A Bit of the Old, A Bit of the New, All of the Greatness

Rating: 10/10 (31 October 2005)

George Clooney makes a terrific Directorial debut with his take on this sliver of important (and often overlooked) part of American History. The story is about a CBS news team that decides they've had enough of "McCarthyism", and decide to take the Senator head on. The brave and logical Edward R. Murrow systematically exposes many of McCarthy's tactics for finding communists and brings attention to his violation of civil liberties.
The Acting in this movie is top notch, especially David Straithairn (why haven't I seen more of this guy?). Beautiful black and white filming really captures the contrast in every frame and gives everything a sense of drama. The decision to use music as transitions between movements of the movie was good choice, and the lyrics to the songs often are directly related to what is, or what is about to happen in the film.
The best part is that this movie's message is two-fold. There's the obvious unconstitutionality of McCarthy's ways, but also the dumbing down of television and mass media which started as early as the 50's and is still so prevalent.