Perhaps the best drama made around the HUAC witch hunt in Hollywood. With a stellar cast headed by De Niro, this film tells a personal story about a workaholic filmmaker accused of being a communist, and the personal story is as important as the political one.
This film unfortunately is as timely now as ever because it's about the personal consequences when the culture is overrun by fear. We are close to such an era again. The fear mongers on the right are more powerful every day.
My nightmare is that the next loyalty card is going to be Belief. Belief in God as interpreted by the evangelicals, who just can't seem to wait for the Final Judgment. I don't expect to be around for this, it will take a few years to get this bad, and for this I will be thankful. I've always applauded the accident of my birth date and now I can add a new item to the list: a teen at the birth of rock and roll; too young for Korea, too old for Vietnam, just right for the Cold War; not raised on television; a college freshman for Sputnik, an era when science/math nerds were respected; pre-computer survival skills; dead, we hope, by the right wing evangelical takeover, or attempt at same.
Timing, as they say, is everything.
And this film feels contemporary to me, alas.
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