Talking heads (of the CIA): The Spymasters

A few words on the Showtime documentary The Spymasters - have to give the filmmakers credit for the amazing of getting all living ex-directors of the CIA (including former Prez Bush 41) to speak on camera and on the record, some in more detail than others. That said, the movie does feel like a lot of talking heads with spliced in video clips of news footage, primarily from 9/11 and from several attacks on U.S. embassies, some of it pretty dramatic and disturbing but none we hadn't seen before. I don't think there were any great revelations or turning points in the interviews (I didn't make it quite to the end) but we do get a sense of how these guys have to deal with life and death decisions all the time and that a few of them - Panetta in particular - struggle w/ guilt and anxiety about decisions they made that cost lives. Others are on camera more to burnish their reputations: there's a lot of talk about 9/11 obviously, with some of the CIA people (some lower ranks spoke as well; we wondered if one of them was the inspiration for Homeland) emphasizing how they tried to warn the Bush (43) White House about 9/11 but unsuccessfully - I'm no fan of Bush-Cheney yet it seems to me the CIA kept saying there was an imminent threat but without knowledge of the specific plot what could the admin  have done to prevent the strike? One thing that was obvious - there was no communication between the CIA and the FBI, and probably not a lot between the CIA and the White House, either. It's a lonely job, and I'm amazed this film team got such access, including footage of CIA hq that I'd thought was always way off the record.