Dir. George Clooney, US, 2005, 93 mins
Cast: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr
Review by Carol Allen
Clooney's own father was a television journalist and this film co-written by Clooney and Grant Heslov is about a man Clooney senior much admired, television anchorman Ed Murrow and his conflict with Senator McCarthy's communist witch hunts in the fifties.
It would have been very surprising if I didn’t like Good Night, and Good Luck, as I am very interested in the McCarthy era and the Senator's paranoid search for "reds" in every area of American life, including Hollywood itself. And the film well lives up to my expectations.
For a start it looks marvellous. Elegantly shot in black and white, it recreates the period in lively and authentic detail - the rattle of telecine projectors, the news film editing machine, cleverly used archive footage including of McCarthy himself, and the frantic atmosphere of the newsroom and the studio in what was then the early days of television journalism, all seen through a constant haze of cigarette smoke. I also like the use of jazz, both on the soundtrack and performed live by Dianne Reeves in the news team's favourite bar.
The film is, though, much more than an exercise in nostalgia. Without making the point too obviously, the similarities between McCarthyism and the reaction to the terrorist threat of today are implicit. There is, however, a marked difference in attitudes towards journalism then and now, with some intelligent things being said about the nature and use of television, power, responsibility and the duty to tell the truth, often using Murrow’s own words in the mouth of actor David Straithairn. Straithairn is first class in the role. Unlike many of today's anchors, this man is a journalist through and through rather than a television celebrity. Very serious, almost stern, a smile is a very rare event. One of the film's rare lighter moments however comes when in order to help the station finance his investigative work Murrow conducts a celebrity interview with Liberace using archive material of the famously flamboyant entertainer and discussing the latter's marriage prospects.
As Murrow's producer Fred Friendly, Clooney gives a supportive, self effacing performance, rather like his direction of the film, which is effective and totally unobtrusive. The storytelling is very focused, giving us little in the way of information about the characters’ personal lives except when it’s relevant to the central theme, as when fellow journalist Don Hollenbeck (Ray Wise), whose wife has left him, is pilloried in a newspaper column as a “pinko” because of her former activities or when the fact that two members of the team, Joe and Shirley Wershba (Downey Jr and Clarkson), are married and working together, which is against the rules but has been winked at because they are good at their jobs, becomes an issue, which can now be used against them, as Murrow and his colleagues start to get up the McCarthy nose.
Goodnight, And Good Luck, which was Murrow's sign off line, is both a political and a moral film, which doesn't oversimplify, as in the character of Murrow and Friendly's boss William Paley (Langella), trying to support his team but also control them and keep the network bosses happy. It's a serious and thought provoking piece of work, which reminds us of what a powerful tool journalism can and so often fails to be now in these days of increasingly tight bureaucratic and commercial controls, spin doctors and worship of celebrity.
Discuss this film here
Lionsgate Home Entertainment have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Good Night, and Good Luck for 26th June 2006 priced at £19.99.
Features include:
- Anamorphic Widescreen
- English DD5.1 & DTS 5.1 Surround
- English HOH subtitles
- Audio commentary by Grant Heslov and George Clooney
- Behind-the-scenes featurette
- Photo gallery
- Trailer
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