Allied with a defendant's lawyer (Tim Blake Nelson), Webb uncovers the scoop of a lifetime: ten years before, the CIA under the Reagan Administration partnered with Nicaraguans to traffic guns and cocaine, to raise illicit funds to pay "contra" mercenaries to fight a socialist Nicaraguan government. As a result, America was flooded with cheap crack cocaine, creating a drug addiction epidemic in urban ghettos.
Webb travels to Nicaragua to learn more, and meets with cynical western operative Andy Garcia. Webb convinces his editors, Oliver Platt and Mary Elizabeth Winstead, to publish his big story, to initial widespread acclaim. Webb briefly becomes a media celebrity.
Of course, the CIA does not care for Webb's exposé, and works to undercut his story. Their cause is surprisingly aided by journalists at large papers such as the Los Angeles Times, seemingly motivated by petty jealousy.
As forces work against Webb, he becomes separated from his wife Rosemarie DeWitt and his three children (Lucas Hedges, Matt Lintz, Parker Douglas). He is harassed by strangers, and is compelled to quit his job with the San Jose newspaper. Before the credits roll, we learn that Webb eventually committed suicide, with two shots in the head.
Goodfellas star Ray Liotta has a single scene as a regretful CIA operative.
How others will see it. This bleak and unforgiving movie will suck the joy out of anyone able to see the film through. It was a box office dud, and failed to attract much attention on the festival circuit.
Nonetheless, the movie has 41K user votes at imdb.com, and a respectable 7.0 (out of 10) user rating. The film has a strong appeal to those who want to believe in "X-Files"-style government conspiracies, particularly when they are mostly true. User reviews applaud the film for it's fight-the-power theme, with comments like "keeps the can of worms open" and "politically explosive." Renner's performance is universally praised.
How I felt about it. Many "based on true stories" have little relation to reality. Purportedly, The Benny Goodman Story (1956) was such fiction that the jazz bandleader himself decided to never see his own biopic. But producer/director Michael Cuesta seems to have taken few liberties with the truth. The film appears generally authentic.
That the CIA enabled billions of dollars of coke traffic in order to fund the Contras is unsurprising. After all, they had illegally sold arms to an enemy nation, Iran, to aid the Contras; the biggest political scandal of the Reagan Administration. For right wingers, the end always justifies the means, even when the end itself (imposing another Somoza-styled military dictator in Nicaragua) is sinister if not blatantly evil.
It is also par for the course that the CIA would strike back against Webb, ultimately forcing the San Jose paper to publish a retraction and cut ties with its "discredited" star reporter. It is depressing, though, to learn that that major newspapers were much less interesting in fleshing out Webb's story than in trashing him for having the temerity to challenge the journalistic pecking order.