Truth Blu-ray delivers great video and audio in this fan-pleasing Blu-ray release
Newsroom drama detailing the 2004 CBS 60 Minutes report investigating then-President George W. Bush's military service, and the subsequent firestorm of criticism that cost anchor Dan Rather and producer Mary Mapes their careers.
For more about Truth and the Truth Blu-ray release, see Truth Blu-ray Review published by Martin Liebman on February 2, 2016 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Truth isn't the first film in which legendary Actor Robert Redford has portrayed a journalist at the center of a media storm that threatens to
destroy a sitting U.S. President. In 1976, he played print Reporter Bob Woodward in All the President's Men, the story of the two journalists who broke the
Watergate scandal story that ultimately led to President Richard M. Nixon's resignation from office. In first-time Director James Vanderbilt's (writer,
Zodiac) debut feature Truth, Redford portrays longtime CBS
television news Anchor Dan Rather who reports on a story, seemingly well vetted and authentic, surrounding controversy of then-President George W.
Bush's time in the Texas Air National Guard at the height of the Vietnam conflict, a controversy that could very well cost him re-election in the 2004
Presidential race. Unfortunately, and unlike All the President's Men, Truth fails to capture the imagination, weave a gripping tale of
how journalism works and influences the political landscape, or even feature stellar lead performances. The movie instead feels sloppily assembled --
its first half in particular -- and, while it recounts events, plays with an empty spirit as the story builds, unravels, and the fallout shakes up the CBS
news landscape forever.
There's a storm coming...
Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) is a CBS TV producer who finds herself with the opportunity to break the biggest story of her life, one that could end
sitting President George W. Bush's re-election bid and hand the election to Democratic Senator John Kerry. She believes that records reveal that
Bush, decades before his first Presidential term, received preferential admittance to the Texas Air National Guard, after which he failed to appear
for
routine mandated physicals and went AWOL for an entire year, all to avoid combat service in Vietnam. Mapes, with the blessings of her superiors,
including CBS President Andrew Heyward (Bruce Greenwood), assembles a team to put together the story, corroborate it, and air it. Her team
includes an ex-Marine named Roger Charles (Dennis Quaid) who previously helped Mapes break the Abu Ghraib prisoner torture scandal, a
People.com gossiper named Mike Smith (Topher Grace), and Journalism Professor Lucy Scott (Elisabeth Moss). The story seems bulletproof; the
paper trail appears legit and the interviewees are sure of their memories. CBS runs with the story, with Anchor Dan Rather
presenting it to a captivated national audience. But just as CBS is celebrating the story's successful airing, questions begin to arise as to the
authenticity of evidential documents. Soon, Mapes, Rather, and all of CBS enter a maelstrom of backlash, forcing them to either double down on
the story
or reexamine ever-mounting evidence that the documents are forgeries and the interviewees are lying.
CBS' own review of the movie wasn't exactly flattering:
It's astounding how little truth there is in 'Truth.' There are, in fact, too many distortions, evasions and baseless conspiracy
theories
to enumerate them all. The film tries to turn gross errors of journalism and judgment into acts of heroism and martyrdom. That's a disservice not
just
to the public but to journalists across the world who go out every day and do everything within their power, sometimes at great risk to themselves,
to
get the story right.
Obviously, the Network has an image to uphold as it operates in an ever-competitive news marketplace. The story and its allegations
were damaging to the network then, and while they're not quite so damaging now -- Rather is long retired and Mapes hasn't worked in television
news since -- the film opens old wounds still in the healing process.
What's wrong with Truth, at least viewing it as an outsider rather than as someone with more immediate and intimate knowledge of the
story depicted in the movie (who will, in almost every case, find films deeply flawed, misleading, or otherwise drastically rearranged from reality;
CBS isn't exactly treading new ground with its criticism), isn't that it tells the story, it's that it tells the story in extraordinarily shallow ways and in
excruciatingly dull detail that should be anything but. The film's first half comes painfully short of audience-absorbing as the depiction of Mapes
and her team assembling the
story from
the ground up -- vetting and interviewing sources, pouring through materials, collaborating in the office, editing video -- lacks any kind of spark,
pacing, or sense of dramatic foreboding. Characters seem almost painfully gleeful at the prospects of breaking the story. The audience can
practically see their thoughts of a place in Woodward
and Bernstein-esque history dancing in their eyes. Never mind their politics; it's the rush of impending immortality that seems to drive them, and
their oftentimes wild-eyed, over-excitable approach does a disservice to the depiction of the journalistic process. They get their comeuppance in
the film's darker,
more grounded, more entertaining second half as the story unravels and the team scrambles through the fallout and goes into damage control
mode, both on-air and behind-the-scenes.
