This one's about All The Senator's Men

Rating: 10/10 (26 September 2005)

Itis obvious that George Clooney has a feel for the history of Television. Several years ago he helmed a live telecast of the Doomsday thriller "Fail Safe" which was well received.
Now Clooney returns to the historical genre with this brilliant retelling of one of the scariest eras in our nation's history. The Joseph McCarthy era. Clooney the co writer uses the late Great Edward R. Murrow as the focal point of the picture. It was Morrow, one of the best journalists in history, who took on the Junior Senator from Wisconsin whose irresponsible Communist finger pointing would make anyone who so much as would wear a pink shirt cringe.
Clooney the Director, photographs the movie in Black and White and creates a true feel for 1954 when Morrow's show "See It Now", a CBS and Morrow staple since the Radio days when it was called "Hear It Now", unearthed the story of a member of the Air Force was asked to resign because of one time alleged Communist affiliations in his family. The show and the incident was to manifest itself into a "confrontation" between Morrow and McCarthy".
And while the CBS portion of the story are played by actors(a marvelous ensemble cast), McCarthy, Roy Cohn and others involved are played by themselves due to the use of archival footage. What is particular noteworthy is a shot of a young Robert Kennedy at one of the hearings and another shot of Joseph Welsch who presided over the Army-McCarthy hearings that would bring the senator down. Film buffs may remember Welsch shortly thereafter as an actor, portraying Judge Weaver in Otto Preminger's "Anatomy Of A Murder".
Clooney has assembled a dream cast and each one delivers. It begins with David Strathairn as Morrow. He has already won an award for best actor at the Venice Film Festival and if he doesn't win an Oscar for this, something is wrong. Clooney, the Actor, plays Fred Friendly, Producer of "See It Now" and Morrow's confidant, he could pick up a nomination in 4 categories. Frank Langella Plays William S. Paley, the head of CBS. Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr, Ray Wise and Patricia Clarkson are all uniformly excellent.
I have been called a purist, a charge I plead guilty to. It is gratifying to see that a film can be successfully made without blood, gore and guts and still hold the interest.
Then when you examine the roots and career of it's maker, it should not surprise you at all.
A perfect 10