{"id":462692,"date":"2022-01-09T09:28:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:28:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=229820"},"modified":"2022-01-09T09:28:04","modified_gmt":"2022-01-09T09:28:04","slug":"%e2%80%8bred-alert-the-redhead-the-red-scare-and-aaron-sorkins-big-lie-caught-red-handed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2022\/01\/09\/%e2%80%8bred-alert-the-redhead-the-red-scare-and-aaron-sorkins-big-lie-caught-red-handed\/","title":{"rendered":"\u200bRed Alert: The Redhead, the Red Scare and Aaron Sorkin\u2019s Big Lie Caught Red-handed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-229824\" src=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Screen-Shot-2021-12-29-at-1.33.25-PM-680x507.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"507\" \/><\/p>\n<p>In <em>Being the Ricardos<\/em> Aaron Sorkin takes a cerebral look at physical comedy, with a complex, multifaceted plot. The intellectual writer\/director dramatizes the marital difficulties of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), the rivalry between Ball and her <em>I Love Lucy <\/em>co-star Vivian Vance (Nina Arianda), the vicissitudes of television sponsorship and network protocols regarding sex. <em>Ricardos <\/em>also visualizes Ball\u2019s creative process and deftly, cleverly cuts from color to black and white, with flashbacks that enable Sorkin to revisit classic scenes from the sitcom. Defying celluloid stereotypes, the Cuban-born Desi is portrayed as a shrewd businessman and innovative TV producer who helped introduce the three-camera setup for shooting sitcoms before live studio audiences. Sorkin\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/video\/vi637453081\/?ref_=tt_vi_i_2\">biopic<\/a> also tackles the heady, heavy topics of TV\u2019s first major interethnic marriage and the Hollywood Blacklist.<\/p>\n<p>The other feature that Sorkin\u2019s look back at 1950s television most reminded me of was 2005\u2019s <em>Good Night, and Good Luck<\/em>. But with one glaring difference: While George Clooney\u2019s tribute to legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow illumines actual events,<em> Being the Ricardos<\/em> falsifies history. Sorkin\u2019s two-hour, 11-minute movie is put under the magnifying glass here by a Hollywood Blacklist historian who consulted several other Blacklist scholars and film historians, sought repeatedly (futilely) to interview Sorkin and did extensive research into the subject online and in books, such as Victor Navasky\u2019s <em>Naming Names<\/em> and Ceplair and Englund\u2019s <em>The Inquisition in Hollywood<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"woocommerce\">\n<div class=\"woocommerce-info wc-memberships-restriction-message wc-memberships-message wc-memberships-content-restricted-message\">\n\t\t\t\tTo read this article, log in <a class=\"always-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/my-account\/\">here<\/a> or subscribe <a class=\"always-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/subscribe\/\">here<\/a>.<br \/>\n<br \/>In order to read CP+ articles, your web browser must be set to accept cookies.\t\t    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\t\t <a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2022\/01\/09\/%E2%80%8Bred-alert-the-redhead-the-red-scare-and-aaron-sorkins-big-lie-caught-red-handed\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2022\/01\/09\/%E2%80%8Bred-alert-the-redhead-the-red-scare-and-aaron-sorkins-big-lie-caught-red-handed\/\">\u200bRed Alert: The Redhead, the Red Scare and Aaron Sorkin\u2019s Big Lie Caught Red-handed<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/\">CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n<p class=\"syndicated-attribution\">This post was originally published on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/2022\/01\/09\/%E2%80%8Bred-alert-the-redhead-the-red-scare-and-aaron-sorkins-big-lie-caught-red-handed\/\">CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In Being the Ricardos Aaron Sorkin takes a cerebral look at physical comedy, with a complex, multifaceted plot. The intellectual writer\/director dramatizes the marital difficulties of Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi Arnaz (Javier Bardem), the ri&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":303,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[228,229,230],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/303"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462692"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":462911,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462692\/revisions\/462911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}