The sexiest film of the naughts

Rating: 10/10 (23 November 2019)

The Oscars awarding Crash best picture of Brokeback Mountain is explainable. One only has to realize that homophobia is still omnipresent throughout society as well as the Academy's taste tending to favor urban stories and the event is understandable. But trying to explain how Crash *also* beat out this great film is a loss.
Anyway, this film is very sexy. On every single level it is an extremely well considered thriller and civic engagement piece. Murrow's fight with McCarthy is rendered with precision and the screenplay does a great job of balancing the various needs of a story. It avoids lionizing Murrow (it contains a few criticism of him in fact) while demonstrating the the great service he did to this country. There is deft touch to the writing that manages to be completely factual while containing barbs at the correct targets. The way in which Strathairn renders *junior* senator icy disdain is a good example of this. But the script is the least of it.
This film is just effortlessly cinematic and atmospheric containing the whole of the red scare in a few black and white frames. It has a fevered quality to the visual construction that not only makes the history come alive but creates a wonderful engaging mood. It should have won cinematography at the Oscars for its lyrical inky images-the cigarette smoke alone pregnant with meaning. Add in spartan art direction and the classical direction and this is a period piece that simply lives.
I adore this film. So glad I re-watched it the other day.