On Beamafilm: The Most Dangerous Man in America
Review
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Rebecca Boyle - Beamafilm
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01/05/2020
In an article in The Guardian on June the 10th this year, Daniel Ellsberg wrote: “In my estimation, there has not been in American history a more important leak than Edward Snowden's release of NSA material – and that definitely includes the Pentagon Papers 40 years ago.” “The Most Dangerous Man in America” tells of that earlier, and infamous, information leak.
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"The Most Dangerous Man in America" catapults us to 1971 where we find America in the grip of a familiar scenario: a dirty war based on lies.
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In the 1960s, Daniel Ellsberg was an analyst with the RAND Corporation, which was established in 1948 to provide intelligence and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It was the time of the controversial Vietnam War. In 1968 Ellsberg was involved with an in-depth study of the conflict, yet he was becoming increasingly disenchanted with his role. He felt guilty about the information and analysis he had provided, which he believed had influenced how America fought in Vietnam. In 1969, he began to make copies of the seven thousand page study, and gave them to senators who were against the war effort. He hoped that the information would see an end to the war. In 1971, dissatisfied with the response, he gave the papers to the New York Times. Battling against censorship, and a manhunt to find him, Ellsberg gave portions of the papers to at least seventeen different newspapers to ensure the information was made public. The documents became known as the “Pentagon Papers”, and Ellsberg had begun something that affected the whole of the United States. With the recent case of Edward Snowden, and the ongoing situation of Julian Assange, the ethics of information leaks are once again a subject for public debate, just was they were for Ellsberg’s leak of the Pentagon Papers. Is leaking secret governmental information to the public the best way to solve a political problem? What if it the release of information threatens national security? What even constitutes a threat to national security? Perhaps the most fascinating thing about these three cases is how the men who leaked the information are treated. Their faces, personalities and personal struggles have become as well-known as the information they have leaked. In some circles, they have eclipsed the information they leaked entirely. Whatever your opinion, the debate is a fascinating one. “The Most Dangerous Man in America”, and its interpretation of the events around the Pentagon Papers leak, is a strong contribution to it, and highly relevant to the events of today. Watch 'The Most Dangerous Man In America' on Beamafilm now!