The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsburg and the Pentagon Papers

I had studied the Pentagon Papers in several classes, as I’m sure many political science majors have, but I never got a truly all encompassing look at what the situation was about. This film gave it to me in a way that I had never seen before. By providing Dr. Ellsburg as the main narrator, the audience is given the best possible primary source, and it is surrounded with other quality sources, such as Anthony Russo, numerous reporters and lawyers involved in the case, and just about everyone involved at the Rand Corporation, several branches of government, and even the Ellsburg family. Everyone interviewed offers a fresh perspective with critical information about what was happening.
The movie is presented chronologically, starting with how Ellsburg got involved in government in the first place, and ends with what Ellsburg has achieved in the aftermath of this tumultuous period in his exciting life. The audience is exposed to how the plot to create the Vietnam War is hatched and how it is executed. Ellsburg talks thoroughly about his experience on the other side, helping craft the war, keeping it secret from the right people in government (including President Johnson), and perpetuating its life despite its questionable existence to begin with.
The film does a great job of showing how, over time, our protagonist gets fed up with the war efforts and can no longer continue to delude the American public, as well as himself. We learn what happens as the war goes on, who he meets that influences him towards his eventual course of action, and how he slowly breaks lose from the military-industrial complex that he indirectly supports.
The director does not just center around the political controversy, he interviews Patricia Ellsburg and gives us the details of what they had to do when they were briefly in hiding from the FBI. We also get critical commentary from the New York Times General Counsel about how the trial was run and what the legal implications were. The Nixon administration strived quite vigorously to ensure that the First Amendment would be compromised in this case, and in that laid its down fall. One of the highlights of the film is the showing of how Ellsburg invited Nixon to shoot himself in the foot by establishing the notorious “plumbers unit” that was responsible for the grunt work of the Watergate scandal that ended Nixon’s presidency and led to the end of the war. It is at this point that Ellsburg is praised by numerous contemporaries of what an historical figure he is, and rightfully so.
The film is important because it gives any historically inclined person such a breath of information on such an important incident. It is a piece of cinema that should broadcast to all high school and college youth studying mid-twentieth century America. Such a significant time period is given such fantastic context and coverage that it will leave all but the most studious professors with a greater understanding how our great nation came into and out of such a horrible chapter in its history, and the man who made it all possible.