Walter Cronkite, the veteran CBS anchorman, was often referred to as “the most trusted man in America.” Of course, back then there was only one America (from sea to shining sea), and now there are two—one blue and one red, each with its own news media and its own reality. No one person could hope to win the trust of both these countries, so instead of Cronkite we’ve got Fox News bloviator Bill O’Reilly and Comedy Central satirist Jon Stewart, each trusted by his own viewers and deeply mistrusted by the other man’s. As a blue American, I don’t trust O’Reilly any farther than I could throw him, though as a film critic, I trust Stewart for only the first two segments of The Daily Show. After that the celebrity guests come on and the usual bullshit starts flying, as Stewart falls all over himself to flack their mediocre movies.
After Bahari’s arrest Stewart flashes back 11 days, covering the reporter’s farewell to his pregnant wife in London, his arrival in Tehran, his man-on-the-street interviews prior to the election, his brief sit-down with Jones (who plays himself), and his videography of the postelection rioting outside the Basij militia headquarters, the international broadcast of which probably triggered his arrest. Rosewater works well enough as a primer on the disputed election for people whose best source of information at the time may have been comedy segments on The Daily Show. But the movie resonates more in its second half, after Bahari has been sentenced to solitary confinement in a dank, tiny cell and Rosewater begins the slow, methodical process of trying to break him psychologically.
Directed by Jon Stewart
