Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

The 1950s should have been a time filled with peace and prosperity, a time where humanity would finally realise their inhumanity to each other and live in brotherly harmony together at last after such a destructive and horrific war. Unfortunately, it was an era of paranoia and fear, especially in America, of the newest "evil": Communism. The paranoia was fuelled by four factors; The Soviet Union’s conquest of Eastern Europe; the spread of Communism in Asia; the execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, two American Communists who were convicted as committing espionage and giving information on atomic bombs to the Soviet Union; and the most important element in exploiting the fear of Communism and creating a nation of paranoia was Joseph Raymond “Joe” McCarthy, a US Senator who made the claim that Communists were infiltrating the country and were working in the highest levels of government. Many would not dare criticise McCarthy due to fear of being labelled a Communist by McCarthy, however, one man did stand up against the McCarthy witch hunts, a journalist and broadcaster more famous for his wartime broadcasts from London during the Blitz, Edward R. Murrow. Through the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), he would criticise and fight against McCarthy’s wild accusations and is believed to be instrumental in both the downfall of McCarthy and the rise of television’s responsibility to inform and illuminate the thoughts and minds of people and not hide the uncomfortable and ugly truths. And so, his struggle to do both is presented in the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck.

As you may have gathered from that unnecessarily long introduction, the film revolves around Ed Murrow’s (David Strathairn) fight to show the American public, via television, that McCarthy is committing great injustices and the fear of criticising McCarthy. But the film also follows the process and problems of accusing such an influential politician and the difficulty that members of CBS have to face, mostly from the position of Fred Friendly (George Clooney), Murrow’s producer and William Paley (Frank Langella), the chief executive of CBS who must cover themselves and CBS from McCarthy’s usual attacks against his critics while helping Murrow do his job. The film also follows Joseph Wershba (Robert Downey, Jr.) and Shirley Wershba (Patricia Clarkson) who must hide their marriage due to a CBS policy that states no two employees of CBS can be married to each other. There is also a minor subplot concerning Don Hollenbeck (Ray Wise), a CBS News presenter and friend of Murrow who is constantly attacked by a newspaper critic who is a McCarthy supporter and calls Hollenbeck a ’pinko’ (A Communist sympathiser) which would lead to his eventual suicide.

The major strength of the film is its dialogue; it’s so cold, calm, calculated, and filled with rhetoric. Every word spoken was so believable and persuasive, with emphasis on the believable; many films suffer from the fact that their dialogue is contrived, unrealistic and filled with dramatic monologues. Good Night, and Good Luck, however, has very believable dialogue that just warms us to the various characters created. And I know such a thing doesn’t always work like Twilight A.K.A. “Small Talk: the Movie”, but Good Night, and Good Luck uses it’s small talk and monologues in equal vitriol to give us likable and believable characters. In fact, the parts that seemed the most unbelievable were the scenes of McCarthy saying things like calling Ed Murrow “the leader of the jackal pack”. In fact, test audiences thought the actor playing McCarthy was over-the-top and hammy, without realising all the footage of McCarthy was real file footage of McCarthy, with none of it tampered or affected.

Another of Good Night, and Good Luck’s strength is atmosphere; it is able to create an amazing atmosphere of the 1950s with equal measure of care-free and paranoia. It mostly creates its 1950 atmosphere through two things: Its choice to be a black and white film and cigarettes. Nearly every single character in the film is smoking. My Media Studies teacher stated that cigarettes exist in a film for two reason; it’s pleasing eye-candy for the audience, seductively and aesthetically pleasing, with the smooth and curvaceous smoke floating so freely in the air; the other reason is to help the audience identify the time period, if there is heavy smoking inside then we know the film is set in a time when smoking wasn’t seen as on par with sexual assault. While I see those both existent in Good Night, and Good Luck, I also see a third reason the existence of smoking in the film, to examine how most government ‘persecution’ are just built out of moral panic like the illegality of promoting cigarettes, just how it was illegal to promote Communism in ‘50s. Nevertheless, I just may be talking out of my arse. However, its combination with the black and white cinematography does create a pleasing and realistic ‘50s atmosphere.

The film examines the responsibility of the media to inform the public, to not let television just become a box of escapism where people can hide from the uncomfortable truths that while they know is wrong, don’t do anything in order not to be ostracised or themselves be labelled. While some may say that television viewers are ‘morons’ who would be bored by programmes that focus on, say, the persecution of homosexuals in the Arab world and therefore would be wasting their time, but that’s not any reason to deny those who wish to be enlighten and know they don’t have to fear having a dissident opinion. Murrow says it best in the film’s epilogue, “Because if they are right, and this instrument is good for nothing but to entertain, amuse and insulate, then the tube is flickering now and we will soon see that the whole struggle is lost. This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box”. The film also shows us the power of journalism, which is especially relevant in this day and age when most people think journalism is just constant updates on Paris Hilton’s or Britney Spears’ vagina or it can be incredibly biased with said journalist spreading lies to service their own ends.

I also loved the film’s soundtrack, but that isn’t hard since I always have a soft spot for the songs of the 1950s; the era of big bands, jazz and blues; songs of optimism and how to live life; songs you listen to in a fedora while smoking in a crowded restaurant. The soundtrack is made up of classic 1950 jazz songs such as 'TV Is The Thing This Year’ and ‘Into Each Life, Some Rain Must Fall’, all covered by four-time Grammy Award winning (one for the soundtrack of this film) jazz musician Dianne Reeves with her musical director and pianist Peter Martin, as well as jazz drummer Jeff Hamilton, bassist Christoph Luty and saxophonist Matt Catingub all mixed together creating a soundtrack as smooth as an aged Scotch whiskey.

Good Night, and Good Luck is a flawless film; it has perfect acting, perfect dialogue, a perfect soundtrack and a perfect message; a message about the responsibility of television and journalism. If you have never had any knowledge about Edward R. Murrow, then this film is a great way to be introduced to this titan of journalism. This is a mandatory film; watch it now.

I’m Random Internet Critic and I criticise it because radio was great, but it’s out of date.