Review of Shock and Awe (2017) by Ken G — 14 Jul 2018

SHOCK and AWE: ( B ).

Though kind of flat, at first (e.g. with matter of fact renderings and reactions to the 9/11 attack) this film eventually finds its footing. Since it seems like it came out of nowhere, I presumed this might be a tired re-litigation of the motives for the war in Iraq. Something we've all kind of made our minds up about. Thankfully this proved to be a more interesting take down of what hand maidens even the NY Times were during the run up to the Iraq war... basically press release agents for the Bush administration (ah yes, the Golden days when they put Cheney propaganda on their front page...). The heroes here are the writers at Knight Ridder who did get it right, on an island all to themselves. It's easy to forget that not everyone rolled over for the war. That said the most incredibly effective scene here is the actual brutal footage of Senator Byrd speaking out against the war as nearly everyone else voted to authorize it... (you name it: McCain, Biden, Kerry, Lieberman, Hillary, McConnell). It was a sadly intense time when many had reason to doubt the media & our leaders (look closely at the photo... it's a portrayal of the Knight Ridder staffers watching Cheney sighting the front page NY Times story HE planted as evidence for justification... aka: Lying. Ugh-ly)... and things aren't any better now.

Anyway, stick with the movie past it's initial flat footing. It becomes quite engaging, and it's REALLY worth it for the closing credits when even Judith Miller falls on her sword (kind of) on the Daily Show. She being the biggest culprit for enabling such a disaster within the media.