Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Good product

Purchased this DVD as a gift for my husband. We have watched it twice and it is good quality. Would purchase from this vendor again. July 14, 2008

A DISTILLATION OF PURE McCARTYISM and ITS ENEMIES

**WARNING** This review is full of plot spoilers!

GOODNIGHT AND GOOD LUCK follows veteran CBS-TV journalist Edward R. Murrow from 1953, when he took the Air Force to task for denying a soldier a security clearance based on secret evidence and no counsel; to 1958 when he left CBS. Along the way Murrow and staff go after Joseph McCarthy and his accusations, but allow McCarthy time to respond on the air. McCarthy sent a letter which in no way denied anything CBS-TV or Murrow had reported, but laid on more and more name-calling. Murrow suffered this with grace and soon therafter, Congress investigated Senator McCarthy.

But there was a price to pay. Bill Paley, head of the network (the whole corporation, in fact), advised against airing the McCarthy episode, and the show's sponsor, ALCOA, dropped the show after the McCarthy episode aired. The vehicle for such investigation, Murrow's show SEE IT NOW, wound up in the Sunday cellar of broadcasting and increasingly Murrow had to deal with trivialities like interviewing Liberace. About the same time in 1958 that Murray was receiving professional accolades on his career, Mr. Paley let him go, or did not stop his trying to go, ostensibly for budgetary concerns.

This is a low-key but high-impact behind-the-scenes drama that plays out in semi-documentary style, using black and white and incorporating some of the actual shows and government hearings, which of course are digitally scrubbed copies of the original film or kinescope. Nice comedic relief is supplied by Dianne Reeves' jazz singing, which ironically comments on the action, and by the very real-feeling camaraderie among the actors playing CBS staffers.

George Clooney, director, gave himself a nice subordinate role as Fred Friendly, who was often stuck in the middle between Murrow's desires as a seeker of accurate news and Bill Paley's as a businessman. David Straithairn is wonderful as Murrow and looks a great deal like him. Frank Langela's take on Bill Paley is especially praiseworthy. We come to understand how Paley sympathized with Murrow but ultimately had to give in to real-life concerns, like finding advertisers. In other words this film is careful to present nuance and not tar all the journalists or all the capitalists with the same brush, quite unlike Joseph McCarthy's overheated and usually false accusations.

This is just one man's opinion, but IMHO this film would be a great thing to show in high school or college as part of a U.S. History, media history or even current-events class. The notions of secret judgments made by accuations in sealed envelopes and no resort to counsel is, sadly, still with us, as is a tendency on the part of some powerful people to impugn a citizen's patriotism rather than answer substantive questions.

As of this writing, the widescreen (recommended) DVD is quite cheap: under eight dollars. Thank you Amazon!
June 22, 2008

Disappointing

I suspect people's enthusiasm for this movie is due to the real footage of the McCarthy hearings, footage that we don't see often enough and reminds us how careful we should be not to go down that route again. (McCarthy enjoyed huge support at some point, after all.) For people like me who had already seen the footage in the PBS documentary on Ed Murrow ("The Edward R. Murrow Collection", DVD, 2005), the movie fell absolutely flat. There is no original story line, no character development. I guess its redeeming feature was to push PBS to package the documentary, since it came out at about the same time. My advice to anyone considering buying the "Good Night, and Good Luck" DVD would be to buy "The Edward R. Murrow Collection" instead. June 20, 2008

5-star acting and directing; problematic ideas

Every reviewer who has already gushed over David Strathairn's performance is absolutely right: this film is worth seeing just for his acting alone. Too much of the time actors (and viewers) seem to think that bellowing and gesturing madly constitutes an award-winning performance. Straithairn does none of these things, but I could not keep my eyes off him in this film (and while he's no eyesore, he's not exactly George Clooney in the looks department). A riveting performance, absolutely amazing.

Clooney's vision as director is interesting to see as well. I like that he clearly made some deliberate choices that he had to know weren't going to endear this film to a broad, general audience (black and white, short length, far more "intellectual" content than emotional) but made them precisely because of his own unique vision.

