The entire career of the man who gave his name to « McCarthyism » only lasted four years, from 9th February 1950 to the 2nd December 1954, from the day of his famous speech to the day he was censured by the Senate – with 67 votes against 22 - for behaviour that was « contrary to senatorial traditions ». It was the end of his political career. A four-year reign of terror that entered history books under the name of « the great fear ».
In time, however, McCarthy started to become an embarrassment and the Eisenhower administration had no further use of him. He had gone too far and with the blessing of President Eisenhower. It all happened « live ». For the first time, tv cameras were allowed into the Senat to transmit the auditions live on TV, eight hours a day – the greatest political show in American history. Filmmaker Emile de Antonio made the film « Point of Order » based on these 87 hours of TV transmission, telling the fall of Senator McCarthy.
Our film is an adaptation of Emile de Antonio’s documentary, « revisited » for today’s viewer – introducing briefly the senator’s political career and the historical context of the Cold War.