Review | Film review: Kill the Messenger - true-life drama of CIA drug exposé journalist
Script simplifies complex tale of how Gary Webb exposed CIA deal for cocaine sales in US to fund Nicaraguan Contra rebels, and subsequent campaign to discredit him that led to his suicide
In ancient times, messengers bearing bad news were sometimes killed – thus the film title. Kill the Messenger, based on the true story of US journalist Gary Webb, updates the concept to modern times. The script by former journalist Peter Landesman, who recently directed the medical drama Concussion, does a good job of simplifying a complex real-life chain of events.
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In the 1980s, the US Congress passed laws that made funding the Nicaraguan Contras, who were trying to overthrow their democratically elected left-wing government, illegal. But many in the Reagan administration wanted funding to continue.
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Webb (Jeremy Renner) discovered that the CIA had made an arrangement with Nicaraguan cocaine dealers that allowed the latter to sell crack cocaine in the US, as long as some of the profits were used to fund the Contras. Webb broke the story, but a concerted campaign by the authorities discredited Webb’s personal life and journalistic abilities – a tactic which ultimately led to his suicide.
Kill the Messenger opens on January 28