One thing does trouble me, however: this film is, obviously, not a documentary, even though it does include actual film footage of McCarthy and the Senate hearings. Something about that seems manipulative to me. "Forrest Gump" did the same thing, yet that film would clearly be classified as "entertainment" in part because it's obviously fiction. And yet..."Good Night" is essentially fiction as well, despite its being based on real events. If "Good Night" isn't a documentary, and it isn't "Forrest Gump," what is it? I dislike the too-clear-cut distinctions between media that "entertains" and media that "informs" that both Murrow and Clooney seem to be pushing here. The real point to be made is that we need to be critical of ALL representations of "the truth" that are shown to us, whether they be "Forrest Gump" with its insultingly simplistic platitudes or McCarthy with his faulty rhetoric -- or even "Good Night," which clearly has a point to make and perhaps dresses itself up too much in the guise of "truth" in order to make that point.

In other words, what's more important in relation to this film isn't that Americans prefer being entertained over being informed; it's that perhaps we no longer know the difference. That's far more ominous, in my view.

And so, ironically, I think this film works best in the ways that it serves as entertainment, with its astounding acting and directing. As "information," I'm less certain. (But at least it did give me a chance to spout off in this pretentious way. Thanks, George.) June 5, 2008

A high point in the history of media

"Good Night and Good Luck" is a gem of a film. It is designed for thoughtful and sophisticated viewers and it certainly hits the spot. Going back to the 1950s when Senator Joe McCarthy was terrorizing government employees and the entertainment industry with his communism witch hunt, the film focuses on the heroic response of Edward R. Murrow and his willingness to confront McCarthy in the public arena where he might be truly defeated and made accountable for his actions. "Good Night and Good Luck" was the sign-off slogan of early television pioneer, Edward R. Murrow. The film is so cleverly made that a viewer does not really need to know the history of Joe McCarthy and Edward R. Murrow, the senator and the celebrated World War II broadcaster, to fully appreciate the struggle. Imagine what it must have been like to have this clash of the titans on national public television. One force preying on human fear and ignorance and the other appealing to man's better nature. When was the last time the media and the policy makers relied on man's better nature? It is a rare occurrence.
In this day and time it is difficult to imagine the fear of Communism that drove the McCarthy hearings and his efforts to destroy the lives and career of anyone remotely connected to socialism. There is an amazing part of this film where a cafeteria worker who has been promoted to send coded messages is grilled by the Senator and his aid Roy Cohn, when the poor woman is obviously not a member of the Communist party.
Filming in black and white evoked the 1950s and the quick breakaway shots captured the fast tempo of newsrooms that broadcast live to the nation every night. Director George Clooney made wise decisions to keep the film in the vernacular of the 1950s to help give it a time and place in the mind of the viewers. The integration of actual news footage, particularly of McCarthy, were integrated perfectly into the film.
Actor David Strathairn is superb as Murrow, a man of considerable bravery and control, who seems to be ever supported by his faith in his fellow man to think through the issues, to deliberate with caution and wisdom, and to make the best decisions. Wow, does any of us have such faith in their fellow man as Murrow seemed to have for his viewers during the McCarthy reign of terror.
Frank Langella as Bill Paley and Clooney as Fred Friendly offered the opportunities for dialogue and to penetrate the personal philosophy behind Murrow's public actions. They demonstrate that often great actions require great coverage which Paley, President of CBS, offered to Murrow. Furthermore, Murrow was the voice that brought the struggle of London during World War II and he dare not waste his public trust capital with the American public. He used his public trust well in the service of the American system and the American people.
"Good Night and Good Luck" is a sophisticated film that holds its audience in the highest regard, much in line with the political social philosophy of Murrow. The film opens however with a warning that television could become only a tool of entertainment and not for public education and information.


The supporting cast was superb, including Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Matt Ross, Reed Diamond, and Jeff Daniels. The relationship between CBS' CEO, William Paley (Frank Langella in) and Murrow is supportive, professional, and full of integrity on the part of both parties. As Murrow, Strathairn is almost a recreation of the man himself.

In the end, the film is intense and understated, and thus will be under appreciated by the masses. However it is destined to be a classic for the few. As you can see, I sometimes don't have the faith in my fellow citizens that was evident in the career of Edward R. Murrow.

April 23, 2008

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