When the order comes down to stop investigating the Watergate break-in, Felt goes to a friendly journalist ( Bruce Greenwood), knowing he will ask Gray to confirm, and that will put pressure on him to keep the investigation open. In his view, the FBI has to be able to operate independently without any interference from anyone, including the Department of Justice and the White House. “It is what it is because no one from the outside has ever gone inside,” Felt says. Then Gray becomes acting Director, the first Director other than Hoover, and the first senior official who is not an insider. Patrick Gray (an excellent Marton Csokas) shows up to ask for the files, Felt can blandly assure him that there are none. “Put everything into motion,” he tells his staff, “No mistakes, not even one.” They immediately destroy all of Hoover’s private files.
When Hoover dies suddenly, Felt is prepared. He coolly makes sure Dean understands that the FBI knows pretty much everything about everyone, but “all your secrets are safe with us.” “We know you to be a friend of this administration,” Dean says, “and we like to see our friends get what they deserve.” Felt responds with his own indirect but very clear statement. It is a delicate, indirect, but pointed exchange to test Felt’s loyalties. Felt has been called in to speak with White House counsel John Dean ( Michael C.
White house down rotten tomatoes movie#
The movie opens during Richard Nixon’s first term, as an angry crowd is protesting outside the White House and angry staff members near the Oval Office are asking, “Why aren’t we arresting anybody?” The sense of being under siege is palpable. We see him in the bleak, institutional setting of the old FBI building, with its nondescript desks and nondescript staff, and in his home, trying to help his wife and find his daughter. In this version of the story, shot with old lenses for a vintage look and with a haunting, noir-ish score from Daniel Pemberton, Felt is literally a shadowy figure, most often in the dark. Landesman raises those questions in “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House,” with Liam Neeson, stoic as Felt, and Diane Lane, brittle and broken as his troubled wife. Edgar Hoover died? Who was Felt protecting, American voters or his agency? Was it sacrifice and patriotism? Or, was it payback for losing out on the top job at the FBI when J. The true story is murkier and more complex than Goldman’s version. He is played as young, inexperienced, and nervous by 24-year-old Julian Morris. In this version, Bob Woodward, who was 30 at the time of the break-in, is not the 40-ish movie idol Robert Redford. Now, “ Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” tells the story from the perspective of the man who was Deep Throat, based on his book and on extensive research and interviews by writer/director Peter Landesman (“Concussion”). That was the Hollywood version, with Hal Holbrook speaking lines written by Oscar-winner William Goldman. Just watch All the President's Men instead.Except that Deep Throat, whose identity remained a secret for more than 30 years, never said, “Follow the money.” He never limited himself to confirming what Woodward and Bernstein had already uncovered. The Mark Felt story was told better when he was merely a minimal figure in someone else's Watergate story.
Even the subtitle of The Man Who Brought Down the White House seems misinformed I'm fairly certain that was Nixon. This movie is just about a guy who knows everything and has to get it out there. All the President's Men was about journalists uncovering the evidence and putting together the pieces.
Whatever writer/director Peter Landesman (Concussion) does it's not enough to make this story interesting, and that's because Felt's involvement in Watergate is minimal at best. There's not enough here to justify a full-fledged movie. There's one moment where Felt feels paranoid and tears apart his office, but then we simply move on. He also has a missing daughter who ran off to a commune.
Felt's personal life is also a bore, including Diane Lane in a thankless role as his alcoholic wife distraught over Felt being passed over as the new FBI director. The other characters come in and out, leaving little impact except to remind you that they're famous. The FBI director is portrayed like a glowering Bond villain. The film offers little new insights into Felt as a character or his personal struggles working against his own government. It's hardly even a movie because Felt's story just isn't that interesting. This movie is all about Mark Felt, the man who was the "Deep Throat" confidential informant, and it's a bit less than terrific. That movie was All The President's Men and was terrific. We've seen this story before, the efforts to uncover the Watergate scandal and its sloppy cover-up from the perspective of Washington Post reporters Woodward and Bernstein who tirelessly collected clues, followed leads, and investigated the facts.