Dateline: Saigon

A sober, gripping documentary that feels like a tense investigative thriller, piecing together truth from archival footage and interviews.

Directed by

Thomas D. Herman

Genres

Documentary, History

Starring

Sam Waterston, Neil Sheehan, Peter Arnett

Tagline

Lies, deception, and the dangerous search for truth

Overview

How does a nation slip into war? Dateline-Saigon profiles the controversial reporting of five Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists -The New York Times' David Halberstam, the Associated Press' Malcolm Browne, Peter Arnett, and legendary photojournalist Horst Faas, and UPI's Neil Sheehan -- during the early years of the Vietnam War as President John F. Kennedy is secretly committing US troops to what is initially dismissed by some as 'a nice little war in a land of tigers and elephants.' 'When the government is telling the truth, reporters become a relatively unimportant conduit to what is happening,' Halberstam tells us. 'But when the government doesn't tell the truth, begins to twist the truth, hide the truth, then the journalist becomes involuntarily infinitely more important.'

How it feels

Tense, earnest and dark. Measured and needs your attention.

About

Media, politics, war, deception

Content

Mild violence and language. No gore or sexual content.

Note

Written by AI, so it can be wrong. Full breakdown

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