FAIR GAME

US, 2010, 106 minutes, Colour.
Naomi Watts, Sean Penn, Sam Sheppard, Bruce Mc Gill, Ty Burrell, Rebecca Rigg.
Directed by Doug Liman.

Fair Game is the title of the book written by former CIA agent, Valerie Plame, outed by the Bush administration in 2003 as a tactic to divert public attention from the untruths told in the president’s state of the union address and offered as one of the key pieces of evidence for Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction program: 500 tons of uranium bought from Niger. That this was not the fact was reported by former ambassador, Joseph Wilson, Valerie Plame’s husband, who published an expose article about this after the invasion of Iraq.

It is a sign of communications today that a film about this important episode could be made in the US within ten years of the events.

Where the film is of interest is in the covert operations undertaken extensively by Valerie Plame and her teams, in the former ambassador’s uranium fact-finding visit to Niger, in the workings of the CIA in their analysis of data and how the White House exerted pressure to get the information they wanted for the invasion. It is also of interest to see the manchinations against the husband and wife and how the media turned against them as traitors. Joseph Wilson spoke out but Valerie Plame was silent until she testified at an official enquiry, part of which is shown in the final credits.

Noami Watts is Valerie Plame, perhaps too nice a screen presence for the tough woman she had to be in real life. Sean Penn as Wilson doesn’t really have to act (though he does most convincingly) given his own personal views and outspokenness in real life. Direction is by Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity and Mr and Mrs Smith) who knows a thing or two about espionage films.

While the film uses familiar conventions for this kind of story, it is still very interesting – and adds to the doubts and scepticism about the motives for the invasion of Iraq (and is linked with Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone which showed the search in Iraq for the WMD).

1. Audiences and their response to Iraq, the invasion, the war, the grounds for the war, the Bush administration, the consequences?

2. Indignation with the use of evidence, non-evidence? Weapons of mass destruction? The predetermination of the information from the CIA? The role of the Bush administration?

3. Audience attitudes towards the CIA, their work, the need for the CIA, the need for intelligence, its values, analysts, reliability, use of information, manipulation, secrecy? The identities of agents and this being protected?

4. The film based on two books, by Valerie Plame, by Joseph Wilson? The two perspectives on the experience?

5. The CIA and Langley, the building, the corridors and offices? The personnel? The variety of jobs, decision-making, the influence of the White House and visits from White House officials? The field officers? Meetings, reports, discussions? Secrecy and lies? Telling the truth or not?

6. Valerie Plame, the opening in Kuala Lumpur, meeting the nephew of the businessman, her cover, her questions, the links to Pakistanis and nuclear bombs? The visits to Cairo, going to the lecture, confronting the professor about his identity? The blackmail about his daughters? Going to Amman, putting the agent on the flight to Iraq? The range of identities, documents, cover? Her having to vary her personality for the different covers? Her skills, interrogation, getting facts and information? Telling lies but knowing the truth? Her loyalties? Tough, her story about the torture at the beginning of her career, her breaking point or not?

7. Valerie at home, with Joseph, with the twins, the ordinary life, the cover, with the finance company, her friends, the political discussions at table, Joe and his forceful opinions, her trying to control him, her coping with her career and her family, her absences, Joe looking after the kids? Leaving notes on the fridge?

8. Joe and his background as an ambassador, an official for Africa for President Clinton? His knowledge of Niger? His being briefed, the decision to visit on behalf of the CIA? The visit, his friends, the locations, going to the uranium mines? His report that it was not possible for Niger to sell five hundred tons of uranium to Iraq?

9. The issue of the tubes, the reports, the official and his saying they were to be used for nuclear weapons? The counter-evidence of the size, width, the impossibility of using them? The range of experts and their opinions? The interrogation of the official, Valerie and her criticisms? Condoleezza Rice going on television, giving false information about the tubes? President Bush's State of the Union address, 2003, the false information about the UK report and the Niger uranium? This misinformation in terms of invasion, war, matters of life and death?

10. Valerie and the Iraqi woman, questioning her, wanting to go to her brother in Iraq, her being briefed, the questions needing answers? Her going to Iraq, the difficulties in Amman, her arriving in Baghdad, her being taken aside, special privilege for her brother? The reunion with the family? The brother and his information about weapons of mass destruction, the Americans destroying the plant after the Gulf War, the inability to produce these weapons? The promise by Valerie that the family and the scientists would be saved? Valerie being exposed, her projects closed down, her failure, the sister and her coming to her, lack of trust? Valerie's warnings that not saving the scientists meant that they could go to Iran and other would-be nuclear countries?

11. Scooter Libby, his role in the White House, connection with President Bush, with Carl Rove? His interviews at Langley, Dave and his going to save the day, but Libby and his ability to quibble with words, their meanings, truth, opinions, percentages of certainty? The predetermination of the White House about the uranium and the tubes? The plan to divert the media from asking questions about Niger by exposing Valerie Plame? Joseph Wilson and his article in the New York Times, the truth about Niger? The outing of Valerie Plame as an agent? Joe and his discussions with the students, making them realise that their attention had been diverted from important information and grounds for war to the identity of his wife as an agent?

12. The insertion of scenes from Baghdad, the bombings, the war, the destruction, the people trapped in cars, families not able to escape?

13. Joseph Wilson and his diplomatic background, his outrage about the way that information was used? Sean Penn in this role - not far from his attitudes in real life and his political campaigning? The article, the White House wanting revenge, naming Valerie Plame? Asserting that she had sent her husband on a fact-finding mission? The consequences, Valerie's silence, Joseph going to the television?

14. Joseph Wilson and the television interviews, telling the truth, the official investigation, the report, the conclusion that Valerie had sent him officially on the mission? The reporters, Joe and the African meeting, the journalist denouncing him in public? His loss of jobs and livelihood?

15. The tension between Joseph and Valerie, at home, the way they were talking, not talking, Valerie explaining her breaking point? The separation, Valerie taking the children to her parents? The children playing?

16. Valerie and her father, his military record, the tensions in his own marriage, knowing her strength and wondering about it? His wise counsel about the marriage? Her return, Libby and the investigation and his being found guilty? The further congressional inquiry? Valerie giving testimony? Finally speaking?

17. The consequences of this episode, public mistrust of government and the CIA? The real Valerie Plame in the final credits and her testimony?

18. The aftermath, the expose, the role of the search for weapons of mass destruction and the credibility of the invasion of Iraq?