The Pentagon Papers

I found this film on Netflix while browsing for films Paul Giamatti is in. It’s a biopic starring James Spader as Daniel Ellsberg, a military analyst who came to realize he was unwittingly contributing to the continuing war in Vietnam with his information, while American politicians lied about the war's importance and necessity. Ellsberg first tries to convince them to end things on moral grounds once he finds out about the lying, but when politicians and others disagree, or are too scared to act, he leaks confidential files to the New York Times. He is tried for distribution of confidential information.


This was I believe a cable TV film and I can see why (rather than a feature film), as the “hero” does a turnaround as to his moral high ground. At first, in his job as an analyst, he doesn’t seem to care who he is hurting both in his personal or professional life, but once he finds out this big secret, how he is depicted in the movie is that he is high and mighty and cannot understand—gasp—how politicians can by liars and opportunists! He then becomes Mr. Righteous and makes enemies as he tries to convince anyone to listen to him.

There are some usually pretty good actors in this, Giamatti of course, Alan Arkin, even Claire Forlani who is okay although she is for the most part "the girl" and not really contributing to the story other than the woman standing by her man. I don’t think the real case was as depicted in this movie though. Whistleblowers probably grapple more with what they do or don’t do and the hard decision they are making, and I didn’t get enough of a sense that the Ellsberg character really cared that people in Vietnam were being hurt by our politicians and military, just that he felt duped and felt a fool.