Kay McFadden / Times staff columnist
'Homeland Security' a disaster in itself

	SOPHIE GIRAUD / AP Karl Campbell, left, and Jamie Foxx, as Stan "Tookie" Williams, appear in FX's "Redemption: The Stan 'Tookie' Williams Story."
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"In September 1999 — two years prior to the tragedies of 9-11 — the U.S. Commission on National Security reported that direct and catastrophic terrorist attacks would be launched against the American homeland in the near future."

Words to chill the electronic hearth. But who said them?

It wasn't national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, testifying yesterday before a national television audience. Nor was it former NSA counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke, on yet another talk show defending his book about why America slept.

In fact, the statement is from NBC's "Homeland Security," which airs at 9 p.m. Sunday (KING-TV).

"Homeland Security" is not a good movie. The plotting is fragmented, the actors mostly unmemorable and the second half all too clearly in thrall to establishing a future television series.

But overshadowing the aura of failed pilot is a reptilian opportunism that fascinates. Just how does a network methodically exploit tragedy and curry White House favor?

These tasks are not easy to juggle. Keeping a finger on the audience pulse and simultaneously brown-nosing the government is, if you think about it, an awkward position.

Furthermore, foresight is difficult while kissing hind-end. Although "Homeland Security" plainly is scheduled to capitalize on the current investigation into 9-11, this 2003 production fails to anticipate today's souring public mood.

The result is a peculiar time capsule that may someday take its place alongside 1950s Red-baiting propaganda intended to freak out audiences before reassuring them that the United States will triumph.

Sunday's story begins with the foreboding introduction quoted above and a roughly hourlong accounting of our failure to heed various warnings about a terrorist threat.
 
These missteps are sifted through made-up characters such as CIA operative Bradley Brand (Grant Show), CIA veteran Joe Johnson (Scott Glenn) and Adm. Theodore McKee (Tom Skerritt). They are attached, in ways personal and professional, to events.

The dialogue and action are standard-issue, and any thrills strictly derivative. "Homeland Security" is ripped from the headlines, lifted from the blotter, snatched from cable news — everything except dug from the files, which is what most interests us now.

After tastefully reaching the tragic climax of 9-11, the rest of the movie is devoted to square-jawed optimism. "C'mon son, ass-kickin' time," drawls Johnson, as U.S. soldiers mount their horses and ride into the mountains of Afghanistan.

We also see Tom Ridge being sworn in as head of Homeland Security and Adm. McKee going to work for him. Apparently, his job is getting all the formerly combative agencies to work together.

Some concern is expressed about the new entity's role. "We don't want a national Gestapo," says Skerritt's adviser, Sol Binder (Leland Orser). Another person frets that the United States is creating a paramilitary operation and a dangerous precedent. Never fear; this is lip service. General Electric-owned NBC and Viacom-owned Paramount Television Productions are not seriously dwelling on the possibility of a government agency running roughshod over rights, unless it's their right to get bigger.

The two-hour ordeal ends on an upbeat note, with apparent victory in Afghanistan and the gradual fade-in of a speech from President Bush that is memorable, though likely not for the reasons it was selected.

"Homeland Security will make America not only stronger, but in many ways better," the president notes, before issuing his famous directorial pronouncement. "Now America's embracing a new ethic and a new creed: Let's roll."

At least NBC had sense not to follow suit with "Homeland Security," the TV series. Some signs of disaster are heeded.

No redeeming qualities

FX has "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck." The cable channel now tackles another topic suitable to its brawny audience: a movie based on Stanley "Tookie" Williams, death-row inmate and former Crips gang leader turned Nobel-nominated children's author.

Called "Redemption," the film airs at 8 p.m. Sunday. It stars Jamie Foxx, more familiar to TV audiences for his comedy. Lynn Whitfield co-stars as Barbara Becnel, the reporter who wanted to write a history of the Crips and ended up assisting in Williams' turnaround.

The payback from viewing "Redemption" has nothing to do with the movie, which is bad, or the acting, which is worse. For a major production, the garbled storytelling and slack direction are surprising.

What "Redemption" does do is restore a cynical sort of faith that bias in the media strikes from all sides. If "Homeland Security" is disposed toward the Bush government, "Redemption" is overbalanced in favor of its main character's nobility.

Granted, that is no reason to tune in. The film is one long preach-a-thon, and watching is like trying to swallow undigested chunks of self-improvement tract without even a little emotion to wash it down.

Character development is minimal, while personality is reduced to stereotype and dialogue becomes a series of expository lectures about black identity and ghetto life and absent fathers.

Yet what's striking is what's left out — say, details on the multiple murders that Williams committed. Such an omission is fatal not only to the film's credibility, but to our involvement. If you want me to feel for the man, then show me all of him.

So single-mindedly strident is "Redemption," the film misses opportunities for reflection and irony. A visit to Williams from Winnie Mandela (CCH Pounder) should at least contain some reference to her own dubious role vis-à-vis treatment of rivals.

By the time we reach the climactic nominations of Williams as a Nobel candidate for peace and later for literature, the entire tale actually begins to feel made-up. If Williams stands a chance of getting clemency, it won't come through the auspices of this project.

Kay McFadden: kmcfadden@seattletimes.com

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