Truth --- a Movie about Dan Rather

AMY GOODMAN: Truth. Can you talk about this new film you’re working on?

ROBERT REDFORD: Truth is a story—it’s a wonderful story. It has elements of Greek tragedy to it. Dan Rather, well-known anchor, along with the two other anchors from the other networks—it was that moment in time where Dan was at the top of his game, and he fell from grace very quickly. His producing partner, Mary Mapes, they were producing incredible work. And he ran afoul of his bosses, CBS, at that time, who felt that he was pushing a little too hard against George Bush on his Air National Guard record, which was flawed and had holes in it. And he was beginning to pursue what the real truth behind that was.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you just remind people what that National Guard story was about?

ROBERT REDFORD: Well, it got complicated. It had to do with a memo. But what it was, was that the administration was covering up the fact that he didn’t show up, didn’t do a physical, didn’t show up, went to Alabama to campaign rather than showing up for duty, and all that kind of stuff.

AMY GOODMAN: Way back when he served in the National Guard.

ROBERT REDFORD: Way back, way back. And so, Mary Mapes was doing the research, getting the facts together, and Dan was putting it on the air. But CBS didn’t want it, because they wanted a relationship with the administration. They asked him to back off. He said, "I can’t do that. My job is to tell the truth." They said, "You can also tell it too much." So, anyway, there was a tension that ended up—because he did not stop. He said, "This is my job." So they fired him, and her. And that was a fall from grace that took place in a very short amount of time. So this film is just about that moment where he was at the top and then fell.

And I talked to Dan. I called him before I did the film. And he’s a hard character to play, for me, because he’s so well known. You know, you’ve got a public face that’s very well known. And you want to be careful. You don’t want to imitate that person. That could become a caricature. You also want to find the essence of the person, so you can be truthful to his type of person. So I called him and told him about this. I asked him if he was going to be uncomfortable with it. He said no. I said, "Well, then tell me something. What was it about you and Mary Mapes?" because Cate Blanchett plays Mary Mapes in this. "What was it?" And he says, "I’ll tell you what, Bob. It was about loyalty." He said, "She and I were loyal to each other. And we were loyal to our boss. The heartache, the tragedy was that we were—our faith in our bosses wasn’t acknowledged. There was no reciprocation for that. And so, we were fired. But we stayed loyal to each other. We’ve stayed loyal all these years to each other because that was the core of our relationship: loyalty to get to the truth. And we were kind of done in by our own bosses, who we were both very loyal to. We believed in them." I thought, that’s a great story.

http://www.democracynow.org/2015/1/29/robert_redford_explores_aging_in_a