Herblock: The Black & the White (2013)

Documentary on the legendary political cartoonist Herbert Block (1909-2001), better known by his pen name of Herblcok, who produced a mountain of biting and observant drawings over a career that amazingly spanned from 1929 to 2001 (Herblocks last cartoon appeared just a few weeks before 9/11). The film has a lot of talking heads from the newspaper business and the greater media world, as well lots of great Herblock cartoons and interludes of actor Alan Mandell playing an elderly Herblock. Film is effusive in its praise of its subject, especially his seemingly uncanny ability to get things right in his satire, even before all the facts are known, (one example being his contention in the very early days after the Watergate burglary, long before this contention was seriously entertained by others in the media, that the burglary would trace back to Nixon). I might be more critical of all the Herblock praise if he wasn't such a great artist and commentator, a seemingly very nice man, and in fact more often then not right in his observations. This film is a solid survey exam of the mans work, and to a lesser extent his life. Still it's probably too 'inside baseball' to be of much interest to a general audience. **1/2