Day 187 - 7/6/09 - Movie #187
BEFORE: Another tale from the Cold War 1950's, this time De Niro plays a film director who is blacklisted during the McCarthy hearings.
THE PLOT: David Merrill, a fictitious 1950s Hollywood director, returns from filming abroad in France to find that his loyalty has been called into question by the House Committee on Un-American Activities and he is unable to work until cleared.
AFTER: I know this represents a significant time in U.S. history, and the history of the film industry, but I just don't know if it made a great topic for a film. I'm just left feeling sort of ambivalent and very removed from the topic, though I know that the filmmakers called to testify went through agonizing decisions about naming their friends and associates as Communists - even though they were pretty much forced to do so in order to work in Hollywood. So, did the movie just fail to reach me, or am I starting to suffer from movie fatigue, or De Niro burnout?
RATING: 5 out of 10 gavels
DENIR-O-METER: 7 for a solid (but mostly restrained) performance which got livelier later on, particularly when testifying before Congress.
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