“Kill the Messenger,” which stars Jeremy Renner as San Jose Mercury News reporter Gary Webb, is based on the true story of a reporter who tried to expose the connection between the CIA’s involvement in funding weapons purchases for the Nicaraguan Contras by arranging cocaine shipments to the United States.
Webb wrote a three-part series in August 1996 called “Dark Alliance.” As a result of his writings, The Bay Area Society of Professional Journalists named Webb its Journalist of the Year.
The catalyst for Webb was a woman named Coral Baca, played by Paz Vega. She calls him one day and says that she has confidential court documents on her drug dealer boyfriend named Danilo Blandon, who is played by Yul Vázquez, a government informant. Blandon admits the CIA’s role in the drug trafficking under oath.
Norwin Meneses, played by Andy Garcia, was Blandon’s drug partner. Meneses was then serving time at a Nicaraguan jail, which Webb had to bribe himself into in order to get Meneses to speak with him.
Initially, things go quite well after Webb’s big expose gets published. But soon those that he works with question what he has written. They are concerned that he was not able to produce any concrete sources from the CIA. Major newspapers, such as the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Post, go on the attack as well and discredit Webb’s findings. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that the CIA will do whatever it takes to destroy the career and reputation of Webb.
The movie bears resemblance to “Fair Game,” which starred Sean Penn and Naomi Watts and was also about a journalist (Joseph Wilson, who was married to Valerie Plame) who was ridiculed by the press for his controversial published findings.
Renner gives an excellent performance in which we see how much this story comes to mean to him. As the movie progresses, he becomes more and more paranoid as he thinks that the CIA might be after him. His three children seemed to look up to him, especially his oldest, a teenage son, played very well by Lucas Hedges. The movie does a good job delving into a complex issue and definitely holds your interest.
There were some shortcomings, nonetheless. How Coral Baca would have known that Webb was in Sacramento was not believable. (That’s how she is able to initially reach him.) Also, Baca having those confidential court documents was something I did not buy since she was merely a drug dealer’s girlfriend who would not have connections to those in the legal system. Fairly late in the movie Webb thinks that there is an intruder around his house and decides to leave his house and chase after this alleged individual with a gun. Even though he is paranoid at this point, one would still think that he would stay in his house and call the police.
Lastly, late in the movie someone who claims to have worked for the CIA (played by a well known actor who shall remain nameless) shows up at Webb’s motel room (at this point he is living by himself) seemingly out-of-nowhere to tell Webb his side of things. This sequence came off as arbitrary – no mention was made how he knew where Webb was staying, or how he got into the room.
While difficult to follow at times, you’ll come away from this movie with a good understanding of what goes on with investigative journalism and how the truth is not always easy to figure out. The movie also challenges the widespread feeling that the government is acting transparent and for the good of the country.
