Fair Game reveals ‘hiccup’ in US political history

Director: Doug Liman.
Cinema: Eastgate
Type of film: Action thriller
Running time: 116 minutes
Age restriction: Adults only

It happens rarely, but in the case of the film “Fair Game” showing at Eastgate, we have a film which is out of synch with Harare’s potential movie audience. Limited to “adults only”, it should be further restricted to those who are fully prepared to pay close attention; to work at it.
The film brilliantly reveals a major “hiccup” in the recent American political scene. In 2002, in his second year as US President, on the occasion of the State of the Union” address to the nation, President Bush stated:

“For many years, Saddam Hussein has been amassing weapons of mass destruction . . . “
Subsequently, it was revealed that he had been cautioned by the CIA that “there is no evidence of the truth of such a statement”.
In a film as close to history as Hollywood ever produces, “Fair Game” brilliantly tells the inside story of that period, revealing the hypocrisy of what the public was allowed to know.

The actress Naomi Watts, born in Shoreham, England in 1968, plays the real-life Valerie Plame Wilson, the agent of America’s CIA, who, aided by her husband Joe Wilson, a former American ambassador to countries of the Middle East, discovered the cover-up and had to decide what to do with the knowledge.
Leaving history and returning to the writing of a film review, the great shock to this reviewer, was the physical appearance of Sean Penn, in the role of Joe Wilson. Failing to remember that I had first seen this actor

in roles 25 years ago, I was unprepared for the “mature appearance” Sean Penn presents today. Now in his fifties.
With repeated clips of TV speeches by President Bush, running parallel to action scenes of most chilling realism, the film “Fair Game” represents a further step along the road which Hollywood has taken in its campaign not to hold back. For those of Harare’s adult film-goers who are willing and prepared to be thrown, helter-skelter, into the arcane channels of recent political history, to have some of their prejudices confirmed or refuted, here is a rare opportunity.