Review: An Unlikely Weapon:
The Eddie Adams Story (2009) *** 1/2

“A reporter can write about something if somebody else tells him about it. A photographer, he can’t get the picture unless he’s right there in the very place that it’s happening and Eddie was always there.” – Bob Schieffer on Eddie Adams.

What is the toll taken on those who cannot stand at a remove to history because they must be there to record it? What happens when one who is “always there” becomes a shaper of history and not just a recorder? Those are a two of the key questions addressed in Susan Morgan Cooper’s terrific documentary on Eddie Adams, photographer of 13 wars, six American presidents, countless celebrities and one Pulitzer Prize-winning image credited with helping end the war in Vietnam.

Combining old interviews of Adams in his prime with archival footage and new interviews with Adams’ colleagues and the newsmen who knew him, Cooper sketches a compelling portrait of a gruff, talented and conflicted man who spent a lifetime documenting history and half of it haunted by a single image he captured.

The first part of An Unlikely Weapon paints a rough picture of Eddie Adams in his own words and through those of colleagues like Morley Safer, Peter Jennings, Bob Schieffer and Life Magazine photographer Bill Eppridge. Schieffer and Jennings knowledgably put the man in a professional context while Eppridge – though not much of a raconteur – is a font of anecdotes that give a unique insight into Adams’ talent and his personality. The portrait that emerges is that of a stubborn perfectionist who is even harder on himself than he is on those around him. Yet, there is a sensitivity there too. Adams isn’t always able to articulate it out loud, but it comes through in his journal entries and especially through the abundant photographs that punctuate the film.

A relatively small amount of time is spent on the taking of Adams’ most famous photograph: that of the execution of a Vietcong prisoner by the national police chief of South Vietnam. It captured the exact moment when the bullet was still in the victim’s brain and, along with another photograph taken by a colleague of a naked and badly burned little girl running from her napalmed village, is credited with helping turn public opinion against the war. It brought the senseless brutality of a war being fought thousands of miles away into people’s living rooms.

Adams however was characteristically ambivalent about the quality of the photograph and he also suffered a deep sense of guilt at essentially ruining the life of the police chief, a man who was on our side and killing our enemy. It’s a moral gray area far removed from the black and white images Adams captured and it seems like he spent the rest of his life trying to atone for the damage he’d done and erase the horrors of the war he’d seen. He would later take a series of photographs of Vietnamese being kicked out of Thailand that helped convince the US government to accept all refugees from the war, but his wounds remained unhealed. “To me, I think that was the only thing I did in my life that was good, but I didn’t mean to do it. You know, I’m not a good guy.”

After Vietnam, Adams would photograph other wars, but primarily he retreated into celebrity photography. At this point, the film too goes a little soft. Though there is an excellent recollection of a troubled trip to photograph Fidel Castro where Adams is taken on a duck hunt with the Cuban leader, photo sessions with singer Marc Anthony aren’t all that fascinating. On the other hand, perhaps Adams was himself taking refuge. Photographs of movie stars don’t carry the burden of changing the world.

In the end, the story rallies once again as Adams regains his fire working on a book of photographs documenting the people fighting for human rights. He took a special fascination in these people who were exerting their will on the world without guns. Perhaps he identified with that. It was the last project he would complete before dying of complications relating to ALS in 2004.

Lacking the flash and polish favored in some of the higher profile documentaries these days, Cooper’s direct and unassuming style risks losing the audience’s attention, but it actually ends up working to the benefit of her subject. Eddie Adams was a complicated but no frills man and a simple, direct telling works best. She also works subtly, letting the themes and ideas bubble quietly to the surface rather than overemphasizing them. The result is more reflective and ruminative than hard hitting, but still satisfyingly rich and complex. It’s the kind of documentary that sneaks up on you later rather than wowing you in the moment. In this way An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story manages to get under your skin and stay there.

An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story. USA 2008 (theatrical release 2009). Directed by Susan Morgan Cooper. Cinematography and editing by Isaac Hagy. Music score composed by Kyle Eastwood and Michel Stevens. Narrated by Kiefer Sutherland. With Eddie Adams, Peter Arnett, Tom Brokaw, Bill Eppridge, Peter Jennings, Morley Safer, Nick Ut and Bob Schieffer. 1 hour 25 minutes. Not rated by the MPAA. 3.5 stars (out of 5)

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Tags: An Unlikely Weapon: The Eddie Adams Story, Bill Eppridge, Bob Schieffer, Eddie Adams, Kiefer Sutherland, Morley Safer, Nick Ut, Peter Arnett, Peter Jennings, Susan Morgan Cooper, Tom Brokaw