It’s been in the news for a while and ‘whistleblowing’ is not new to America, but with War on Whistleblowers: Free Press and the National Security State out on DVD an attempt to defend the practice hits home. Taut, surprising and not too one-sided, the documentary by Robert Greenwald expresses the views from the whistleblowers themselves and delves into the heart of their defense.
War on Whistleblowers highlights four cases where whistleblowers noticed government wrong-doing and took to the media to expose the fraud and abuse. It expresses concerns that those who would expose wrong doing are being threatened and that the press has been weakened in their defense. The documentary allows previous whistleblowers to defend their positions on the subject, work with press persons and give their reasons for exposing wrong doing within the government.
Simply stated in the film “Whistleblowing” is when someone discloses fraud, waste, abuse, illegality, or a danger to the public health or safety. The film includes interviews with whistleblowers Michael DeKort, Thomas Drake, Franz Gayl and Thomas Tamm and award-winning journalists like David Carr, Lucy Dalgish, Glenn Greenwald, Seymour Hersh, Michael Isikoff, Bill Keller, Eric Lipton, Jane Mayer, Dana Priest, Tom Vanden Brook and Sharon Weinberger.
The one most prominent in the news of late is Thomas Drake former senior executive of the NSA who revealed that the government has been spying on citizens more than what they are allowed to do by Law. He states in the film that “It was the prime directive at NSA (National Security Agency) that you do not spy on Americans without a warrant”. But, the film goes on stating otherwise.
Dana Priest, Investigative Reporter for the Washington Post says on camera “there are 1,271 Government Organizations working at the Top-Secret Level of Counter Terrorism and there are another close to 2,000 private companies that work for the government on Top-Secret matters located in 10,000 locations throughout the country. She goes on to point out how this affects America due to the close to one million people who have top secret clearance.
Thomas Tamm a former attorney of the U.S. Department of Justice was classified as a whistleblower when he uncovered warrantless wiretapping by the NSA. “It’s a Federal Crime in the statutes to listen to somebody’s phone without a warrant.”
The film is directed by Dr. Robert Greenwood (Rethink Afghanistan– documentary, Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers– documentary) who has directed 23 titles from 1997 to present day. He presents his argument and backs it up with interviews by the whistleblowers along with research he has done in the field.
There are 2 hrs and 23 minutes of bonus features on the disc.
BONUS FEATURES:
- “Commentary track by director Robert Greewald”
- “Extended Interviews” Include whistleblowers, Journalists and Experts, many not shown in the film.
The video quality is very good presented in the 1.78:1 format that fills the screen on 16×9 televisions. The presentation is very clear and clean showing each of the whistleblowers in different settings around the country under adequate lighting. Visuals pertaining to each of the whistleblowers are added for dramatic points and are easily seen and readable.
The sound quality is very good and each of the presenters can easily be understood without any distortion.
Specifications and additional film information:
- Directed by: Robert Greenwald
- MPAA Rating: Unrated
- Genre: Documentary
- Running Time: 1 hr 6 min
- Street Date: July 30, 2013
- Language: English
- Format: DVD
- Video: 1.78:1 widescreen
- Subtitles: English, Spanish
- Number of Discs: 1 Disc
- Distributed by: TDC Entertainment
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
