Review: THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA

How much trust do we put in our elected officials? How far-reaching, how blatant are the lies that the government tells us, reaching all the way up the ladder to the big man in the oval office? Daniel Ellsberg discovered the answers to these questions first hand during his time working with the Rand Corporation in collaboration with Robert McNamara and the U.S. government during the Vietnam War. This was a devastating revelation that ultimately shifted his views and his life, resulting in a shift in the interpretation of the First Amendment in relation to the publication of classified documents in the media.

Is this all a bit much to take in? Well, THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN IN AMERICA: DANIEL ELLSBERG AND THE PENTAGON PAPERS is the kind of documentary that can present enough information to make your head spin, or to inform and awaken audiences to the underbelly of American history. Its a film that delves into the darker, unspoken areas that we never read about in school textbooks. Directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith have put together a fine piece of filmmaking, detailing a side of the Vietnam War that is still unfolding in the public view.

Not since Errol Morris’ THE FOG OF WAR have I seen a documentary so engaging and enlightening as to the truth in action of those in power, truth in the intentions kept behind closed doors and under lock and key. Through archival footage, interviews both present and historical, the filmmakers recount the controversial decision of Daniel Ellsberg to leak the 47 volumes, 7000 pages of top secret Pentagon documents to not one, but ultimately 17 major newspaper outlets as well as key members of Congress who held opposing objections to the Vietnam War and how it was handled, strategically and ethically.

Other films have been tremendously effective and moving in detailing and conveying the effects of the Vietnam War, both during and after, such as HEARTS AND MINDS, but few of these films have laid enough attention on the masterminds of the war that ultimately killed 58,000 American soldiers and over 2 million Vietnamese. Personally, I support the soldiers who fight for their country with honor, separate from the war itself, whichever war it may be. As we’ve come to realize most recently, not all wars are right and just in their purpose and methods. What this film does with great respect to all parties involved is to expose those responsible and their actions, which resulted in a cascading ripple effect, dominoes that continued to fall from the force of their predecessors, beginning with JFK through the Lyndon Johnson years and ending with Richard Nixon.

Daniel Ellsberg narrates the film himself, giving a sense of sincerity to the narration, a sense of real human emotion that would be difficult to convey using anyone other than the man who experienced the very accounts he is unveiling, Through the course of the film, Ellsburg wanders eloquently from nostalgia to sickening realization, fondness of a time when he truly felt he was doing good in supporting a cause for democratic security in Vietnam to his later years when all those feelings of righteousness were shattered. The sadness, the regret and the horror in his voice are as apparent as the certainty that his renewed efforts against war have fully become embedded in his life.

The film doesn’t bore the audience by going into great detail regarding the contents of the many documents, instead focusing on the many different people involved in the story, their reactions and recollections and the process and outcomes of the legal and moral choices made by Ellsberg and others. This is an example of a film that gives just enough information to be informative, inspiring those with interest of conscience to research further on their own without overwhelming the average audience and bogging itself down with statistics, facts and bias rants about how one side is more or less right or wrong than the other. THE MOST DANGEROUS MAN is a film about one man’s personal story of David defeating Goliath, enveloped in all the social, political and legal entanglements that come along for the ride, but the film never loses focus of it’s primary objective… doing what’s “right” in the face of adversity.

Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars