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Point of Order

New Yorker Films / Year: 1964

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Synopsis

The art of political theater was first introduced into Americans' homes when television cameras captured 188 hours over six weeks of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings. Director Emile de Antonio (In the Year of the Pig, Underground) was able to acquire and assemble the footage from those landmark broadcasts to create Point of Order, one of the most riveting and seminal documentaries ever made. A devastating portrait of the legendary Senator Joseph McCarthy, this extraordinary Cold War-era film is the definitive documentary about television's coming of age, and its burgeoning role in exposing the abuse of power.

Review

A stunning film that strings together television clips from the Army-McCarthy hearings in 1954. These hearings exposed the demagogy of Joseph McCarthy and Roy Coen for all the world to see. The film is not only important from an historical point of view, but also as a prime and early example of cinema verité. Lively and exasperating the hearings gave Americans five weeks to watch Joe McCarthy deflate like a balloon on TV.

It is no secret now that McCarthy and his counsel Roy Cohn were closeted homosexuals. It is at these hearings where Roy Cohn is exposed as pressuring the Army to keep his lover David Schine from serving any serious duty. The affair was well known in Washington and among the presss, but in 1954 it was time to unmask Roy Cohn and Joe McCarthy for who they were. While one could view these hearings as homophobic, one must also look at the year in which they took place. These hearings were not conducted to expose Roy Cohn's homosexuality, but his attempt at getting special privileges for his secret lover.