'The truth is out there" is the tagline from sci-fi thriller TV series "The X-Files," suggesting that perhaps all we had to do was find it and retrieve it like a lost frisbee.
"Truth," however, reveals that it's never that simple. Based on the real-life events that destroyed the careers of CBS producer Mary Mapes and the network's iconic "60 Minutes" anchorman Dan Rather, "Truth" aims to blend newsroom glamor with dry objectivism in one bottle. And when director James Vanderbilt gives it a good shake, the story bites with acerbic zing.
In 2004, Rather went on the Wednesday "60 Minutes" and broke the story that the then U.S. President George W. Bush had avoided being sent to Vietnam during his stint with the Texas Air National Guard during the 1970s. The network's research team had the incriminating documents to back its accusation, and at the moment the show aired, there were no doubters. CBS was in a celebratory mood that night, and many of its viewers thought this would change the course of the upcoming presidential elections, if not actually seal Bush's political fate.