Becoming a bit obsessed with this film...

Rating: 10/10 (30 September 2013)

Like many others I have watched this film multiple times: a lot of multiple times.
I can't fault a single thing about this picture. Well maybe one criticism: I wish it was longer. David Strathairn, well I don't know how he is meant to give a better performance on film than he does in this film. I confess a soft spot for Mr. Strathairn, not only for his talent as an actor but his Scottish ancestry (that's a great Scottish surname).
I'm not going to go into detail about why I love this film - which has inspired me to read up on Murrow and Friendly and Wershba and Paley and McCarthy and the others - because so many others have done so and I probably couldn't add anything new to the comments.
One thing I do truly cherish about this film though is that it presents Murrow as a less than perfect character. We know McCarthy was a liar, a bully and a bit of a nut, we know Cohn was vile. Strathairn's Murrow is not quite the perfect hero you thought he would be: in rejecting his friend Don Hollenbeck's obvious appeals for help we are presented with a Murrow who is a little bit selfish, a little self-obsessed, and a little bit uncaring.
The scene where Murrow is advised of Hollenbeck's death is a powerful one, and Strathairn's acting is majestic: as Murrow watches the wonderful singer performing in the studio next door, the tears in his eyes are fifty percent grief and fifty percent guilt.
I would love Clooney and Strathairn to get together again for another film featuring the Murrow character. I'm being greedy though.
Thanks to all involved for such a supreme piece of film-making.