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At the height of the red scare in 1954, Edward R. Murrow excoriated Senator Joseph McCarthy on CBS. The episode is now depicted powerfully in George Clooney's movie "Good Night, and Good Luck." Among the crusading journalists then working at the network were Joe and Shirley Wershba, who consulted on the film and tell Brooke about the bygone days of smoke-filled newsrooms and courage on the air.
From A Streetcar Named Desire to Down By Law, what many of us think about when we think about New Orleans is a result of its ongoing portrayal in movies. David Lee Simmons, culture critic for the city's alternative daily, The Gambit, talks with Brooke about the cinematic depictions of the old Big Easy that will endure as the city attempts to rebuild.
Is there a statute of limitations for not revealing movie plot twists? When can a surprise ending finally become part of pop culture conversation? In response to listener letters about our Million Dollar Baby giveaway and last week's attempt at an explanation, Brooke poses the questions to New York Daily News TV critic David Bianculli.
At the same time that events on the battlefields of WWII were being documented by newspapers and radio, Hollywood was re-framing the wartime sentiments of the homefront. In his memoir, Good Morning, Mr. Zip Zip Zip, film critic Richard Schickel examined the myths that wartime America built for itself on the silver screen. He shares some of his favorite clips with Brooke.
Since its unsolicited selection for the axis of evil, North Korea has largely fulfilled its media role as America's Asian arch-nemesis. But there's at least one place where North Korea's image has been softening - South Korea. Wall Street Journal reporter Gordon Fairclough explains to Bob how the improvement of North Korea’s image is increasingly apparent in South Korean TV and film.
In the 1940's, the Motion Picture Export Association, aka "the little State Department," went forth to sell the American way of life – not to mention American products – around the world. Toby Miller directs the Program in Film and Visual Culture at the University of California Riverside. He joins Brooke to discuss Hollywood-as-imperialist, then and now.
This week, the Supreme Court heard the case of MGM v. Grokster, a case which pits the major music and film houses against "peer-to-peer" programs that allow anyone to freely trade material via the Internet. The entertainment industry claims the software makers are arming pirates. The software makers say the industry is strangling technological innovation. Bob speaks with Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Dan Glickman, president and CEO of the Motion Picture Association of America, argues on behalf of Hollywood.
Six years ago, fresh from yet another disappointing visit to his local Blockbuster, Bob decided to take matters into his own hands. Armed with little more than an original treatment for a serious film set in the former Yugoslavia, Bob flew west. Here is the story of his mission to save the soul of Hollywood.
