Before I became a lawyer I had failed in my initial desire to be a hard-bitten, truth-searching, investigative journalist. My heroes were Woodward and Bernstein. You might think that there is something wrong with a boy/man who had successive ambitions in the loathed professions of journalism and the law. You would be wrong. I will argue the toss with anyone about the social value of ethical lawyering and I hope you would agree that good journalism is as important now as it has ever been. This latter sentiment is all the more important in the age of that loathsome toad Donald Trump.
All of which leads me in a roundabout sort of a way to a good film that makes a hero of the objective journalist. Mr. Jones is not up there with All the President's Men but it is a worthy bit of cinema all the same. It tells the story of Gareth Jones and his heroic exposing of Stalin's Holodomor, the deliberate starving of millions of Ukrainians, sacrificed on the altar of Communist orthodoxy. In addition to a fine central performance from James Norton there is a nicely chilling portrayal by Peter Sarsgaard of the real-life villain (he won a Pullitzer on the back of untruthful reporting of Stalin's 'miracle') Walter Duranty. Look Duranty up if you want to get a measure of this particular creep. Fake news is not new.
Back to the film - it has a slightly clumsy framing device that brings George Orwell into the picture and it wanders around thematically on occasions but, overall, this is godd film-making. 69/100.
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