The Government Inspector

After the 11th September 2001 the War Against Terror is preparing to move on to Iraq. The UN have sent in the weapons inspectors to find if Saddam has indeed Weapons of Mass Destruction and the political machines in both the UK and US are working to present the strongest possible case for war in the face of (in the UK) very vocal opposition from the public. With the dossiers released and the threat established the "need for war" is set and, on the 19th March 2003, the coalition forces invade Iraq. As the bombs fall, the political fall out back in the UK begins – a dossier released by Number 10 is revealed to be mostly lifted from a 12 year old PhD thesis and there are rumours that the dossiers have been "sexed up" and exaggerated by Alistair Campbell's communications team without the support of the intelligence community.

Regardless of your opinion of the war on terror or the war in Iraq, it is hard to ignore the fact that there was clearly spin put on the case for war, with dossiers exaggerated (the 45 minute claim), suspicions presented as fact (there was definitely WMD?) and an urgency to get into Iraq that really should never be the case when it comes to war – god help us that we should never see elected officials acting with such apparent blood lust again. After George Bush announced the Iraqi conflict over (nice call George), the political backlash began – lead mostly by the media and the BBC, who, I suspect, felt a bit aggrieved about being used and dominated by Campbell's team. Among all the stories and sources was David Kelly, who was put on the record by the BBC's Andrew Gilligan as saying that caveats in the "45 minute" dossier had been removed, the dossier spiced up and the 45 minute claim just plain wrong. It is hard to think of the story because, personally, I believe it and, now that the search for WMD has been given up as a bad job, it is depressing to think that Kelly was the only political casualty when really large sections of the government should have resigned at very best.

In capturing the shameful history behind the war, this film does well to build the story even though it had limited or no access to political records and the Kelly family. The film is biased of course but it still is interesting and convincing in the way it does it; the flashbacks were a bit annoying at first but then I released that they were being used to show us that, since 1990, Kelly had believed WMDs were in Iraq and, even on his return in 2003 he truly believed tat he would find them – he was not some liberal out to bring down Labour; in other words, he simply told the truth. Outside of the political condemnation the film plays very well as a tragedy – the vast majority of us know how it ends (clue: the "bad" guys win) and it is consistently depressing to watch the machine crush one man; it is depressing to watch because I know it will make no difference, thousands are dead, the goal posts have been shifted (now it was regime change) and it will simply go down in history as a war with a scandal and a few reports clearing everyone involved of whatever they wanted to be cleared of.

The cast are mixed but the most important performance is well delivered by RADA actor Rylance; his Kelly is polite, precise, naïve, trusting and ultimately trapped, bewildered and betrayed. Throughout the film he is convincingly human and, although I'm not sure if this is really the person he was in reality it is still a very good performance. Cake's Campbell is typically gruff and aggressive but then I suppose this is actually a pretty fair representation of him from what we have seen. Larkin's Blair though is stupidly simplistic (strumming his guitar) though luckily he is only a bit player. Support is good though from Ryan, Alexander, Fielding and others.

Overall this is a really condemning film that deserves to be seen. Naturally it is biased but it is hard to quibble with the basic facts presented here – it is a tragic film that is depressing because we already know the outcome and the fact that Hutton basically "whitewashed" the Government of all blame and put it all on the BBC. For many of us, the whole War on Terror is a unstoppable force that respect neither law nor fact and basically will do as it wants – this film only confirms that and, in doing so, it is depressing and the fact that it focuses so well on the central, reluctant character of Kelly makes it depressing and tragic.

The cast were all very good in their roles, Mark Rylance was outstanding. I found him to be very believable and felt great sympathy for him. I think we would find that it was a very realistic portrayal.

The movie was very scary in it's realistic portrayal of the way governments are so frequently misled by so-called 'intelligence' organizations. Good independent advice is ignored if it contradicts what the 'powers that be' want to hear; as we all know in our hearts.

Too much power is vested in the various Heads of State. Bush declares war and Tony Blair and John Howard in their eagerness to be on 'the right side'bulldoze their countries into the mess.

Kelly was crucified for doing the job he was sent to do.

It took a while to get to sleep last night.

Mere words fall short in being able to adequately convey my response to this docu-drama - only seen for the first time in Australia a couple of nights ago. By now we all have access to the truth of what happened following 9-11, but this film gives insight into the machinations of both government and the role the media played, and still play to this day, in 'informing' the public.

This film belongs to Mark Rylance. His portrayal of Dr David Kelly is both realistic and poignant, and he never misses a beat. We see a sensitive man being served up as a fall guy, and we also see his recognition of the truth of what is happening to him as it's happening. Whilst I knew the outcome before seeing the film, watching him choose the place where he eventually takes his own life is at once painful and even shocking.

Great stuff!

why is is that the best movies are often factual ? for years i been a regular user of IMDb and reading thousands and thousands of reviews of movies

finally i thought its about time i gave something back so my first review of a movie is the the government inspector (viewed last night on channel 4 UK) it must be a compliment to this movie to be my first review well it definitely is well worth viewing if you like factual political TV drama

this movie has not only great depth but feeling and lots of unanswered questions

the sound track is good - kind of haunting and sad

without going in to too much detail the movie is basically about doctor David Kelly and i would suggest if you don't know who he was and the events that took much media coverage about him a few years ago then probably this movie is not for you but i thought it was great even though how the government got away with it i can never understand watch the movie and you may understand what i mean ?

well done to the director

I found this an excellent film, with a good cast and a great performance by Mark Rylance as Dr Kelly. It seemed to be of theatrical release quality. I hope a DVD will be available.

The producers have clearly made a great effort to ensure that the events and the roles of the people involved come as close to reality as possible. Unusually for a film that portrays real-life events, I found this totally believable. I think it is a fair representation of events, no character seemed unfairly or improperly portrayed. I was left with a strong impression of how a string of seemingly unimportant events can have tragic consequences. I truly hope that the Kelly family feel this is a fair film. Dr Kelly comes out of it very well - I hope the film will serve as a reminder to the nation of how we lost one of our most valuable public servants, and how our government failed in their duty of care for him.

It was a characteristically bold move by Channel 4, that has been most successful.