Guilty By Suspicion [1990] [DVD]

This movie is a saddening look at one of America's darkest times. It has received lots of negative reviews, but don't listen to them. It is the best movie I have seen about the times and it captures the essence of Hollywood during the 1950s when McCarthy and the House Un-American Committee were at the peak of power. Robert De Niro is excellent, as always, as David Merrill, a director with success, fans, and he is living his dream. Then he goes on a vacation, and when he returns, the town is different. The movie opens up with a typical Committee meeting in which David's friend Larry is spooked by the committee. Before long he is burning his books and disowning his wife as a communist. Red Fever has hit town, and David is next in line. Somebody has named him as a Communist sympathyzer, and he refuses to testify to the Committee because he is angry and doesn't want to hurt his friends. Before long he finds he cannot get a job, not directing, producing, or even working in a film repair shop. His life is turned upside down, and he decides finally to testify to the Committee. The acting is what makes this movie, De Niro, but also Annette Bening, George Wendt, Martin Scorsese is great in a cameo. My favorite part is when one cast member is called a commie by the producer for siding with David. "I turned in commies without the government even asking. If you want to call me a commie, you got to back it up." David replies, "If he wants to call you a commie, he doesn't need to back it up." Some people say it is contrived or unbelievable, but the transformation in David, from materialistic director to a man seeing the need to defy the McCarthyists is done well. If you like history, or if you like De Niro, you will enjoy this film.

Tells the story of a dark age in which some Hollywood filmers become prey to a witchhunt. 'If you are suspicious, then you are guilty.' As a non-US person, I was astonished to see the final session (US Senate hearing?), where the judge, jury and the prosecution were all the same; what's more, the manner those judges (?) passed judgement knocked me off. What a fair trial! And it is a true story that happened in the USA!!

I've reviewed the other reviews of this movie and they are basically what I would expect. I think many of the negative reviews are from people unacquainted with the era of McCarthy and his cohorts. I had to live through it. My family and I were affected by the Unamerican Subcommittee procedings and their effects. The ridiculousness lasted past the 50's. As a senior in college I was threatened by an FBI plant who was passing as a dumb college senior. He blew his cover and failed to show up at graduation. When he approached me I refused to believe good old J. Edgar wpoui;s be stupid enough to employ anyone as stupid as this kid. How could anyone who had first hand contact with the minions of that great institution have dfoubted the idiocy of Hoover? This kid proved me wrong, when I questioned the legitimacy of his badge he pulled an automatic pistol from his pocket and removed the clip, then handed tit to me saying, "They don't give this to fakes." I have never liked being threatened. When another FBI genius showed up at my dorm to question me about my cousin, I complained to him. The junior g-man was pulled from school and sent back to the Washington funny farm I assume.
My complaint about this film is it plays up the problems the ineffective right wing idiots like McCarthy did to other lesser humans who had nothing to do with Hollywood. My father had a sensitive job as an elementary scvhool teacher in a backwater town in Florida. The FBI came to his school to question him. When he informed them he did not know anything, the brilliant G-man told him if he wanted to keep his hight profile job pushing a broom, he would cooperate like any good citizxen would or never work anywhere again. Dad knew the power of the idiots and made some vague remarks of some intelligence. He told the FBI he knew communists by name only and named the leading politicians of the defunct American Communist Party.
There are great Americans running aound this country still who realize they can influence a great many people through fear and loud talking. They have changed their names from the John
Birch Society to Fox News, but they are just as dangerous. If you want to see at least some of the harm done by blowhard politicians see this movie. It doesn't tell the whole story, but if you didn't live through this time, you owe it to yourself to see it.