When director Doug Liman first met with Valerie Plame to start making decisions toward the filming process of Fair Game he said, "You know, I need a lot more
information than is in your book or that you've told the writers to
date. I need the real story here." And she replied, "I can't tell you that;
I could go to jail. But here are some people you can talk to, and they
may know people who might be willing to talk to you." Liman's
producers, Janet and Jerry Zucker, were amazingly connected
in Washington, D.C. and were able to get Liman information from about a dozen
people inside the intelligence community. Liman stated in an article written by Jenni Miller on Moviefone Cinematical, that Fair Game's script is largely
based on those interviews.
As we learned in class, films based on actual events tend to skew the facts in order to make a great movie. In the case of Fair Game, there were a number of scenes similar to what actually happened, a few that were quite different and some information that was completely omitted.
Similarities:
Although the director made the central focus of the film "the portrait of a modern marriage under stress" we as a team believe the movie tends to have many more similarities to what actually happened than it does differences.
For example:
* Valerie and Joe have two children, one boy and one girl
* Joe Wilson was not sent to Niger by his wife, but was asked to travel to Niger by the CIA
* Each of the articles shown in the film were accurate portrayals
* Plame was refused protection for her family by the CIA
Because this was such a recent event and there is still so much that is confidential, we have been relying on sources who were immediately involved with the scandal for accurate information. The information we deem accurate is contingent upon the truthfulness of these specific sources. As a team we did not want to spend time covering the information that was obviously accurate within the film so we decided to look at a few things we thought may have been fabricated by the director, but turned out to be surprisingly accurate according to Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson.
Saving Their Marriage:
The climax of the movie occurs when Valerie Plame shows up at her house to
talk to her husband about not giving up on their marriage.
Though the filmmakers essentially made the main aspect of the movie about a failing marriage instead of focusing the climax on the bigger picture at hand, Valerie Plame told an interviewer from Moviefone that the line used in the script came directly from her and was an accurate portrayal of what happened.
What The CIA Looks Like:
"Having worked for the CIA for some time, whenever I would see a movie
about the CIA, most of the time they have absolutely nothing to do with
reality." - Valerie Plame. However, Plame believes the movie Fair Game was able to capture what the CIA truly looks and feels like from the inside.
In a promotional interview with River Road Entertainment, Plame talked about how she tried to give a specific and accurate description of the reality inside the CIA. "I did try to tell them sort of little things. The level of clutter.
What would the office look like? Things to try and make it look as
authentic as possible," Plame said in an article.
They Went To Iraq:
In the movie there are scenes depicted in various locations around the world including: Niger, Jordan and Iraq.
Iraq:
Niger:
Fair Game was the only American film to have ever shot in Iraq according to a Moviefone interview with director, Doug Liman. "It was really important for me that we go to the real places. Not only did we go to the real places, but because Valerie Plame was a consultant, I could ask her -- I said,
"Well, hypothetically, if you were going to Jordan, what hotel would
this operation be based out of?" And Valerie would sort of couch us onto
some of the details that wouldn't affect national security, but just
give the film an air of truth. And in fact, the hotel that we shot in in
Jordan, in Amman, the Grand Hyatt, is in fact the same hotel that
Valerie operated out of. I don't know if it was the same room or not"
Differences:
Vanity Fair:
In this clip from Fair Game, Joe Wilson tells his wife that Vanity Fair wants to do a full segment on them to get their story out. In the film this causes a huge argument between Valerie and Joe. Valerie appears to be completely appalled that her husband would even suggest such a thing.
One of the main criticisms we as a team found about Fair Game dealt with this scene. In January of 2004, the Wilson couple did a very "glamorous" segment in Vanity Fair which included a picture of Valerie and her husband posing in a Jaguar. Although Valerie may have been uneasy about the thought of telling their story to the magazine, this article tends to make critics think otherwise.
Recruiting Help:
In the movie, Valerie is shown seeking help from Dr. Zahraa to get information from her brother in Iraq.
According to an article written by Judith Miller, Plame was not the "CIA official, as the film also claims, who recruited an
Iraqi--American woman in Ohio to travel to Iraq and visit her brother, a
scientist who was working on Saddam's alleged nuclear program in
Baghdad."
CIA Resistance:
In the film it appears that the CIA "resisted the notion that Saddam Hussein had WMD and challenged the intelligence being provided to the White House."
Former CIA director George Tenet stated in his memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," "We told the president what we did on Iraq WMD because we believed it. Those who say that we cooked the books or knowingly let the
administration say things that we knew to be untrue are just wrong." Tenet state that there was no pressure on his analysts to
produce the WMD intelligence that war advocates wanted."Intelligence professionals did not try to tell policy makers what they
wanted to hear, nor did the policy makers lean on us to influence
outcomes. The consistency of our views on
these weapons programs was carried forward to two presidents of
different political parties who pursued vastly different courses of
action."
In this scene film suggests that Scooter Libby was indicted for leaking Valerie Plame's name.
However, according to Judith Miller in an article, Scooter Libby was indicted for "lying about what he said to federal officials about the episode."
