After much anticipation I saw this movie today, and I think it’s a small gem. The loose, conversational structure does a terrific job of fooling the mind into thinking of it as a period documentary rather than a scripted piece of fiction. The slow pace and lack of a tight narrative might be off-putting to some, but I thought it worked very well. The incorporation of archival footage is absolutely seamless. David Strathairn - an actor I always enjoy, and whom I see far too little of - positively melts into the central role. If this performance doesn’t make people sit up and take notice, I don’t know what will. The surrounding cast is just as solid.
The film does an amazing job of portraying heroism as a series of small, courageous acts taken within a system not set up - or setting out - to change the world. There’s no rousing speech, no crossing of the Rubicon, just incremental, well-considered steps - sometimes difficult steps - toward reaching a greater good. The risks and consequences of those actions are vividly illustrated, but in the same subtle and elegant manner that characterizes the rest of the movie.
This film is definitely aiming at the Farenheit 9/11 crowd, but instead of shouting and hitting viewers over the head with anvils, it whispers in their ear.
I haven’t gotten to see it yet (missed the Lexington premiere because I had to work) but Nick Clooney (George’s dad and a career newsman) said that this was the first movie he’d ever seen that got a newsroom right.
He actually came and spoke after the film here in Lexington, because the UK journalism department sponsored the premiere on campus.
I saw it today. Very nicely done, taut, with solid performances and direction. The B/W photography is an excellent choice, and they managed to weave in the archival footage quite smoothly. I also liked the restraint that was shown overall
–“less is more”–and in particular where the music is concerned. Dianne Reeves’ singing segments were exactly in the right places.
Yes, yes it will. Like pretty much any period film, everyone is smoking, everywhere, all the time. Even Edward R. Murrow was smoking while he gave his televised commentaries. Makes me glad I wasn’t around back then.
Bad review to follow, take it for what it’s worth:
I went to see it with some friends not knowing anything about it, except it was about some reporters during the McCarthy era. I came out of it wondering why they didn’t just make a documentary instead.
I saw the allegory, but it just didn’t grab me at all - there was no tension whatsoever. I mean, everyone acted all tense, but I just didn’t see it. McCarthy was a bad guy, everyone was scared of him, but they never really made the case for why he was scary - he just was. Also, when they succeeded in bringing him down, it didn’t really seem like much of a climax. Or much in the way of fallout. I guess Edward R. Murrow lost his job. I think. But at the same time they started and ended the film with a dinner in his honor, so I guess it didn’t turn out too bad for him.
It really surprises me that this is getting such wonderful reviews, with words like “brave”, and “tight”, and “uplifting”. To me it was kind of boring. A well-done History Channel reenactment.
What lonesome loser means is that it was filmed on color film stock, then converted to black and white for release.
And Agonist, What I think your failing to appreciate is how frightening McCarthy and others “rooting out communists” were at the time. People were losing their jobs and being blacklisted on flimsy and even nonexistent evidence, as was portrayed in the film with the footage of the woman who was promoted from a lunch room to a code room and then lost her job because ner name was the same as someone else with reported ties to the communist party.
What was most scary about McCarthy was many people’s apparent willingness to accept what he said at face value. Hmmm. Sound familiar? And if you didn’t feel there was much of a climax to it, maybe that’s because the film was supposed to remind you that while McCarthy was brought low (if not by Murrow, then by the Army-McCarthy hearings that followed), the forces that used fear, lies and innuendo to further their political causes still operate.
You also seemed to miss Murrow’s indictment of journalism and TV journalism in particular. Murrow’s words on that matter, just as with McCarthyism, are as relevent today as they were then.
One more side note. A detail that Clooney had spot on: There wasn’t a solitary swear word in the whole movie. Not that that would have offended me, but it was a detail that made the movie all the more authentic.
I guess that’s my problem with it. I knew from my history lessons that McCarthy was scary, but I didn’t feel it from the drama of the movie.
As I said, I got the allegory. I got the movie on an intellectual level, I just didn’t care. The movie was boring.
I noticed that he was trying to make that point at the beginning of the movie. Did he make it? I thought it was just kind of dropped. (Actually the issue itself is a good topic of discussion: corporate interests - and profit/loss concerns in general - fund American journalism and therefore have a strong influence on what is and isn’t reported. How can this be fixed?)
The other issue they seemed to be trying to make - although I think it also got lost - was that reporting on two sides equally is actually not journalistic integrity if you don’t call people on their lies when you see them. I see that as a modern concept shoehorned in to make the movie more “relevant”. It’s just my opinion, as I’m no historian, but my understanding is that the “equal time” concept is mostly a reaction to politicians’ charges of liberal bias in the media.
It’s there, albeit subtle, which is why I liked it. It’s there particularly in Strathairn’s performance, the nervous one-liners between Murrow and Friendly and the chainsmoking, which was as much a dramatic device as it was an accurate detail.
Well, from what everyone is saying here, I believe this would be a great movie. I wouldn’t know personally because both my wife and I fell asleep when we went to see it. Best $17.00 nap I ever had.
