The Most Dangerous Man In America

After the tapes of his conversations in the Oval Office were made public, Richard Nixon was more concerned about people hearing his bad language than he was about what he actually said on them. In which case it is doubly scary that for a time he led the most powerful nation on Earth – if this is anything to go by, the bloke was off his rocker.

But it’s not to Tricky Dicky that the title of this exceptional and still relevant documentary refers. Instead, its subject is Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower whose revelations about the misinformation, deception and bald-faced lying that underpinned the war in Vietnam (in Hanoi it’s known as ‘the American War’) were to ultimately play such a significant part in bringing down Nixon’s Presidency. US involvement in Vietnam started with John F. Kennedy and was ratcheted up considerably by his successor, Lyndon Johnson (with whom our grinning PM Holt went ‘all the way’). Against the advice of Robert McNamara, his Defense Secretary, Johnson decided that carpet bombing would prevail – civilian casualties were of no consequence. Ellsberg, a marine who willingly did a tour of duty in Vietnam, concluded that it was a conflict his side could not win and, more troubling to him, could not justify. Upon leaving the military, he made use of his contacts to obtain the damning evidence that history records as the Pentagon Papers.

In the interest of balance, it may have been more objective to have somebody other than Ellsberg narrate the piece (the ‘hero’ speaking in the first person does not feel quite right), but Ellsberg’s integrity is unimpeachable. Compelling archival footage tells the story, but there are a couple of episodes illustrated by complimentary B/W cartoons that make you wonder if co-directors Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith included them as ill-judged concessions to the popular addiction to animation. Despite the vileness it exposes, the film does not mindlessly bash America. The Republic, at the moment that it was being critically white-anted by a corrupt administration, could, through its courts and the freedom of speech constitutionally granted to its media (the New York Times and the Washington Post), exhibit the virility to purge itself of the poison. As an historical document, this should not be missed by anybody interested in the machinations of the body politic and the wielding of executive power. I watched it straight after seeing Graham Richardson on the ABC’s ‘Q & A’. Richo’s devious, smug dial was, I understood in retrospect, the perfect curtain raiser. ‘Plus ça change…’

Matching Jack

In every movie you see there will be an incident that stretches credibility to breaking point (in airhead, violence-as-porn fantasies like ‘Salt’ they are twenty to the dozen) Remember when the family absconded with the corpse in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’? It was simply not believable, but because there was something else more important happening, and because our commitment to the story had been firmly established, we were prepared to go with it.

Director Nadia Tess takes a similar risk with artistic licence in this wonderful film when she has two small boys, in fancy dress, sneak out of the hospital’s cancer ward and make their way, by cab, to Melbourne’s Luna Park. It’s a big ask, but I took it on board unhesitatingly, so wrapped was I in the drama that was unfolding. Sick kids are hardly the most appealing subject matter, but writers Lynne Renew and David Parker have constructed a narrative that maintains forthright pace, suspense and a modest, slow blooming romance without at any time demeaning the plight of their central characters.

Eight year-old Jack (Tom Russell), in hospital after being diagnosed with aggressive leukemia, becomes mates with fellow sufferer Finn (Kodi Smit-McPhee), whose condition is more advanced. Jack’s mother Marissa (Jacinda Barrett) discovers on the day of his admission that her husband David (Richard Roxburgh) has been having an affair and is planning to leave her. With their marriage in meltdown and David’s numerous infidelities coming to light, Marissa seeks out his former mistresses in the last-straw hope that one of them may have borne him a child who might be a compatible bone marrow donor. Meanwhile Finn’s condition deteriorates, despite the defiant optimism of his widowed, Irish dad (James Nesbitt). Yes, it’s a soapie alright – but what a beauty.

The search for a donor – if one exists – is never predictable, but a reassuring orthodoxy in the flow of events promises reward for the emotional weight that is at one point (for me, anyway) overwhelming. Barrett, who first caught the eye in ‘Ladder 49’ (2004), is superb as the desperate young mum, Roxburgh is genuinely dislikeable as the utter bastard and, as Finn’s dad, James Nesbitt reins in a character that threatens at first to tilt in to goofiness. Both boys are naturals. Polished without ever trying to be flash and enhanced by a perfectly pitched Paul Grabowsky score, it has inevitably suffered from the black-shirts’ charge of sentimentality, but I loved it and found it immensely moving and honest in its humanity. You can catch it at Lismore.