Two movies based on the real-life sagas of a war heroine and
a kidnap victim square off in a Sunday night ratings battle
Perhaps you’ve heard of them.
Rescued in dramatic fashion within three weeks of each other, teenagers Jessica Lynch and Elizabeth Smart were separately entrenched in the public consciousness before network television brought them together for a showy November “sweeps” ratings battle.
Only in America could it come to this: NBC’s “Saving Jessica Lynch,” saga of the Iraqi war’s designated heroine, vs. CBS’ “The Elizabeth Smart Story,” saga of the kidnap victim who astonishingly made it back home.
The two TV movies, both tied to books about their subjects, go head-to-head on Sunday night, with the smart money favoring CBS. Its story of a little girl lost and found is told in far more compelling fashion than NBC’s nuts-and-bolts dramatization of how Lynch was seriously wounded and then liberated from Saddam Hussein Hospital.
Recently filmed in the Dallas area, “Saving Jessica Lynch” was made without any input or authorization from its namesake. The movie’s fallback position is “Because Each Life Is Precious,” a newly released book by the Iraqi lawyer – Mohammed Odeh Al-Rehaief – who says he played a key role in the rescue. “Saving Jessica Lynch” premieres just two days before she begins a scheduled round of network TV interviews tied to her new book, “I Am a Soldier, Too: The Jessica Lynch Story.”
CBS’ reverses this order, premiering its movie on the heels of TV interviews linked to “Bringing Elizabeth Home: A Journey of Faith and Hope.” Its authors, Ed and Lois Smart, did their TV tour late last month, with daughter Elizabeth also being made available for limited questioning.
The follow-up CBS movie is fully sanctioned by her parents. Smart is quoted in network press materials as saying, “Lois and I are pleased to move forward on getting the accurate story out about Elizabeth. We want this to be a message of hope and inspiration, and we believe that CBS will tell this story with integrity and compassion.”
NBC contrastingly has been neck-deep in script revisions, with entertainment president Jeff Zucker eventually settling on an “action and adventure” movie.
“Quite frankly, Jessica’s part of the story is probably the smallest part,” he told TV critics in late July before production began a month later. “It’s about the unit and what happened, and then the rescue.”
Newcomer Laura Regan, who plays Lynch, indeed has fewer lines and less visibility than any title character in recent memory. And her “true story” is affixed with an opening printed disclaimer that reads, “However, some names have been changed and some characters, scenes and events in whole or in part have been created for dramatic purposes.”
CBS’ “Elizabeth Smart Story” covers both a much longer period – nine months – and a far wider range of emotions. Its climactic reunion of Elizabeth, her parents and her five siblings is as heart-rending a TV moment as you’ll see this season.
Charges that Lois and Ed Smart are unduly commercializing their daughter’s trauma and triumph seem to ignore the cold, hard fact that movies and books would have emerged anyway. In this case they at least have some control over the content. It’s hard to blame them for wanting to tell their story firsthand after being burned by numerous unfounded tabloid reports, one of which is revisited in the CBS movie.
The film is buoyed by strong performances from Dylan Baker and Lindsay Frost as parents struggling to both cope and hope. Amber Marshall also is impressive in the title role.
Elizabeth Smart, then 14, was taken from her bedroom on the night of June 5, 2002. The intruder otherwise was seen only by her little sister, Mary Katherine (Hannah Lochner).
The movie effectively dramatizes the Smarts’ growing frustrations with local police procedures. It also copies CBS’ “Without a Trace” series in regularly apprising viewers of the amount of time Elizabeth has been missing.
Remarkably, early search parties shouted her name within hearing distance of Elizabeth and her captors. But by that time she had been cowed to silence by threats against her family’s lives.
Her alleged abductors, as the nation now knows, were Brian David Mitchell, a k a “Emmanuel,” and his compliant wife, Wanda Barzee (Tom Everett, Hollis McLaren). They stand accused of aggravated kidnapping, aggravated burglary and aggravated sexual assault while awaiting mental competency evaluations. Thankfully, the movie in no way portrays any sexual abuse inflicted by Elizabeth’s kidnappers.
What’s most startling are the opportunities ignored by law enforcement officials, who won’t be thrilled by some of what America sees on Sunday night. Fixated on the guilt of former Smart handyman Richard Ricci (Kenneth John McGregor), they consider the case closed after he dies in prison. “America’s Most Wanted” host John Walsh finally is instrumental in leading authorities to Emmanuel, but only after violating an agreement with Smart during an interview on “Larry King Live.”
Elizabeth’s bare-bones existence in captivity is intercut with scenes of her parents’ efforts to keep her alive in their hearts. On the day of her 15th birthday, the Smarts individually voice what they miss about Elizabeth while her captors grudgingly gift her with a chocolate bar.
“It’s Christmas. Maybe we’ll get a miracle,” 9-year-old Mary Katherine says in a later scene.
It all makes for an irresistibly gripping tale with the happiest ending imaginable. CBS rises to the challenge of telling “The Elizabeth Smart Story” honorably, incisively and with an emotional underpinning that Saving Jessica Lynch simply can’t match.
—
SAVING JESSICA LYNCH
9 p.m. EST Sunday, NBC. Starring Laura Regan, Nicholas Guilak, Michael Rooker, Susan Pari. Produced by Dan Paulson. 2 hrs.
THE ELIZABETH SMART STORY
9 p.m. EST Sunday, CBS. Starring Amber Marshall, Dylan Baker, Lindsay Frost, Tom Everett, Hollis McLaren. Produced by Frank Von Zerneck, Robert M. Sertner. 2 hrs.
—
E-mail ebarkdallasnews.com
—
(c) 2003, The Dallas Morning News.
Visit The Dallas Morning News on the World Wide Web at http://www.dallasnews.com/
Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.
AP-NY-11-05-03 0635EST
Send questions/comments to the editors.
