Shock and Awe Movie Reaction

 Shock and Awe Movie Reaction

In class we watched the 2017 movie Shock and Awe directed by Rob Reiner. The movie highlights the Bush Administration sending military troops to Iraq due to inside information that they had WMD (weapons of mass destruction). Shock and Awe is based on the true story of journalists Johnathan Landry and Warren Strobel along with their editor John Walcott, as they decide is the Bush Administration is lying about Iraq and WMD.

The movie continues on to show that most mainstream media outlets accepted the Bush Administrations intel on Iraq and WMD but the journalists working for the Knight Ridder News (Landry and Strobel) choose to take a deeper dive into the information given and began finding out that all of this may have just been propaganda and just an excuse to invade Iraq. 

Through the digging made by Landry and Strobel they began to receive backlash for not trusting our government. They were being called unpatriotic, began being isolated from other new organizations, and faced tons of political pressure. But despite all the pressure the Knight Rider Team decided to publish the article anyways. After receiving all that backlash people began to take a look at their evidence and realize that their reports were accurate, especially after our military invaded and found no sign of WMD's.

Overall this movie followed the true story of the Knight Ridder News Team and shows us what happens when journalists speak out against our government. Although it is their job and their right to do so, people will still continue to bash and isolate them for not following everyone else. In the end the Knight Ridder Team exposed the Bush Administration and proved their theories to be true.