FeistyUpper If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Steineded How sad is this?

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Jenna Walter The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

clanciai This is an important film that never should be allowed to fall out of conscience. It is the sordid and bitter tragedy of the political persecution against writers, directors and actors of Hollywood around 1950 with devastating effects on American cinema - it never became the same again, after reaching its highest levels of artistry and quality in the 1940s. The protagonist David Merrill here is fictitious, but his fate was shared by a vast number of his colleagues, like Jules Dassin, William Dieterle, Abraham Polonsky, Charles Chaplin, Joseph Losey and many others, some never being able to come back, others making masterpieces in other countries, like France and England. The story here builds up towards the final interrogation by the committee in the end, which reaches nothing but a tumultuous quarrel of outrage and unacceptable bullying by those responsible, who are called heroes of America, one of them being Nixon, all of them being politicians. The whole spectrum of victims are exposed, like Larry Nolan, played by Chris Cooper who is forced to act against his conscience with the ruin of his family as a consequence, his wife Dorothy, a film star, being admirably played by Patricia Wettig, the perhaps most important role in the drama, illustrating the full inhumanity, Sam Wanamaker plays the lawyer who tries to find a way out without succeeding, Ben Piazza as Darryl F. Zanuck skillfully circumnavigating the dirty business of politics but without being able to evade shipwrecks, and Martin Scorsese as the director who voluntarily chooses exile to continue filming in England, possibly a portrait of Jules Dassin. The drama is deeply upsetting, this is no comedy but the most unnecessary of all tragedies in Hollywood and the one that definitely wrecked the good name of the whole film business, which up to 1950 had been flamboyantly glorious. How sad. And how important for films like this one to be made, to tell the truth after all.

lgunderson-195-315283 I am almost 70 and in my home the McCarty era Communist Witch Hunt was followed closely and lamented. Guilty By Suspicion is about this period of time in America when only a whisper or vague hint of suspicion and you were tainted.It is a well acted and well put together movie. You get a clear idea of what it was like to be compelled to testify before the congressional committee who's goal was to force people to give the names of people who may or may not have been members of the communist party.Hollywood was torn asunder during this period with unthinkable repercussions in every area of artistic creation.Robert Di Nero is outstanding in his portrayal of a director who is faced with his moral convictions and what he should do. Annette Bening plays his ex-wife and the mother of his son. Included among other members of the cast are Chris Cooper, George Wendt, Patricia Wettig and Martin Scorsese.

knnhon Kazan named LOTS of names at the HUAC hearings.The screen-writer,, Mr. Abraham Polonsky, took his name off the credit list---he said,this was about 'communists', not lib's But,JERKS, like McCarthy,and BIGGER JERK, Roy Cohn;put all in the same category-'guilty by association'. We don't seem to learn much from history, do we? Mr. 'P', also,wrote, "Force of Evil", which was just on TCM 09/07/10. John Garfield starred-GREAT movie noir!---In real life,Mr. Garfield-Julius Garfinkel, also, refused to give up names. In Ida Lupino's biography, and the documentary by his daughter, there is quite an legitimate argument that this is true. He died of heart-attack at age 39. The speech given by Mr. DeNiro's character is almost verbatim of speech given by Lawrence Walsh before McCarthy. "At Long last, have you no decency...."

edwagreen Robert DeNiro will not give names to the House UnAmerican Activities committee. There goes his Hollywood career. His marriage to Ruth, Annette Bening, has already ended in divorce, so why not the rest of his life down the drain as well?The film is very similar in nature to Woody Allen's "The Front" of the 1970s. If you've seen the latter, you know what the ending shall be. It's called principles above all.Patricia Wettig gives a fine supporting performance as an actress turned in by her own husband with tragedy resulting.Nice to see Martin Scorsese go in front of the cameras for this film. He is fleeing to England to escape testifying.We get a wonderful sense of the 1950s in Hollywood. Marilyn Monroe is hot and so is this film.