director karl francis once again totally fail to distinguish himself with this clumsily direct drama about mccarthy blacklisted writer director and herbert biberman . subtle and intelligent performance from jeff goldblum and greta scacchi be totally waste in this otherwise uninspiring little film . the cinematography be fine while the editing make the best of what it have to work with and which be not much . the problem lie entirely with the direction and which fail to pack even the slight emotional punch and which be quite a feat consider the source material . what bad be that it be liberally sprinkle with the kind of sickly b movie idealism that i think mainstream cinema have grow out of in the mid seventy . the result come over a amateurish and basically unintelligent and not even worth a straight to video . this movie be a master class in how to ruin a great idea with incompetent direction . please mr francis and just stop make film nobody be interested .