The film never really gets to the heart of the matter, either. It's more coy than it should be in examining the core of journalistic integrity, at least
until one scene partway in the movie when there's a pointed critique of the modern news cycle -- breaking news isn't as important as reporting on
some other outlet that's breaking news (imagine what they would think of how it works #today) -- and Rather taking a high road reflection on the
business in a phone call with Mapes near film's end. While the movie's frantic quest for answers in its tonally darker second half sees it
rebound from its dismal first, all of the excitement feels superficial. It's entertainingly robust but emotionally hollow. Truth
does well at
telling the story and putting a face to names, but it's otherwise a disappointing recreation that never gets all that deep beyond the superficial
details of one of the most important stories to come from the journalism world in these first years of the 21st century.
Truth's 1080p transfer won't redefine the way people view Blu-ray, but it's a solid, source-based image that carries the movie well. The digital
photography translates easily to 1080p, reproducing, often, fine and exacting details in the broader spectrum of clothes, faces, and general
backgrounds in homes, offices, and studios. Sharpness and clarity are strong points, and only intermittent bouts of lightly smeary details emerge.
Colors are nicely balanced; as discussed in the commentary, the palette is brightest at the beginning and grows gradually darker as the film
progresses. Beyond the film's purposeful delineations and external lighting factors, every hue is well saturated throughout. Black levels never stray
too far from ideal and flesh tones likewise are fine, again within lighting contexts. Mild noise and trace banding appear, but other maladies don't play a
factor into a positive, faithful transfer from Sony.
Truth features a dialogue-heavy DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. Vocal definition is firm and clear. The track offers constant
prioritization and center placement. Music enjoys strong definition and effortless stage immersion. Supportive effects help integrate the listener into
the movie. Things like microphone reverberation throughout a large formal gathering, basic office din, or background elements at a party give a nice,
gentle sense of
space to the film's locations. There's nice heft to a plane takeoff and, later in the movie, a crack of thunder. On the whole, the track doesn't offer
much in the way of sonic variety or intensity, but what's here is handled professionally and accurately, as expected of a new release lossless
soundtrack.
Truth contains a commentary, deleted scenes, featurettes, and a Q&A. A UV digital copy code is included with purchase.
Audio Commentary: Writer/Director James Vanderbilt and Producers Brad Fischer and William Sherak set out to offer a substantive
commentary track, and succeed. They discuss project origins and inspirations, including the real story and Mapes' book. They cover the
movie's structure, working with the real Mary Mapes, story themes, the producers' work on the movie, casting, the movie's visual tones and
composition, music, and much more. The track offers a fascinating look at not only the how's of the filmmaking process, but also, and much more
interesting, the why's. The disc is worth checking out for this extra alone.
Deleted Scenes (1080p): Heyward Introduces Rather Extended (3:09), He Wore That Uniform (1:30), Meeting
Burkett (3:47), I Knew You Could Do This (1:39), Gotta Go Kiddo (1:22), and Josh Offers to Resign (1:17).
The Reason for Being (1080p, 11:32): The real Dan Rather and Mary Mapes, along with Truth's cast, discuss the real history
behind the movie and the journalistic landscape of the time. In this piece and in a few sound bytes, Rather himself gives a weight to the ideas that
run
through Truth in a way that the movie can never approach in two hours.
The Team (1080p, 8:43): A quick look at the main cast and the characters they portray.
Q&A with Cate Blanchett, Elisabeth Moss, and Director/Writer James Vanderbilt (1080p, 32:59): Moderator Jenelle Riley probes the
participants with a number of questions surrounding project origins and the real history behind the movie, the actors' attachment to the film, cast
and performances, the core story elements, the title, shooting locations, on-set life and work during the shoot, actor and director camaraderie, and
more.
Truth does a fair enough job of recreating and recounting the nuts-and-bols details of CBS' messy 2004 Presidential election cycle scandal, but
there's no center to it. The
movie suffers from a terribly uneven tone, its first half far too excitable and its second half hardly as dramatically deep as it should have been.
Performances are wildly uneven, too, and largely disappointing. Dan Rather is not a role Robert Redford was born to play. Redford doesn't even really
try to
recreate the man, only stand in his shoes, which further plays to the movie's off-kilter, lightweight feel. Cate Blanchett, playing the
film's central figure Mary Mapes, finds the greatest emotional range and is about the only piece of the movie that feels the least bit authentic.
Truth makes
for a good sideshow look into the modern newsroom and political controversy but offers little more. Sony's Bu-ray does provide solid video and audio
as well as a fair assortment of extra content, headlined by a terrific audio commentary. Rent it.
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Truth. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Truth in the search box below.
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has officially announced that it will release on Blu-ray director James Vanderbilt's new film Truth (2015), starring Cate Blanchett, Robert Redford, Elisabeth Moss, Topher Grace, and Dennis Quaid. The release will be available for ...
All countries
Argentina
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Bulgaria
Chile
China
Colombia
Czech Republic
Estonia
Denmark
Finland
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
India
Latvia
Malaysia
New Zealand
Norway
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Singapore
South Africa
South Korea
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Turkey
Ukraine
United Arab Emirates
Use the thumbs up and thumbs down icons to agree or disagree that the title is similar to Truth. You can also suggest completely new similar titles to Truth in the search box below.
