A must see to understand today's issues

Rating: 10/10 (14 October 2005)

An excellent film. I will see it again and will likely buy the DVD when it is released.
I remember the McCarthy era and the way he used the fear of communism to cow people and organizations. While we didn't have television in our house I remember seeing the weekly MovieTone News at the Saturday matinée which always had something about McCarthy in the stories. Frankly, almost everyone thought McCarthy has doing the country a service and it was only much later that the techniques he used were recognized as something not to be proud of.
This movie comes to the screen at an appropriate time because it should call to the attention of anyone who views it these same McCarthy-esquire techniques so in vogue today to sell a vision.
The use of black & white in this film is key to setting the stage for the story. Color would have been a distraction. To me it enhanced the feeling of a two-sided conflict where gray areas didn't exist.
Clooney did an excellent job at a difficult task of being Director and playing a supporting role (Fred Friendly). He was in almost every scene but maintained his character as secondary to Murrow. The only thing I found that was a bit off was the voice of David Strathairn (Murrow). It was a little thin but he made up for it in his believable portrayal of Murrow's characteristic way of speaking.
After seeing this film I realized how much I missed the days when radio and television news people were really reporters and not just "talking heads". I now own "The Edward R. Murrow Collection" DVD set from PBS.