Word: clooneys
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Disappointingly, director George Clooney's movie about Murrow is, at best, unimposing. Focusing on Murrow's conflict with Senator Joseph McCarthy, whose campaign against an alleged domestic communist conspiracy redefined (at least until recently) political cynicism in the U.S., Murrow (well enough played by David Strathairn) becomes in the film a chain smoker in a suit, making pretty, unexceptionable speeches in support of the First Amendment. They are unshadowed by doubt or fear or, indeed, any sense of what made Murrow and his producer, Fred Friendly (whom Clooney plays), such virtuously embattled figures. The movie's appeal...
Shot in black and white, with a nice sense of how claustrophobic studio TV production was in its early days, it looks interesting and attractive enough. The lack of color allows Clooney to seamlessly integrate authentic footage of McCarthy and some of his victims into his story. You get a terrific sense of what a sneering, whining bully McCarthy was, an equally good sense of how utterly unthreatening his victims were. On the other hand, a film (or kinescope) clip is still just a clip. The figures are just images. They have almost no human interest--no motivating foibles...
...film delights in showing us the frantic behind-the-scenes choreography necessary to create these moments of restrained power on live television. In “Confessions of a Dangerous Mind,” his directorial debut, Clooney whirled through the funhouse hallucinations of a very different real-life television figure, game-show producer Chuck Barris...
...reality, though an equally chaotic one. Its reporters are constantly being hassled by intruders—managerial types with their eyes on the bottom line, jingoistic pundits, and dunderheaded military commanders who demand to review footage before it is broadcast. Watching Murrow and producer Fred W. Friendly (played by Clooney) fearlessly rebuff these would-be defilers of the fourth estate is enough to make a college journalist break a sweat...
...film’s single-minded historical aim leaves no time for these members of the ensemble to be more than minor players. But it’s hard to blame Clooney for harping on his point. Almost 50 years after McCarthy died in disgrace, we live in a country where reporters can be imprisoned for protecting sources, networks censor themselves to avoid being fined out of existence, and questioning the president too closely can get you branded as a traitor...