CIA and the Contras as his family and career is soon on the line.  KILL THE MESSENGER is the true story of one reporter’s quest to tell the truth when he was told it was “Too True To Tell” and the “The Ends Justify the Means”.   It also showed the shifting of the media climate which is all too true today when the corporate bottom line is more important than investigating the truth and the facts and sometimes it is easier to attack the person writing the story instead of digging deeper into the complex story of political corruption overshadowed by the media climate of wanting to be friends with the government.   Jeremy Renner gives the best performance of his career as his expressions and eyes tell so much.   KILL THE MESSENGER is a fast and engaging political thriller.

 

SPECIAL FEATURES:

Director Michael Cuesta talks about the story, the performances, and how the real story was changed for the pacing of the script.

 

Six deleted scenes (with optional director commentary) were all cut for pacing and clarity issues.

 

Three fluffy promotional featurettes are included on the DVD:

KILL THE MESSENGER: THE ALL-STAR CAST is an all too brief featurette on the cast of the movie

CRACK IN AMERICA is another all too short featurette on the story of the film

FILMING IN GEORGIA which briefly tells how they used Georgia buildings and locations to double for California and Central America

 

Also previews for BLACK SEA, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING, NIGHTCRAWLER, and THE MAN WITH THE IRON FISTS 2 are included.

 

FINAL ANALYSIS:  KILL THE MESSNGER is a gripping true story movie which tells an important story that the media didn’t consider being important.   This movie has a great cast and pacing as it tells how the mass media has changed for the worse.

This review is ©2-16-2014 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com

 

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