a hard to find film which coast on the still pervasive mythology of senator joe mccarthy a a political demon king . boyle ( a joe ) give a compelling but historically inaccurate portrayal of the wisconsin senator and the caricature mccarthy many take a the real one . meredith and a wily army lawyer joseph welch and who outsmart mccarthy at the army hearing in 1954 and be very good and a always . in fact and mccarthy and cohn be quite right in worry about the appalling security situation in the army and and the 1954 army hearing become enmesh in the smokescreen use by the army to deflect the investigation away from their security failing and which the committee be investigate and by counter charge that mccarthy and cohn be try to get favour for their staffer and david schine and whilst in the service . the film be self satisfied agenda drive polemic and base in the pervasive myth which have pass for the truth with many people for decade that the red scare be essentially phony and mccarthy and huac etc be always blast away at the wrong target and be no more than lying and career ruin publicity hound and who be trample over the constitutional right of startled innocent liberal and who be accuse of be security risk or communist . people who know little about the matter still feel confident in repeat misinformation on mccarthy and the red scare to this day clooney murrow hagiography be an example . the misinformation be pervasive and no wonder people have swallow it . a recent obit of budd schulberg in the serious leave wing uk newspaper the guardian headline that the hollywood writer name name to mccarthy perpetuate the lie that mccarthy investigate hollywood a head of huac the truth be that mccarthy be never even a member of huac and he have little interest in the politics of hollywood type his investigation be confine almost exclusively to arm of the u government . the mythology about the red scare be baseless be now completely explode by recently open soviet and u government document and if anything mccarthy and co underestimate the sheer scale of soviet and fellow traveller infiltration in the u and but decade of public misinformation about this period will be hard to correct . one day maybe some really brave hollywood soul will make a movie tell the truth about how many american men and woman clandestinely aid the mass murderer stalin and and work to impose his vicious system of government on the western world and give an accurate account maybe of joe mccarthy career but i would not hold my breath . till then and we have this mythical and drunken lie scoundrel of popular imagination so familiar in the medium . tail gunner joe .