The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith’s Oscar-nominated documentary, tells the captivating story of an ultra-conservative hawk and war strategist turned whistleblower and dissident. This consistently absorbing depiction of Ellsberg’s fascinating life watches principles collide with the world of high politics. It documents the life and choices of a man whose change of heart made him “the most dangerous man in America.”
Formerly a marine, Ellsberg worked as a strategist at the conservative think-tank, RAND Corporation, where he helped plan and justify the American bombing campaign and subsequent military action in Vietnam. He was one of the war’s most enthusiastic supporters; that is, until he went to Vietnam himself where he lived and killed in the jungle with the grunts on the front line.
There he began to see the deceptions perpetuating an unwinnable war — the disconnect between the speeches on TV and the reality on the ground. Shortly after his tour, he was given access to a 7,000-page document that would come to be known as the Pentagon Papers: a history of American involvement in Vietnam since the end of World War Two. The Papers proved, beyond refute, that America fought more to save face than to help the Vietnamese and that the highest levels of government blatantly lied to the public on countless occasions.
Faced with a choice between remaining silent and exposing the documents, Ellsberg chose his principles over his career and leaked the Papers to the New York Times. What ensues is a riveting and complex narrative peppered with some of the biggest political names of the Vietnam years: Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Kissinger, McNamara. The pace of the film never flags, following Ellsberg and his family as his actions begin to snowball, touching some of the most fraught events in American history since World War Two. The story moves with impressive force through the maze of names and events and keeps the audience absorbed until the final frame.
Don’t expect to be dazzled by the film’s beauty, though. Ehrlich and Goldsmith concentrate on truth-claim, and the cinematography remains flat and relatively unimaginative. The audience is left with the traditional documentary fare: interviews with Ellsberg, his wife, and his accomplices; Ellsberg’s slightly over-rehearsed narration; stills of himself in army fatigues, crawling through Vietnamese jungles; tape recordings of Nixon, complete with colourful expletives; many, many photos of men in suits and horn-rimmed glasses; and typically heart-wrenching found-footage from Vietnam.
At its most uninspired, the film cuts to low-lit re-enactment scenes where actors attempt to reproduce original events against a backdrop of ominous music, or to amateurish cartoons that depict the Ellsbergs photocopying classified documents at the RAND corporation. While the directors certainly intended to create tension with these scenes, the result is an aesthetic appeal equivalent to an episode of Cold Case or Mythbusters.
And yet, the story remains compelling, held aloft by ideals that have permeated North American culture to the very core — empathy, honesty, justice, peace — these are values incessantly espoused and seldom realized. The film works to unite these principles in one unapologetic man and to hold him up as an example to follow. The directors manage to accomplish this without drowning the film in a quagmire of cynicism and cognitive dissonance. Although the film documents, in great detail, the destruction wrought by the Vietnam War and the chilling deceit that made it possible, the viewer leaves the theatre feeling inspired rather than angry. Seeing how one man made a difference leads us back to our own potential — the fact that, somehow, someday, we might make a difference too.
The film was a nominee for an Academy Award in the best feature documentary category and is being shown at Cinema du Parc, 3575 Avenue du Parc.
