Kill the Messenger (2014)

Kill the Messenger (2014) is based on a book that disclosed a part of the Iran–Contra affair written by Gary Webb (1955–2004): Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion (1998).

In the early 1980's, the CIA was part of an operation to distribute crack cocaine to fund American military operations abroad. These drugs were fueling a destructive system of keeping the lower class in America from progressing. Gary Webb was the reporter who investigated this case and published his findings, first as a series of articles and later as a book. In 2004 he was found dead from two gunshot wounds at his head.

Watch it online: Kill the Messenger

Managing a Nightmare: The CIA Reveals How It Watched Over the Destruction of Gary Webb, by Ryan Devereaux, The Intercept, Sept 25, 2014. Devereaux links to this fascinating pdf-file on CIA's server: Managing a Nightmare: CIA Public Affairs and the Drug Conspiracy Story

Ryan Devereaux, Twitter
Interview: Michael Cuesta on CIA Secrets and the Importance of Journalism in Kill the Messenger, Edward Douglas, ComingSoonNet, Oct 3, 2014


Interview with the leading actor and producer Jeremy Renner.

So, how about the not yet official political conspiracies? Who are the now struggling and yet unknown whistleblowers? And an even better question is why we acknowledge and support a system where it is possible for those in power to do whatever they like, as long as there are no so called political scandals?

The real-life story of a journalist investigating a CIA scandal becomes a so-so conspiracy thriller, Peter Travers, RollingStone, Oct 9, 2014:
"The dark alliances at the heart of Kill the Messenger are alive and well and ever ready to send out digital shock waves."

A Reporter in the Crosshairs, ‘Kill the Messenger,’ a Film About the Reporter Gary Webb, Manohla Dargis, The New York Times, Oct 9, 2014.