Mark Felt - The Man Who Took Down The White House

"The leaks are driving the White House crazy."

"The only thing worse than keeping you [at the FBI] is firing you."

No, it's not the CNN chyron crawl. It's Peter Landesman's moody "Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House," an insanely timely docudrama about the FBI whistleblower dubbed Deep Throat by Washington Post reporters.

There have been musings that his secret garage meetings with Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein were revenge for being passed over for the agency's top spot. But here career intelligence officer Felt (stern Liam Neeson) is portrayed as protecting democracy and American interests as well as excising the "cancer on the Presidency" that was the Watergate cover-up.

He is shown as a stoic patriot and a company man, noting that the FBI is "one of the two cockpits that fly America," promising his superiors that "as long as you keep the FBI first, you can count on me."

Based on books by others as well as Felt, who confessed his secret identity in a 2005 Vanity Fair article, the film is set among the President's men during Nixon's reelection campaign (he won by a landslide), which coincided with Felt's tenure as FBI associate director, 1972-73, right after the puppet master of all political secrets, J. Edgar Hoover, died.

He was briefly considered for the top job, because Felt was considered "competent, reliable and loyal, like a golden retriever." However, after longtime director Hoover was gone, Felt was told, "You are holding your own leash." Acting Director Gray (Marton Csokas) then gave Felt 48 hours to "wrap up Watergate" and "quarantine the FBI."

His 31 years with the Bureau yielded volumes of info and files (he also inherited Hoover's blackmail bonanza), and yet he couldn't find his wayward adult daughter Joan (Maika Monroe), who was hanging with cults and perhaps Felt's favorite target, the Weather Underground (he was later prosecuted yet pardoned for extralegal persecution of the leftist group).

The movie also promotes the ever-present importance of a free press, the "light around the edges" of any investigation. Felt left "breadcrumbs" for them, nudging them toward the realization that the Watergate break-ins were just the beginning, not the end.

Mark Felt is required viewing for those struggling to remember history and hustling not to repeat it. The real Felt died in 2008 at age 95, but the filmed Felt is at the pinnacle of his career (he retired soon after this period), and he offers admonitions to keep the three branches of government separate and accountable: "We don't work for the White House."

"No one can stop the driving force of an FBI investigation," he said. "Not even the FBI."

Time will tell whether James Comey (or Robert Mueller) sequels will need to be made.