Worthwhile movie

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2006)

As a former news broadcaster who lived through the era, I was fascinated. If I were 40 years younger and had never worked in media, I might not be so enthusiastic. In fact, I might be very confused. So this film may not be to everybody's taste. But it's a good thing that it was made. David Strathairn has done such a fantastic job of emulating Murrow"s whole persona --- voice, appearance, body language --- it's spooky. The decision to shoot only black and white was a gutsy one. It captures the spirit of the era and helps with the integration of historic news footage. As good as it is, I wonder if it might have been even better if it had done Murrow's whole life story, rather than concentrating only on the McCarthy broadcasts. For example, his radio broadcasts from London during the blitz, a high tech marvel and a journalistic innovation in 1940 and their impact in both Britain and the US and on the future of radio news, were historic. The one disappointment was the lack of much substance in the extra features on the DVD. There should have been some archival footage of the real Murrow and maybe even something about the 1958 RTNDA convention where Murrow gave his famous speech. There are a lot of people who were there that night. For the benefit of younger viewers, there should be an epilogue concerning Murrow's subsequent life. He had a falling out with Bill Paley, left CBS to take over the Voice Of America under Lyndon Johnson, an unhappy time for him, and eventually paid the price for his years of smoking in a long and difficult death from lung cancer.