Solid Drama

Rating: 7/10 (13 December 2015)

George Clooney directed and also stars as Fred Friendly, who was Edward R Murrow's boss during the red scare days in the 1950's. This is well known material well told by Clooney and featuring David Strathairn as the chain smoking news man. The entire film is in black and white, giving it the look of a documentary of the time period. Real footage of Senator McCarthy is used with the intended chilling effect. Murrow is shown sitting at a manual typewriter actually composing his own material for the CBS broadcast. The past equivalent of Fox News; at that time in the print newspaper media, presented a vicious attack on Murrow and anyone attacking Senator McCarthy. History, of course, has proved Murrow courageous and correct for his fight against McCarthy. The movie is only 94 minutes and is a bit fast paced and frenetic, but it is well worth watching.