Are You or Have You Ever Been?

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2005)

George Clooney and his wonderful band of actors and actresses bring back the look and feel of the middle to late 1950s in this splendid black and white film. The film concerns Edward R. Murrow and the CBS News and Murrow's expose of the heavy handed rampage of Senator Joe McCarthy during his Senate committee's campaign against 200 communists who supposedly were infiltrating government agencies at that time. It is fascinating to see the old behind-the-scenes methods of CBS News during this period and the influence that advertisers had on news content, which continues to this day. Another interesting aspect is the pervading use of cigarettes in this era, with Murrow being shown to be a chain-smoker. I was born in 1949 and, despite my youth, recall the hot anger that McCarthy inspired in my parents with his campaigns. Surely, the fear that McCarthy stirred up against Communism reverberates even today in regard to our lack of friendship with the relatively harmless Cuban government, for example. And, the lack of scruples in persecuting relatively low-level employees suspected of belonging to the Communist Party or having relatives who at one time subscribed to the Daily Worker shows the paranoia that was gripping much of America in that period. It was good that Dwight Eisenhower and his allies were able to defuse this mood, somewhat, and save the republic from something approaching a fanatical inquisition. Nevertheless, John Birch inspired crusades against communism continued to plague America long afterward until the early 1990s. All in all, this film stirs up memories that reverberate, a tour de force of film-making.