Have A Great Day and Thanks a Million!

Good Night and Good Luck Starring: David Strathairn, Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Ray Wise Director: George Clooney Quality: *** ½ Adventurous: ! Similar Films: The Fog of War Any good journalist and historian knows and respects the name Edward R. Murrow. Since I am neither a good journalist, nor a good historian, I first learned about Murrow this weekend, at a showing of director George Clooney’s latest drama Good Night and Good Luck. Named for the closing words that Murrow spoke each week in the early 1950’s to his television audience, Good Night is an editorial statement of utmost relevance in the current state of American media. Good Night and Good Luck is a semi-fictional account of Edward R. Murrow’s exposé on Senator Joseph McCarthy during the closing weeks of McCarthy’s Red Scare witch-hunts. In 1953, as prominent members of the national press were being forced to sign patriotic oaths to the United States, Murrow and his team of reporters began exposing McCarthy’s shifty politics. On his weekly program, See It Now, Murrow created an episode titled "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy." The episode featured interviews and speeches made by McCarthy, and showed the senator as a hypocrite and a liar. Though responses from viewers were 15 to 1 in favor of Murrow’s reporting, the episode was one of the most controversial programs ever to air on television, and it cost Murrow his career as a prime-time journalist. Immediately following a rebuttal by Sen. McCarthy two weeks after the original episode, See It Now was moved to Sunday afternoon and then cancelled a few weeks later. This movie is a beauty to watch. Taking his cue from the inventive geniuses, the Coen brothers, who shot The Man Who Wasn’t There in color and then converted it to black-and-white in the developing lab, Clooney created a gorgeous mise en scène by shooting Good Night on a black and white set using color film and then later converting it to B/W. The final product becomes a swirl of cigarette smoke, 50’s jazz, and dark suits on pale white men. Clooney used actual footage of Sen. McCarthy, as well as other clips from the time period. This saved him from finding (and paying) a man to play the part. Because of this creative use of historical footage, the viewer is treated to a part-documentary, part-dramatic interpretation of the events surrounding Murrow’s final broadcasts. Hence, the film is almost entirely nonfiction (as opposed to “Based on a True Story”, which can mean that the film is almost entirely fictional, but using characters who are real people). Where there were no eye-witness accounts, Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov filled in the blanks with snappy dialogue and famous quotes from Murrow, a notoriously sharp speaker. David Strathairn (Sneakers, Delores Claiborne) stars as Edward R. Murrow, the prominent CBS newscaster who rose to fame as an overseas radio correspondent during World War II. As Hitler annexed Austria on the night of “Anschluss” in 1938, Murrow and fellow newscasters in Berlin, London, and Italy, aired the first episode of World News Roundup, a world radio correspondence which continues to air each morning and night on the CBS Radio Network. Following the war, Murrow continued broadcasting a weekly radio program known as Hear It Now, produced by Fred Friendly (played by George Clooney). As television began to take over in the early 1950s, Murrow renamed his show See It Now, and reluctantly began weekly TV broadcasts. Murrow believed that radio was a better medium for the people than television because it relied on ideas, instead of pictures. He became a bitter opponent of television infotainment, and made many speeches toward the end of his life that derided weak journalism. In 1961, Murrow was asked by President John F. Kennedy to head the US Information Agency, a parent organization to the Voice of America. In 1965, at the age of 57, Murrow died of lung cancer due to his heavy use of cigarettes. David Strathairn, in his first motion picture lead, does a spectacular job as Murrow. With cigarette in hand, Strathairn’s mellow voice and subtle gestures create an instantly likeable character. His nobility radiates. And though his character is not developed beyond the walls of CBS studios, one gets the feeling that behind Murrow’s convictions remain important facts that have built a structure of moral solidity. He is a pleasure to watch. Also fun are Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson, a clandestine couple who spend much of their time assisting each other and the CBS news team. Ray Wise (Leland Palmer from Twin Peaks) plays Don Hollenbeck, a troubled journalist whose recent breakup with his wife leads to a downward spiral. It is a perfect role for the sad little man who once killed Laura Palmer. We hardly need to be reminded that we are living in an age of confusion—a lot of us have traded in our beliefs for bitterness and cynicism or for a heavy package of despair, or even a quivering portion of hysteria. Opinions can be picked up cheap in the market place while such commodities as courage and fortitude and faith are in alarmingly short supply. –Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe (1951) The importance of Good Night and Good Luck should be obvious to anyone whose eyes have been at least half open for the last 5 years. In the age of government bribed media, non-confrontational government press conferences, and CIA spooks outed by high party officials, it is important for Americans to reflect on their heritage as a nation of dissenters. George Clooney must have known this as he put together a simmering attack on the media process and its pitfalls. The subject matter alone will put Clooney in the running for Best Director and Best Picture at this year’s Academy Awards. If it does not, then we should all start learning to eat borscht and won-ton real quick, for the red army is nigh! If you have any faith left in the democratic process; if your mouth shrivels up and your teeth fall out every time GW takes the podium; if your heart is bleeding out through your ears for the men and women of the armed forces; if you can hardly believe your own luck at being born in this time at this place; GO SEE GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK. Have a great day and thanks a million!