
1972. Following the death of fifty year FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who the last three Presidents had considered firing, FBI outsider L. Patrick Gray is appointed Acting Director. Associate Director Mark Felt, a dedicated, loyal and meticulous employee of the Bureau for thirty years, and his wife Audrey, feel he being passed over for the job is a major snub, they who have sacrificed their own personal lives for the Bureau. Part of that sacrifice is not being able to devote t... (Full plot summary below)
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1972. Following the death of fifty year FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover who the last three Presidents had considered firing, FBI outsider L. Patrick Gray is appointed Acting Director. Associate Director Mark Felt, a dedicated, loyal and meticulous employee of the Bureau for thirty years, and his wife Audrey, feel he being passed over for the job is a major snub, they who have sacrificed their own personal lives for the Bureau. Part of that sacrifice is not being able to devote time in locating the Felts' daughter, Joan Felt, who they have not heard from in a year, they only assuming that she going off their radar being on her own volition in her anti-establishment ideals. Felt not getting the job is arguably due to he being such an integral figure in the controversial Hoover tenure. One of the first cases for the Bureau in Gray's tenure is a break-in at and bugging of the Democratic National Committee offices, the case unofficially called Watergate for the complex in which the break-in occurred. Ordered by Gray by what what seems to be unofficial orders passed down from the White House, FBI staff are hamstrung in their investigation, Watergate which has seeming ties to the Committee for the Re-Election of the President and thus possibly the Republican administration in the White House. For the first time in his career, Felt decides to go rogue in an effort for the FBI to gain back its independence without interference by any other organization, including especially the White House. Those rogue actions are largely the treasonous offense of leaking FBI information into the Watergate investigation to the media, first to his friend, Time reporter Sandy Smith, then to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, their source - Felt - known in the public mindset through the code name, Deep Throat. Through the process, Felt tries to protect himself from discovery and protect his FBI associates from innuendo each as possibly being Deep Throat, which becomes more and more difficult with the reelection of Richard Nixon, his administration which uses every tool in their legal and illegal toolbox, including through their patsy Gray, to discover the identity of Deep Throat.
Leave your thoughts about Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House.
| Midwest Film Journal Evan DosseyNever achieves much tension, but Neeson's great. |
| Spirituality and PracticeFrederic and Mary Ann BrussatDrama about Deep Throat, the whistle-blower who wanted to save American democracy. |
| Detroit NewsAdam GrahamAre there any Mark Felts left, and when will they stand up? "Mark Felt" is asking that question just as much as it's honoring its subject, but it's not telling anyone to hold their breath. |
| AARP Movies for GrownupsTim AppeloRather than use his finesse on behalf of his own power drive, Felt is devoted to something more abstract: the rule of law. |
| Las Vegas Review-JournalChristopher Lawrence[Mark Felt] is a ponderous history lesson in which little is learned. |
| Seattle TimesSoren AndersonFilmed in bleak green-gray hues, writer-director Peter Landesman's movie depicts D.C. as a nest of vipers, of conspiracies within conspiracies, of paranoia begetting paranoia. |
| Me gusta el cineSebastian Zavala Kahn"Mark Felt" is pretty fascinating, and it should complement perfectly with films such as "All The President's Men" or "Nixon". |
| One Guy's OpinionFrank SwietekThe ponderous title, unfortunately, is appropriate to a film that is not only lethargic and unexciting but will be a muddle to anyone who doesn't bring a pretty good knowledge of the Watergate affair to the theatre with him. |
| AV ClubMike D'AngeloUnfortunately, Felt’s actions, while historically important, don’t exactly make for riveting drama, especially compared to a classic about two dogged reporters. Nor does the film succeed in making Felt himself particularly interesting, except perhaps as a proxy—purely by coincidence, one assumes, given any movie’s lengthy gestation period—for another, recently terminated FBI honcho. |
| Reeling ReviewsRobin CliffordWith the latest threat of political scandal in the US comes the constant comparison, in the news media, with the Watergate scandal, making "Mark Felt" timely in an odd way. |