Shock and Awe Dvd

Shock and Awe is a 2017 American drama film directed by Rob Reiner and written by Joey Hartstone. The film stars Woody Harrelson, Tommy Lee Jones, James Marsden, Milla Jovovich, and Jessica Biel, and follows a group of journalists at Knight Ridder’s Washington Bureau who investigate the rationale behind the Bush Administration’s then-impending 2003 invasion of Iraq. The film had its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival on September 30, 2017. It was released through DirecTV Cinema on June 14, 2018, before having a limited release in theatres on July 13, 2018, by Vertical Entertainment.

Premise

See also: Knight Ridder § Iraq War
Journalists investigate the assertions by the Bush Administration concerning Saddam Hussein’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction as a reason for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Most of the administration’s case for that war made absolutely no sense, specifically the notion that Saddam Hussein was allied with Osama bin Laden. That one from the get-go rang all the bells—a secular Arab dictator allied with a radical Islamist whose goal was to overthrow secular dictators and reestablish his Caliphate? The more we examined it, the more it stank. The second thing was rather than relying entirely on people of high rank with household names as sources, we had sources who were not political appointees. One of the things that has gone very wrong in Washington journalism is ‘source addiction,’ ‘access addiction,’ and the idea that in order to maintain access to people in the White House or vice president’s office or high up in a department, you have to dance to their tune. That’s not what journalism is about.
We had better sources than she (Judith Miller) did and we knew who her sources were. They were political appointees who were making a political case.
I first met him (Ahmed Chalabi) in ’95 or ’96. I wouldn’t get dressed in the morning based on what he told me the weather was, let alone go to war.
—John Walcott, Knight Ridder Washington bureau chief

Knight Ridder Washington reporters Warren Strobel and Jonathan Landay received the Raymond Clapper Memorial award from the Senate Press Gallery on February 5, 2004, for their coverage of the questionable intelligence used to justify war with Iraq.

Cast

Woody Harrelson as Jonathan Landay
James Marsden as Warren Strobel
Rob Reiner as John Walcott
Tommy Lee Jones as Joe Galloway
Jessica Biel as Lisa Mayr
Milla Jovovich as Vlatka Landay
Richard Schiff as The Usual
Al Sapienza as Carl
Luke Tennie as Adam Green
Kate Butler as Nancy Walcott