Only 50 years ago.

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2006)

The events this movie portrays happened over 50 years ago... and yet they happen today again. As such the work is poignant. As a history lesson, for those who don't know history, it is extremely well done. As a movie, it is somewhat unfulfilling. There is no conclusion to the action. In order for this movie to have worked completely, it would have had to have focused upon McCarthy himself and show his downfall, partly caused by Murrow's heroic commentaries. As it is, we see Murrow's work and his valiant determination to stand up to the right wing demagoguery of the self serving McCarthy. McCarthyism is all around us today, making the movie apropos. Instead of communism, now it's terrorism...the republicans have to incite the masses to fight something. Of course, terrorism is real (and has been for decades.) But now they use it to incarcerate people without trial, send some to foreign countries for torture, declare war on countries to fatten the pockets of their favorite corporations and... as usual, accuse anyone who has a different point of view of being "soft of terrorism." They are just as reprehensible now as they were then. Unfortunately the ones who will watch this movie are the intelligent, the curious, the ones who already know there is a problem with our Big Brother govt. Those who voted for this regime and who still support it will challenge their minds with another cliff hanging episode of Wheel of Fortune, resolute in their knowledge that they are red blooded Americans.