Actor Liam Neeson Inhabits “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House”

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Parent Category: Film and the Arts

Category: Reviews

Published on Monday, 27 November 2017 17:45

Written by Brad Balfour

Director/writer Peter Landesman

Starring Liam Neeson, Diane Lane, Marton Csokas, Ike Barinholtz, Tony Goldwyn, Tom Sizemore, Bruce Greenwood, Michael C. Hall, Brian d'Arcy James, Josh Lucas, Eddie Marsan, Wendi McLendon-Covey, Maika Monroe

We all should remember the Watergate break-in and its connection to the Nixon White House. The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did the expose to discover who was behind it and that led to bringing down Richard Nixon and his White House for multiple nefarious abuses of power.

None of that would have been possible had not FBI agent Mark Felt given secret information to these investigators because he believed that the President had betrayed his country’s trust in order to serve his own interests over those of the United States.

In “Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House” veteran award-winning actor Liam Neeson assumes Felt’s persona in order to establish with audiences just how deeply Felt resented Nixon’s actions and what it took for him to take the steps he took.

Directed and written by Peter Landesman, this 2017 biographical tale plays out like a spy thriller but is based on the 2006 autobiography of Felt’s, written with John O'Connor. Felt became "Deep Throat" —the Post reporters’ anonymous source — and his revelations and tips pushed forward their investigation which not only led them to the exposing the Watergate scandal and Nixon’s downfall but changed the course of politics in the ‘70s.

Without histrionics or melodrama, Neeson portrays a man who has had a grip on incredible power only to see it disappear once his mentor, the fearsome FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, dies. The film is both a dissection of a thundering historical event and a deft character study of man who understood how the levers of power worked — or didn’t. 

Bolstered by an all-star supporting cast of Diane Lane, Tony Goldwyn, and Maika Monroe, this is a smoothly directed, informative film that has been overshadowed by a plethora of films addressing past events which now have a fresh relevance.

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