Joseph McCarthy

Acting

Joseph McCarthy

Born 1908-11-14 · Grand Chute, Wisconsin, USA

Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age 48 in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visible public face of a period in the United States in which Cold War tensions fueled fears of widespread communist subversion. He alleged that numerous communists and Soviet spies and sympathizers had infiltrated the United States federal government, universities, film industry, and elsewhere. Ultimately he was censured by the Senate in 1954 for refusing to cooperate with and abusing members of the committee established to investigate whether or not he should be censured. The term "McCarthyism", coined in 1950 in reference to McCarthy's practices, was soon applied to similar anti-communist activities. Today the term is used more broadly to mean demagogic, reckless, and unsubstantiated accusations, as well as public attacks on the character or patriotism of political opponents.

Acting credits

Good Night, and Good Luck. poster
7.1

The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow's stand against Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch-hunts in the early 1950s.

Good Night, and Good Luck.

2005

RBG poster
7.5

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.

RBG

2018

RBG poster
7.5

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg now 84, and still inspired by the lawyers who defended free speech during the Red Scare, Ginsburg refuses to relinquish her passionate duty, steadily fighting for equal rights for all citizens under the law. Through intimate interviews and unprecedented access to Ginsburg’s life outside the court, RBG tells the electric story of Ginsburg’s consuming love affairs with both the Constitution and her beloved husband Marty—and of a life’s work that led her to become an icon of justice in the highest court in the land.

RBG

2018

Hearts and Minds poster
7.6

Many times during his presidency, Lyndon B. Johnson said that ultimate victory in the Vietnam War depended upon the U.S. military winning the "hearts and minds" of the Vietnamese people. Filmmaker Peter Davis uses Johnson's phrase in an ironic context in this anti-war documentary, filmed and released while the Vietnam War was still under way, juxtaposing interviews with military figures like U.S. Army Chief of Staff William C. Westmoreland with shocking scenes of violence and brutality.

Hearts and Minds

1974

The Real Charlie Chaplin poster
7.7

A look at the life and work of Charlie Chaplin in his own words featuring an in-depth interview he gave to Life magazine in 1966.

The Real Charlie Chaplin

2021

Where's My Roy Cohn? poster
5.6

Roy Cohn personified the dark arts of American politics, turning empty vessels into dangerous demagogues - from Joseph McCarthy to his final project, Donald J. Trump. This thriller-like exposé connects the dots, revealing how a deeply troubled master manipulator shaped our current American nightmare.

Where's My Roy Cohn?

2019

The Lavender Scare poster
5.6

At the height of the Cold War, President Eisenhower deems homosexuals to be security risks. A vicious witch hunt ensues, ruining thousands of American lives.

The Lavender Scare

2019

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn poster
6.1

Legendary and controversial attorney Roy Cohn was a power broker in the rough and tumble world of New York City business and politics. Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s top counsel during investigations into Communist activities in the 1950s, Cohn is also known for being Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, fixer and mentor.

Bully. Coward. Victim. The Story of Roy Cohn

2019

Coup 53 poster
8.0

Tehran, Iran, August 19, 1953. A group of Iranian conspirators who, with the approval of the deposed tyrant Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, have conspired with agents of the British MI6 and the US CIA, manage to put an end to the democratic government led by Mohammad Mosaddegh, a dramatic event that will begin the tragic era of coups d'état that, orchestrated by the CIA, will take place, over the following decades, in dozens of countries around the world.

Coup 53

2019

Imminent Threat poster
6.7

A look at the War on Terror and the threat it's causing to our civil liberties and political discourse. Academy Award nominee James Cromwell presents Janek Ambros' directorial debut. The feature doc tackles the War on Terror's impact on civil liberties and the strange coalition it's creating between the progressive left and libertarian right. The doc examines the NSA, drones, the war on journalism and other encroachments on civil liberties started by the Bush era and expanded by the Democratic establishment.

Imminent Threat

2015

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer poster
6.2

J. Robert Oppenheimer was a national hero, the brilliant scientist who during WWII led the scientific team that created the atomic bomb. But after the bomb brought the war to an end, in spite of his renown and his enormous achievement, America turned on him - humiliated and cast him aside. The question the film asks is, "Why?"

