第30屆香港國際電影節電影
Film of the 30th Hong Kong International Film Festival

The film is themed on the positive role of journalism particularly through the medium of the TV which is the only medium for mass audio-visual communication under short lead time during the 1950s. It highlights the crucial issue of the role of the media in being a sentinel that guards against self-interested political propaganda and distorted information endangering the public. The film also portrays the existence of the editorial gate and the pressure of commercial interests and political alliances in journalistic events. Fact based and denotative, it also comes with many eloquent and saga dialogues that are still applicable to the current era as far as the role of journalism is concerned.

Director George Clooney uses B/W colour tone for the theatrical version of the film. He adopts shallow focus on the characters and brings TV/monitor screens into mise-en-scene to create an effect similar to split screen in which the facial expressions of McCarthy (real Senator Joseph McCarthy in footage) and Edward Murrow (David Strathairn) (at different angles of shooting) are simultaneously captured by the audience in the same shot. The use of B/W and news footage not only enhances the degree of reality but brings the reality/history into the narrative as well, thereby strengthening the momentum of persuasiveness in rhetorical terms. It is a regret that the film is not shown in cinemas in Hong Kong probably because of Hong Kong people's apathy to the subject.