Looks good, no narrative tension...

Rating: 7/10 (13 November 2005)

Clooney has certainly shot a beautiful film - black and white, great details evoking what I imagine the 1950's television industry was like. The performances are all good. However, I can't help feeling that critics are raving about the film simply because its subject matter (McCarthyism and the way the media handled it) also speaks to us now with similar concerns that many Americans have with the Bush Administration and the way the media has/has not been handling it. I get a sense from the film and many reviewers that they wish an Edward R. Murrow and a courageous broadcaster would appear like a knight in shining armour to skewer the current administration and expose it for what it is, and that they feel this film is an artistic call to arms. I don't feel that the film's topicality is sufficient to make it a "brilliant" film that everyone should see.
I felt there was no narrative tension ... perhaps this is because we know so much about McCarthyism. Certainly there were a few scenes when I wondered if CBS would support Murrow & Friendly, but everything seemed inevitable: "the good" (Murrow) standing up against the evil (McCarthy). Yawn!