STORY OF PENTAGON PAPERS INSPIRING YET UNDRAMATIC.Byline: David Kronke TV Critic 'THE PENTAGON PAPERS'' is a provocatively timed docudrama concerning one man's efforts to disseminate ``overwhelming proof of a conspiracy to wage war without ... the blessing of a nation,'' even if the act was initially considered treason. Daniel Ellsberg Daniel Ellsberg (born April 7, 1931) is a former American military analyst employed by the RAND Corporation who precipitated a national uproar in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, (who revisited the saga in his book ``Secrets'' last year) was a think-tank Cold War theorist espousing ``Political Uses of Madness'' (which at least one side seems to be employing in the buildup to hostilities in Iraq) when the Pentagon sent him to Vietnam, where, as this film would have it, he was virtually the last American in the country who still believed the war could be won. After reading a top-secret report on the war that delineated monumental patterns of governmental deception, he was transformed, virtually overnight, into a fervid anti-war activist and sneaked a copy of the report to The New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of Times in 1971. The Nixon White House temporarily stopped the Times from revealing what the report said, but barely two weeks later, the Supreme Court ruled against the government, 6 to 3, in a landmark victory for the American press. Ellsberg himself was tried for a series of crimes, but Richard Nixon, bless him, shot himself in the foot with the antics of his ``plumbers,'' resulting in Ellsberg's exoneration The removal of a burden, charge, responsibility, duty, or blame imposed by law. The right of a party who is secondarily liable for a debt, such as a surety, to be reimbursed by the party with primary liability for payment of an obligation that should have been paid by the first party. . Depicting a difficult act of courage, unfortunately, does not necessarily translate into a dramatic movie. Screenwriter Jason Horwitch, apparently overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information he had to pour into a two-hour movie (the Pentagon Papers Pentagon Papers, government study of U.S. involvement in Southeast Asia. Commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert S. McNamara in June, 1967, the 47-volume, top secret study covered the period from World War II to May, 1968. numbered more than 7,000 pages) resorts to some pretty listless (programming) listless - In functional programming, a property of a function which allows it to be combined with other functions in a way that eliminates intermediate data structures, especially lists. stuff, including scenes in which Ellsberg (James Spader), sitting for an interview, simply explains what transpired. There's also the reading-the-report montage, the photocopying-the-report montage - you get the idea. Ellsberg's first wife is introduced and leaves him in the same scene; he then has a meet-cute scene with Washington socialite Patricia Marx Patricia Marx is an American humorist and writer. Her writing has appeared in the The New York Times, The New Yorker, Vogue, and The Atlantic Monthly. (Claire Forlani) in which they bicker bick·er intr.v. bick·ered, bick·er·ing, bick·ers 1. To engage in a petty, bad-tempered quarrel; squabble. See Synonyms at argue. 2. over geopolitics geopolitics, method of political analysis, popular in Central Europe during the first half of the 20th cent., that emphasized the role played by geography in international relations. . They reunite in Saigon, sharing a love scene that seems more appropriate for an episode of ``Dynasty'' than a Vietnam movie. Spader - who's built an entire career on playing anti-heroes and creepy guys (he was last seen showing Maggie Gyllenhaal Maggie Ruth Gyllenhaal (born November 16, 1977) is an American actress. She is the older sister of Jake Gyllenhaal and the daughter of director Stephen Gyllenhaal and screenwriter Naomi Foner. the business side of his palm in ``Secretary'') - and Forlani make for a particularly WASPy Ellsberg and Marx and, in general, lack the gravity to be playing characters in such powerful political circles. Slackly paced and fairly undramatic, ``The Pentagon Papers'' offers a disappointingly unpersuasive gloss on a crucial period in our nation's history. THE PENTAGON PAPERS - Two and one half stars What: Daniel Ellsberg blows a whistle; Nixon blows a gasket. Where: FX. When: 8 p.m. Sunday. In a nutshell: Dramatic material too sprawling to wrestle into a satisfyingly taut two-hour movie. |
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