Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Thursday 28 sepTember 2017
‘Mark Felt’ film prompts

questions of Deep Throat’s role

By JAKE COYLE In the letter, they main- garage meeting between
AP Film Writer tained that Nixon’s fall was Woodward and Felt — in
NEW YORK (AP) — More “the work of many” — con- comparison to “All the Pres-
than four decades after tributors they listed as rang- ident’s Men.” Landesman
Hal Holbrook stood smok- ing from Frank Wells, the added that Pakula’s film is
ing in a darkened parking Watergate office security one of his favorites.
lot, urging Robert Redford’s guard who discovered the “It’s a much fuller repre-
Bob Woodward to “follow break in, to the Supreme sentation of what really
the money,” the famed Court, which unanimously happened that night than
This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Liam Watergate source “Deep ruled that Nixon had to what’s in ‘All the President’s
Neeson in “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White Throat” is, in cinematic turn over his tapes. “Mark Men,’” said Landesman.
House.” terms, finally stepping out Felt was only one of several “There’s a lot of that film
Associated Press of the shadows. dozen sources we used,” that was the creation and
“Mark Felt: The Man Who they wrote. the poetic dramatization
Brought Down the White “Let the story speak for it- of Bill Goldman, more than
House” is a kind of bookend self,” they concluded. “A was factually accurate.
to Alan J. Pakula 1976 mas- hyped effort to make it My ambition was to make
terpiece “All the President’s more will fail and do your- this movie the more iconi-
Men” that gives a belated selves and Mark Felt a cally accurate version of
big-screen close-up to the grave disservice.” events.”
man who was — until he It’s far from the first time Landesman’s commitment
revealed himself in 2005 as the facts surrounding Wa- to accuracy has been
the Washington Post’s fa- tergate have been con- questioned before. Citing
mous source — shrouded in tested. Woodward and emails leaked in the hack
mystery. Bernstein have played their of Sony Pictures, The New
But whether “Mark Felt” own part in growing the York Times reported that
adds clarity to the legend legend around their land- “Concussion” was altered
of Watergate or further mark journalism and the to soften its criticism of the
mythologizes it is up for de- aura around the source NFL. Many disputed that
bate. Bob Woodward and they nicknamed. Their 1974 page-one report, though,
Carl Bernstein, the famed book, “All the President’s on the basis of the still hard-
journalists whose reporting Men,” recounted their ex- hitting finished film. Landes-
earned the Washington traordinarily methodical, man vigorously denied the
Post a Pulitzer Prize, say Pe- step-by-step reporting. claims and calls the Times
ter Landesman’s film over- The resulting film, starring report “a hit piece” that
states the importance of Robert Redford and Dustin damaged the movie.
Felt in untangling Water- Hoffman, stayed close to A 2004 cover story of Lan-
gate, portraying him as a the truth but it added some desman’s for the New York
puppet master pulling the dramatic flourishes. The Times Magazine about sex
strings that would, as the now-famous line “follow trafficking in the U.S., also
subtitle asserts, topple Rich- the money,” for example, came under scrutiny for al-
ard Nixon. was an invention of screen- legedly exaggerating the
Felt, then the No. 2 official writer William Goldman. scope of domestic sex traf-
at the Federal Bureau of In response to Woodward ficking. The veteran media
Investigation, played an and Bernstein’s comments, critic Jack Shafer penned
integral role in exposing Landesman — a former in- numerous columns for Slate
Nixon’s attempted cover- vestigative journalist, him- questioning the story, in-
up. But by depicting Felt self, whose previous film cluding one titled “Doubt-
as the grand orchestrator was the 2015 docudrama ing Landesman,” to which
of the president’s demise, “Concussion,” with Will Landesman wrote several
Woodward and Bernstein Smith — suggested there responses defending his ar-
say, “Mark Felt” distorts the were parallels between ticle.
history — and lessons — of the approaches of the two Landesman recently told
Watergate. films. the New Yorker that Wood-
“Felt played a role, at “This film sees Watergate ward and Bernstein “loved”
times a courageous one,” through the keyhole of the film.
Woodward told The Associ- Felt’s experience as the “Mark Felt,” which will be
ated Press. “But this portrait man leading the FBI in- released on Friday, focus-
of him as ‘the man who vestigation into the White es heavily on Felt’s battles
brought down the White House’s cover-up, just as within the FBI. Nixon nomi-
House’ just isn’t accurate.” ‘All the President’s Men’ nated a longtime loyalist,
Woodward and Bernstein saw Watergate through L. Patrick Gray as acting di-
voiced their concerns with the keyhole of Woodward rector after the death of J.
Landesman in an email to and Bernstein’s experi- Edgar Hoover.
the filmmaker last October ence,” Landesman said in A loyal servant to Hoover
that they shared with The a statement to the AP. and ardent defender of
Associated Press. They im- In an earlier interview about the bureau, Felt (played by
plored Landesman to drop the film, Landesman boast- Liam Neeson) was angered
the subtitle, calling it “de- ed of the film’s accuracy by being passed over for
monstrably false.” — particularly in a parking the post. q