User Reviews

Review this title
2 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
8/10
A tragic and duplicitous life
lkguy-911424 December 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This film depicts the life story of Herbert Norman, who was born to the family of a Methodist missionary in Japan in 1909. His life was one of intellectual endeavor and cosmopolitanism. As a member of leftist groups at Cambridge, he mingled among communists from Great Britain, Canada, the United States, Japan and other Asiatic countries.

Through his offices in Canadian External Affairs, he aided communist influence in the West. When his activities became known to the RCMP and especially the FBI, he realized that suicide was his only way out.

This production used original locations for this story that makes it very realistic.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
10/10
Good analysis of effects of McCarthyism even beyond the U.S.
actmohr2 July 2000
This film has done a marvelous job of analyzing the insidious effects of McCarthyism on the American scene and in this case spilling over into Canada. Of course you could not expect much from the movie system of the U.S. since most of the producers were in lock-step with the political and economic leaders of the country in their effort to do whatever possible to stop working people the world over from achieving their liberation from capitalism. Another good example was the story of John Henry Faulk and the classic and probably only truly pro-labor film ever produced in the USA: "Salt of the Earth," produced, written and performed by black-listed members of the Hollywood community, Herbert Biberman, Michael Wilson, Will Geer, and others. The TV movie "Tail-Gunner Joe" did a fairly good analysis of McCarthy, the opportunistic politician as an individual but didn't go into the politics of what was behind the red-baiting.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed