Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (2009)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Lanning :

  
  A stunning documentary of the man who helped launch and then bring an end to the Vietnam War. Not to mention bringing down Nixon and his clutch of horrible henchmen. A true American hero, Daniel Ellsberg is someone everyone should know about. You watch films like this in the hopes… More
  A stunning documentary of the man who helped launch and then bring an end to the Vietnam War. Not to mention bringing down Nixon and his clutch of horrible henchmen. A true American hero, Daniel Ellsberg is someone everyone should know about. You watch films like this in the hopes of preventing history from repeating itself. Sadly, it already has repeated itself in the form of BushCo, his gang of immoral entrepreneurs, and the lies that led America into Iraq. And so it goes . . . <p>Watch this and <i>All the President's Men</i> on a movie night when you want to be inspired to do the right thing.

• Walter M

  
  This documentary is something of a mixed bag. Admittedly, I knew most of the facts surrounding the Pentagon Papers, having read Daniel Ellsberg's autobiography a few years before. While also paced like a fine spy thriller at times, the film also provides an outside perspective,… More
  This documentary is something of a mixed bag. Admittedly, I knew most of the facts surrounding the Pentagon Papers, having read Daniel Ellsberg's autobiography a few years before. While also paced like a fine spy thriller at times, the film also provides an outside perspective, making it relevant in this time of war without end.(Sorry, if I just ruined anybody's buzz.) Recently , Ellsberg has gotten heavily involved in the Wikileaks case. At first, the documentary also succeeds by placing the story of the Pentagon Papers in the context of the American success story in that most analysts saw the Vietnam War in terms of success(by following this company line, they would be promoted by approving bosses), not in lives lost or from a Vietnamese perspective which is how Ellsberg and many other protesters saw it.(Why anybody thought the President of the Ford Motor Company would make a competent Secretary of Defense is beyond me.) In a crisis of conscience, Ellsberg performed an extraoardinary act by leaking the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times, risking decades of jail. At which point, the documentary goes even beyond hagiography to beatification as the tone turns towards sanctimonious, attacking Senators Fulbright and McGovern for their more cautious approach in criticizing the war. Also, while it may make sense on the surface that the Pentagon Papers led directly to Watergate, the truth is probably more complex, as Hunter Thompson thought J. Edgar Hoover kicking the bucket in 1972 was also an important link in Nixon's downfall.

• Alec B

  
  It explains the release of the Pentagon Papers well and the subsequent trials that occurred as a result, but I don't think we really get to know Ellsberg the man. Since he tells his own story here, it seems filtered. He did a great thing, I get it but you never really get a sense… More
  It explains the release of the Pentagon Papers well and the subsequent trials that occurred as a result, but I don't think we really get to know Ellsberg the man. Since he tells his own story here, it seems filtered. He did a great thing, I get it but you never really get a sense of him as a complex individual.

• Bill C

  
  Wow very enlightening, I had always taken Ellsberg for a California Flake. Not the ex-Marine Corps commander who traveled on the "Hot" missions as an observer just to find out what was really going on in Vietnam. The papers that Ellsberg released although coupled with… More
  Wow very enlightening, I had always taken Ellsberg for a California Flake. Not the ex-Marine Corps commander who traveled on the "Hot" missions as an observer just to find out what was really going on in Vietnam. The papers that Ellsberg released although coupled with Watergate were damning of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. The reason the Ellsberg and Nixon are so tied together, is Nixon used the "Plumbers" to break into Ellsberg's psychiatrist office to get information on a smear campaign before they broke into the Watergate.

• Grifty G

  
  A fascinating story about a piece of history I knew little about. Daniel Ellsberg worked at the Pentagon as a strategist for the Vietnam War. He had access to quite a bit of Top Secret material. He slowly begins to reevaluate the war and his place in it, all while watching govt… More
  A fascinating story about a piece of history I knew little about. Daniel Ellsberg worked at the Pentagon as a strategist for the Vietnam War. He had access to quite a bit of Top Secret material. He slowly begins to reevaluate the war and his place in it, all while watching govt officials saying one thing behind closed doors and repeating the opposite to the press. He eventually decides to leak a enormous amount of classified war material to the press. Basically showing the people what the govt didn't want them to know about Vietnam. Having seen a lot of stuff on Vietnam, as well as Nixon, I was surprised that I knew very little about this very interesting chapter in history. And extra points because the man himself was able to tell his story almost 40 years later. Definitely worth checking out. (Currently on Netflix streaming)