All cigarettes lighted? yes? OK...aaaaandACTION!

Rating: 7/10 (18 May 2007)

With the amount of cigarettes being burned away here in this movie, one should be surprised that there are still people living that lived in the 50's. Rumour has it that despite British American Tobacco sponsoring this movie with 10 pallets of Lucky Strike, they had to quit filming half way through due to shortages.
Don't get me wrong here, I'm an avid smoker but this is just ridiculous. Yet between the smouldering of the neatly lit barely bloody burnable's, they evidentially found some time to shoot some film as well. This is a short story. Not about people smoking, but about the public media battle between CBS anchorman edward R. Murrow and Senator 'Tailgunner Joe' McCarthy.
The film Starts off in a dimly lit theater where Murrow is about to give a speech, with people, yes, smoking, and a profound 50's atmosphere which no doubt pales the real ambiance that those years must have held, shot in eyecandy monochrome.
With more than ample performances by the overall cast it is Director/Actor Clooney who seemed slightly absentminded. His patented casual acting style, however, was kindly lend by Robert Downey Jr. who in this film does it even better than Clooney did himself in Oceans Eleven. It is however David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow who steals the show.
Although one would suspect this movie to deal primarily with dodging political pressure in a period of time in which red wasn't just a colour in the spectrum of light, the movie unfolds strongly around intrigue as well. It would prove to be the films Achilles-heel somewhat because it makes the film lose focus. The movie however never bores, but it doesn't fully captivate either. I found myself frequently getting up from my chair to get a drink without even bothering to pause the movie.
That said, this Film Noir is entertaining with a straight forward plot and it absolutely stands out in the cinematography department. The music intermezzo's sung by Dianne Reeves were suitable, adding to the typical 50's feel but felt a bit unsubtle and slowed down the film which wasn't traveling at light-speed anyway.
Not a must see per se, but certainly not a must miss. 7/10