The Trials of J. Robert Oppenheimer

2008

USA: danger from the right. Demoniac from Wisconsin poster
8.0

Professor Valentin Zorin, political observer of the USSR State Television and Radio Broadcasting, talks about Joseph McCarthy, an American politician, a senator from Wisconsin, who held an extremely anti-communist position, who advocated an intensification of the Cold War with the USSR. The name of McCarthy is associated with a reactionary trend in the political life of the United States of the early 1950s, dubbed "McCarthyism" and consisted in the persecution of people only suspected of sympathizing with communism and not committing any crimes.

USA: danger from the right. Demoniac from Wisconsin

1971

The Day After Trinity poster
7.6

Through interviews with Manhattan Project scientists and newly declassified archival footage, this documentary examines the life of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer and his leadership of the Manhattan Project. The film traces the development and testing of the first atomic bomb and follows Oppenheimer’s later opposition to nuclear proliferation during the early years of the Cold War.

The Day After Trinity

1980

The Soul of America poster
6.3

Writer, journalist, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and presidential biographer John Meacham offers his timely and invaluable insights into the country’s current political and historical moment by examining its past. Based on his 2018 bestseller of the same name.

The Soul of America

2020

Point of Order! poster
6.4

Point of Order is compiled from TV footage of the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings, in which the Army accused Senator McCarthy of improperly pressuring the Army for special privileges for Private David Schine, formerly of McCarthy's investigative staff. McCarthy accused the Army of holding Schine hostage to keep him from searching for Communists in the Army. These hearings resulted in McCarthy's eventual censure for conduct unbecoming a senator.

Point of Order!

1964

McCarthy poster
8.0

"McCarthy" chronicles the rise and fall of Joseph McCarthy, the Wisconsin senator who came to power after a stunning victory in an election no one thought he could win. Once in office, he declared that there was a vast conspiracy threatening America — emanating not from a rival superpower, but from within. Free of restraint or oversight, he conducted a crusade against those he accused of being enemies of the state, a chilling campaign marked by groundless accusations, bullying intimidation, grandiose showmanship and cruel victimization. With lawyer Roy Cohn at his side, he belittled critics, spinning a web of lies and distortions while spreading fear and confusion. After years in the headlines, he was brought down by his own excesses and overreach. But his name lives on linked to the modern-day witch hunt we call “McCarthyism.”

McCarthy

2020

Stewart & Mitchum: The Two Faces of America poster
6.0

With his naïve air, his rangy and reassuring silhouette, James Stewart symbolizes success, someone who everybody wants to look like. Behind his legendary nonchalance, Robert Mitchum is the figure of the bad boy, the kind-hearted hooligan who anyone would like to have for accomplice. What is the legacy left by these two big myths of the Hollywood cinema and in which way they fed the American dream?

Stewart & Mitchum: The Two Faces of America

2017

Grierson poster
7.3

A portrait of John Grierson, the first Canadian Government Film Commissioner and founder of the National Film Board in 1939. Interweaving archival footage, interviews with people who knew him and footage of Grierson himself, this film is a sensitive and informative portrait of a dynamic man of vision. Grierson believed that the filmmaker had a social responsibility, and that film could help a society realize democratic ideals. His absolute faith in the value of capturing the drama of everyday life was to influence generations of filmmakers all over the world. In fact, he coined the term 'documentary film'.

Grierson

1973

Heir To An Execution poster
7.0

When Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were put to death in 1953 for selling atomic secrets to the USSR, their two children were orphaned after every family member refused to take them in. Documentarian Ivy Meeropol, raised to believe in her grandparents' innocence, begins investigating what actually happened, interviewing family members and friends. With declassified papers indicating Julius was participating in espionage in some capacity, Ivy tries to understand the beliefs that drove the couple.

Heir To An Execution

2004

No artwork available
7.0

Documentary of the U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, who rose to prominence in the early 1950s by trumpeting allegations of a vast conspiracy by alleged Communist agents whom he claimed had infiltrated the U.S. government, media, film industry, labor unions and other organizations.

McCarthy: Death of a Witch Hunter

1975

Ethel poster
6.9

Filmmaker Rory Kennedy interviews her mother, Ethel Kennedy, who discusses family, marriage and politics.

Ethel

2012

Too Near the Sun poster
7.0

Documentary, first broadcast in 1966, that tells the history of the superbomb, exploring the race by scientists to imitate the nuclear reactions of the sun and build the first thermonuclear weapon. The film reveals how the careers and reputations of some of the scientists involved were seared in the process.

Too Near the Sun

1966