Release Date – 5th December 2025, Cert – TBC, Run-time – 1 hour 57 minutes, Directors – Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus
Documentary looking at the work of political journalist Seymour Hersh, who uncovered and reported on some of the biggest cover-ups and exposés of the last 60 years.
Seymour Hersh appears to want to focus on his work more than anything else, even then he’s somewhat hesitant. “It’s hard to know who to trust. I barely trust you guys” he tells directors Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus, and in turn their cameras. Hersh has spent his life working on some of the biggest, most shocking, exposés of modern history. We see him still working today, communicating with sources over the phone about the war in Gaza. This insight into his continuing work and the ways in which he’s engaged are among the closest we get to the personal side of Hersh – “I was very happy not talking about myself” – who is still kept largely quiet as Cover-Up focuses on key stories from his life’s work.
Cover-Up isn’t quite a whistle-stop tour. We spend a good deal of time with only a handful of major uncoverings that Hersh was involved in, but there’s still a lot of ground covered meaning that things aren’t always as in-depth as they perhaps could be. That doesn’t mean there’s not a sense of shock at some of what the subject has been behind. Images and details from the Abu Ghraib tortures still provoke a sense of horror. Each story and the various elements that crop up within them creates interest, but I never found myself fully engaged over the near-two-hour run-time.
Perhaps that came from wanting to know a bit more about the man behind all of the discussed exposés, even if just seeing more of him at work and his thoughts whilst learning about what was happening. But, perhaps that’s wanting the film to be something it’s not. Especially, again, with Hersh seeming to intentionally put focus onto his work and being wary of the cameras and what he’s saying about himself.
The ways in which he talks about trust and the ways in which he communicates with people certainly bring something to the film and add a layer to the man and what he’s done throughout his career – Hersh is currently 88 and continues to fight through his reporting. A layer which certainly brings more to the interest in what the film covers, but also feels like something which could be explored just that bit more, even through the many details we hear about the various stories at hand. Again, perhaps I was wanting Cover-Up to be a different film to what it actually is, but it does feel as if it could have a bit more about the man that leads it to bring more engagement to his work.
While certainly interesting, especially when seeing work and communication in progress, Cover-Up’s look at the career of Seymour Hersh means that the man doesn’t always come through meaning that the documentary is more interesting than fully engaging.
Just A Little Bit Random 