The reason that I’m not into the Oscars is because there are excellent movies that are not even on their radar. While everyone is going gaga over The Post, I’m dumbfounded by the sound of crickets over Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, which one could look at as an unofficial sequel even though it was released in theaters before The Post, specifically October 2017 whereas The Post was released in January 2018. The Post ends with an allusion to the Watergate break-in, which is the backdrop of Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House.
The only reason that I did not see it in theaters was because of the paradox of choice. When it premiered, there were a lot of seemingly solid choices (Battle of the Sexes, Professor Marston and the Wonder Women, Marshall, The Foreigner and Human Flow), but none really stood out from the pack as better than the others. Also it was personally a rough month for me so I gathered up enough energy to see Blade Runner 2049 and Dolores and added it to my Netflix queue. I did recommend that others see the film in theaters, but they didn’t. Liam Neeson has a reputation for being in the same type of action film (Taken), which detracted the type of audience that would normally be interested in a historical biopic. He also says stupid crap that pushes away people like me who are aggressively trying to forget his problematic views, still feel bad about the loss of his talented wife, Natasha Richardson, and enjoy his work. Let us love you!
With the benefit of hindsight and seeing it soon after watching Spielberg’s volley at Presidon’t, Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House was not only the better choice when it was in theaters, but is a more timeless and rigorously subdued thriller drama than The Post. One benefit of watching it at home is the ability to rewind and really absorb what just happened. The acting style is purposely inscrutable. No one is chewing up the scenery or punctuating a challenging conversation with some elaborate physical display. It feels organic to a time when men were taught not to express their emotions so everything is muted and straight, but if you are closely scrutinizing the interactions, the exchanges are quite violent and dramatic. It takes 58 minutes before someone shouts a lone profanity. The film is a rigorous period piece, which makes it more timeless because it is not aiming for a message about today, but is trying to tell one person’s story and in telling one person’s story, it becomes germane to our own.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House is the story behind Woodward and Bernstein’s Deep Throat. It is based on a book written by Mark Felt, A G-Man’s Life: The FBI, Being “Deep Throat,” and the Struggle for Honor in Washington, which I plan to read. Neeson plays the titular character and clearly lost a possibly unhealthy amount of weight to resemble the sleek real life man. Felt is a company man, but when Nixon becomes President and Hoover dies, Felt’s loyalty is to his own code of ethics. “You have to destroy anything that is sick beyond despair to rescue it from its agony, and the agony it causes everyone else.” He is a zealot who believes that the FBI’s mission statement does not change with bosses, and his professional and personal sensibilities are offended.
I would totally have snacks with Felt. I adored how he consistently and openly explained how things worked to his boss, and when he was certain that they violated his boundaries, he acted decisively while actively looking for the leak knowing that he was the leak. Even though he feels hemmed in by criminals to his right and left (history looked less kindly at his actions to the left, and he was more similar to the men that he disdained when acting against the left), anyone watching him would see an unruffled man going through his routine. His goal is to create public pressure to keep the President accountable for violating the law, but the public lets him down, and Nixon gets reelected (please, dear God, don’t let history repeat itself). He was a complete bad ass with a sense of self and a code of ethics that did not change with the times or even if it would personally benefit him. James Comey tweets. There is no comparison. Felt had Game of Thrones’ achievement levels of treachery that we probably don’t know a fraction of what he really did behind the scenes. There is a sense of Felt as one of the keepers of an eternal flame guarding the independence of the FBI, and an unofficial handbook shared by the FBI and CIA to do whatever is necessary to guard that independence from the whims of whoever occupies the Oval Office. He is the real boss. He never hid it, but they failed to heed his words, and their insubordination, not his, must be punished.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House leaves ambiguity regarding whether or not Felt was acting nobly or out of personal spite for being rejected for a promotion that he thought that he deserved. The early celebration scenes were confusing until later this point is subsequently revealed. I initially thought, “Were the Felts swingers? What is happening?” If the movie has any problems, it is when it tries to focus on his personal life. Because Felt’s daughter helped the filmmakers, I think that they thought that her relationship with her father was necessary to the story, but it was the only element that never quite gels. Once again, Neeson is looking for his daughter, and his wife suddenly has issues with him and her daughter. It feels abrupt and while it further highlights his respect for the FBI by not using those resources to locate his daughter (until he does), it does not work. I think that they wanted to retain some of Lane’s performance and give some sort of homage to his descendants, but it just detracted from the focus of the film.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House has a cold filter whenever it is dealing with office intrigue, but has a much warmer hue when Felt is at home. There are scenes that feel like references to Edward Hopper. The office shots, specifically the blocking between Felt and his secretary, were reminiscent of Pedro Almodovar’s work. The casting is practically perfect, particularly using traditional villain character actors, Tom Sizemore and Martin Csokas, as shady historical figures.
Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House was not created with the intention of commenting on Presidon’t’s administration. It is simply a fortuitous coincidence of timing, but it provides a portrait of silent, but deadly and consistent institutional resistance to retain integrity in the face of oblivion. Despite facing certain public castigation for being part of this Faustian crew, quiet, consistent resistance in the face of demoralizing daily circumstances is more effective than a public display of outrage.