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Good Night, and Good Luck

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Good Night, and Good Luck.
Directed byGeorge Clooney
Written byGeorge Clooney
Grant Heslov
Produced byGrant Heslov
Steven Soderbergh
Ben Cosgrove
Jennifer Fox
Todd Wagner
Mark Cuban
Marc Butan
Jeff Skoll
StarringDavid Strathairn
George Clooney
Robert Downey Jr.
Patricia Clarkson
Frank Langella
Jeff Daniels
Tate Donovan
Distributed byWarner Independent Pictures
Release dates
October 7, 2005
Running time
90 min
LanguageEnglish

Good Night, and Good Luck. is an Academy Award-nominated 2005 film directed by George Clooney that portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow and the anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin Joseph McCarthy, especially relating to McCarthy's actions with the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.

The movie, which was filmed entirely in black and white, focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when media is a voice of dissent against the government.

The title is taken from the line with which Murrow routinely closed his broadcasts.

Characters

Template:Spoiler The main characters include:

Synopsis

Good Night, and Good Luck. takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in the 1950s. Murrow, and his dedicated staff - headed by his co-producer Fred Friendly and reporter Joe Wershba in the CBS newsroom - defy corporate and sponsorship pressures, and discredit the tactics used by McCarthy during his crusade to root out communist elements within the government. Murrow first defends Milo Radulovich who was discharged from the US Army because his father subscribed to a Serbian newspaper. A very public feud develops when the Senator responds by accusing the anchor of being a communist. In this climate of fear and reprisal, the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity will prove historic and monumental. Historical footage also shows the questioning of Annie Lee Moss a Pentagon communication worker accussed of being a Communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an FBI infiltrator of the American Communist Party. The film's subplots feature recently married staffers having to hide their marriage to save their jobs at CBS; and the suicide of Don Hollenbeck who was accussed of being a pinko. The film is bookended by a speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in which Murrow harshly admonishes them not to squander the potential of television to inform and educate the public.

Awards and nominations

  • 2006 Academy Awards nominations:
    • Best Motion Picture of the Year
    • Best Achievement in Directing, George Clooney
    • Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role, David Strathairn
    • Best Original Screenplay
    • Best Achievement in Art Direction
    • Best Achievement in Cinematography
  • 2006 Golden Globe Award nominations:
    • Best Motion Picture (Drama category)
    • Best Director (Motion Picture category), George Clooney
    • Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture (Drama category), David Strathairn
    • Best Screenplay (Motion Picture category), George Clooney and Grant Heslov
  • 2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations:
    • Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role (Motion Picture category), David Strathairn
    • Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

Critics

File:Gngl.jpg
David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night, and Good Luck.

Although the film has been received with generally glowing reviews (it was named Best reviewed film of 2005 with a 94% on Rotten Tomatoes) a number of commentators have questioned the accuracy and overall tone of the film. They contend that by the time Murrow had began to focus on Joe McCarthy (in March of 1954) McCarthy had lost a large amount of support from his colleagues and the Administration, mainly stemming from his investigations into the US Army.

Perhaps because of its limited cast and condensed, compressed storyline and "view" (all action and story was depicted on a set that replicated the CBS News studios), the film at times seems to imply that Murrow was the lone voice of dissent. Murrow undoubtedly contributed a great deal to the public's knowledge of McCarthy, but he was only one of a number of journalists and government figures who were critical of the increasingly unpopular politician.

Trivia about the film

Rather than cast an actor to portray Senator McCarthy, the film uses actual footage of McCarthy. Ironically, industry figures and other audiences who attended preliminary screenings were unaware of this, and in feedback comments indicated that the "actor" playing McCarthy was "over-the-top".

Although George Clooney has been an actor for nearly twenty years, he had a wealth of knowledge about the subject matter of this film; Clooney was a journalism major in college, and his father, Nick Clooney, was for many years a television journalist, appearing as an anchorman in Ohio.

DVD release date

March 14, 2006

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