Clooney's film about legendary CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow, whose reporting helped end the crusade of Senator Joseph McCarthy, is gorgeous to look at, and features a superb lead performance from David Strathairn as Murrow, but falls a bit flat dramatically.
It's 1954, and McCarthy's congressional hearings, devoted to rooting out the Communists who have supposedly infiltrated the government, are in full swing. Murrow and his producer, Fred Friendly (director/co-writer Clooney), decide that the time has come to confront McCarthy, whose tactics of fear and intimidation they believe to be in direct opposition to the American traditions of justice and decency.
Clooney makes the choice not to have McCarthy played by an actor; all of the scenes involving McCarthy are the actual news footage from the era. He has said in interviews that McCarthy's style was so grandiose and overbearing that it would be nearly impossible for any actor to play the role without being accused of overdoing the evil in order to slant the audience's perceptions, and in fact, many members of the movie's preview audiences reportedly complained that the performance of "the actor playing McCarthy" was over the top.
The movie's filmed in black-and-white; Robert Elswit's cinematography is superb, and the lighting brings out every crease and shadow in each face.
Strathairn's performance as Murrow is very fine, and more than just an impersonation (though his recreation of Murrow's cadences and style is quite good); Murrow's anger with the state of affairs, and with the state of his industry, shines through with great clarity. Frank Langella is also excellent as CBS founder William Paley, who struggles to balance his belief in investigative journalism with his need to keep the network financially afloat.
When we know the story already, it's a challenge for a filmmaker to maintain dramatic tension, and Clooney doesn't quite succeed here; the movie has a tendency to come across as a mildly preachy civics lesson. A subplot involving Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson, playing coworkers who are secretly married in violation of CBS policy, goes nowhere; and the movie's use of jazz standards as transitions between scenes, in lieu of a traditional score, is a bit too arch (though the songs are very nicely sung by Dianne Reeves).
Worth seeing for Strathairn's performance, and (if you aren't familiar with the era) as a snapshot of a particularly unpleasant moment in American history, but mildly disappointing.
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