Kill The Messenger

When i hear young people who never heard of films like The Deer Hunter, or Taxi Driver, i feel very worried. Most of them seem to know all Michael Bay films, and that is not a good sign on their movie knowledge. I am not saying that all young people are like this, just some, and those young minds need to learn what true film making is all about. The 70´s really proved to be a time of cult films, and some of the biggest classics of all time. Taxi Driver is without a doubt a masterpiece by Martin Scorsese, a film that you can never get tired of. Some old classics still hold today, and you want to know why ? Because they have both fantastic acting, combined with a brilliant story. In today´s society, we still get some really good films, by directors who have the passion to tell interesting stories. Usually these are independent films, because major studios are afraid to go for films that may not make more than 10 million dollars in profit, as an example. Speaking of the 70´s, for those who might remember, there were a lot of films released about crimes, included with drug business. Action films combined with drama, seemed to mix well together, and many directors tried to captured to rough life behind the drug industry. Let´s move along much more recently in time, into the year of 2007. Director Ridley Scott released his film American Ganster, with Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington in the lead roles. This turned out to be the best film of 2007, and i still love it just as much even today. The true story based on the life of drug dealer gangster Frank Lucas. Director Ridley Scott delivered one of the best criminal films in many years, and with such powerful performances from both Russel Crowe and Denzel Washington, you could not stop watching. The drug industry is massive, and it will never go away. As long as drug dealers, drug lords and people working to deliver drugs keeps on going, many people can live good lives. So what if an journalist finds out that CIA covered up their tracks, that they worked together with drug dealers, importing crack cocaine ? This is actually something that happened in the middle of the 90´s. Journalist Gary Webb gets information from an secret source, and begin to write on this story. The portrait in Kill The Messenger of journalist Gary Webb, is no one other than Jeremy Renner, most known from films such as The Hurt Locker, The Avengers, and American Hustle. Knowing this is a film based on an true story, is this better than i was hoping for, or is the story simpy too boring to care about ? 

San Jose Mercury News journalist Gary Webb ( Jeremy Renner ), loves his job as an journalist. But the stories he is writing so far, is not what he is interested in writing about. Until one day, when he gets a phone call in his office. A woman under the name of Coral Baca ( Paz Vega ), says she have secret documents, containing information that CIA have imported crack cocaine into USA, helping Nicaraguan rebels. Gary understand that if he writes a story on this scandal, and publish it, this will be something that everyone will talk about. He finally publish the story, even if he is warned by the CIA, and get the whole country talking. How could CIA agree to do such a scandalous operation, when they are supposed to stop criminals ? The normal life that Gary once had, is now becoming very serious, with threats towards him, and his family.

I did not know much about the plot in Kill The Messenger, and i think that is the best way to go, when you decide to watch a film. I am really surprised how good this film turned out to be, and the acting ? There are so many great performances from Jeremy Renner, Ray Liotta, Michael Sheen, Robert Patrick and Andy Garcia ( finally we get to see him in a bigger production film ). Remember the classic film All President´s Men with Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford ? You can feel the influences from that film here, with an investigation by an news journalist, who finds information that the government have been invloved in an major cocain scandal. The fact that this is based on a true story, about journalist Gary Webb, makes me feel even more interested in what happened during his investigation. Jeremy Renner is really good in the lead role, he feels like a journalist, and do manage to portrait someone who is ready to go all the way, to get the perfect story. Director Michael Cuesta, is mostly known as an tv series director for tv series Homeland and Blue Bloods. When it comes to feature films, i have only seen one of his films called Tell-Tale, with Josh Lucas in the lead role. It was alright, but nothing original in any way. Kill The Messenger feels like a touchdown for director Michael Cuesta. If you compare with Tell-Tale, it is almost like Cuesta changed his style completely, and worked really hard to make a film with a powerful message about corruption. I will be honest and say, i don´t remember anything about this case, even if i used to read a lot of newspapers in my youth. One reason could be that Sweden did not report that much about Gary Webb, since i remember other scandals that happened in America during the 90´s. Drug scandals still happen in todays society, among politicians, celebraties, and i have a feeling it will go on forever. It is an big industry, where everyone want to make lots of money, even if it means people will end up dead. Did journalist Gary Webb did the right thing to reveal information ? I think he did what any journalist would have done, with secret documents that could destroy peoples lives. Scandals sell papers, and could also help your career to grow to a completely different level in journalism, if you have the perfect story. Kill The Messenger is a really well made thriller, that show us how greedy powerful people can be. Unfortunately this film did not get much promotion, and you could not see this film in cinemas around Europe. So now you can find the film on blu ray or dvd, and i suggest you see it if you love intelligent thrillers. Jeremy Renner, if you are reading this review, i wish you would have been nominated for your performance, you deserved one nomination at least.

Rating: DDDD