Rather

The documentary follows sixty years of Dan Rather's journalism: the live broadcast of the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam, Watergate, his exchange with Nixon, and twenty-four years anchoring CBS Evening News. At the end comes the story that ended his career. The film is not interested in a career summary. It is interested in how a single report finished everything: the 2004 story about George W. Bush's National Guard record collapsed when its documents could not be authenticated, and Rather had to leave CBS. The film does not skip that section, though it leans on his own account of it. The form is classical portrait: archive footage, broadcast recordings and conversations with Rather today. The director makes a man in his nineties still working the frame of the film. Frank Marshall directed. He is principally a producer, the name behind the Indiana Jones and Back to the Future series, who has turned to documentary in recent years. It was released on Netflix. Who it is for: viewers curious about the history of American news and television journalism. Who it is not for: anyone expecting critical distance. The film largely stands with Rather and gives opposing views limited room.