Donald Trump almost daily attacks the FBI as criminal lowlives. Ironically, back in the late 1960s, when the FBI was still under the racist J. Edgar Hoover's control, those Trumpian ravings were not untrue.
Seberg tells one of those true and outrageous stories. Jean Seberg, a beautiful, young, blonde American actress wanted to do more than just act. She wanted to really do some good in the world. Her way of doing that was to give money and support to the Black Panther Party. That in itself would have infuriated Hoover's FBI. But when she slept with a black activist, that really drove many in the FBI out of their minds and what little integrity they may have had. They surveilled and hounded Seberg to the point where she attempted suicide.
Seberg tells that story, with the converging counterpoint of Jack, the one FBI man with a conscience. He reluctantly goes along with the increasing persecution of Jean Seberg until, eventually, after her unsuccessful attempt to take her life, and his wife's encouragement of his ethics, he can't persecute her any longer. I have no idea if his character is based on a real character, a composite of people, or totally made up. That's the way it is with docu-dranas. But whatever his resemblance to the truth, Jack makes for a powerful dramatic character.
And Kristen Stewart, best known for her work in the Twilight movies, does an excellent job as Seberg, conveying the combination of resolute social decency and vulnerability to those who wanted to bring her down, that made her life both eminently worthwhile and so painfully difficult to continue. If there's any consolation in her story, if that we've become at least a somewhat more just society over the years.
But we're by no means there yet, and, pending the results of the election this coming November, we may have a longer way to go than most people would have predicted just a few years ago.
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