| As important a film as it is entertaining and enlightening, Good Night, and Good Luck is a great night or day out at the movies. |
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Good Night, and Good Luck.
Directed by George Clooney
Warner Independent (2005)
The electronic age, as high- and higher-tech tools became slowly and then more widely available, was able to bring people closer together by bringing to viewers virtually instant images and sound from breaking and ongoing news events. But just as people were being brought together, they were also being torn apart by the diversity of opinion these images and sound bites naturally elicited. As it should be.
In famed newsman Edward R. Murrow's day, in the early days of television and television news, which he helped to shape, the high-tech tools were hardly high-tech at all; film of news events had to be sent or carried by hand to TV news organizations, which would then have to edit the footage and assemble programming around it. Overnight delivery, by way of cameramen smuggling footage from highly-sensitive areas of the world, for example, was the best anyone could hope for. There was no satellite transmission of pictures, or of sound; no digital editing systems; no cameras easily carried from here to there. And no computers! Just typewriters! Imagine!
Murrow, an honest journalist who stuck to his principles at all costs, was host of a popular CBS television news program, "See it Now," which began on radio as "Hear It Now" and moved into TV with the forces of truth and justice behind it. Murrow's no-nonsense, considered delivery, written with the wit and wisdom of a writer's writer, caused viewers to not only see the facts set out on display for them, but also to think and form their own opinions. But there was nonsense: Murrow, a serious journalist, also hosted a show during which he interviewed celebrities; as depicted in this film, it wasn't Murrow's favorite thing to do, but he did it to pay the bills. He is shown in this film interviewing Liberace, who dodges a question about whether marriage is in his cards. The look on Murrow's face at the conclusion of the interview says it all.
George Clooney's insightful film tells the story of Murrow's role in bringing the news to the people, but doesn't specifically set its sights on the man and what made him tick. Rather, it chronicles, in a low-key manner, the way Murrow's influence affected those around him. William Paley, the head of CBS, fights for Murrow and runs interference when necessary, but when push finally comes to shove and the backlash against Murrow's condemnation of Senator Joseph McCarthy results in advertiser backlash, Paley tells Murrow the future holds only five "See It Now" shows for him.
Filmed in lovely, muted black and white tones, this wonderful film is chock full of terrific performances by a bevy of seasoned actors--some familiar, some not (I picked Robert Knepper, using his real voice, out of this illustrious group; Knepper currently plays, in spectacular, over-the-top fashion, the quite southern, maniacal inmate T-Bag on Fox's tremendous TV show, Prison Break). The always solid Jeff Daniels is here, as Sigfried "Sig" Mickelson, who ran CBS Network's News and Public Affairs Division; so is Frank Langella, filling the rather large shoes of Paley. Also appearing is the great Ray Wise, who many will remember as Laura Palmer's doomed father on David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Wise essays, with great sensitivity, the role of fragile CBS news anchor Don Hollenbeck.
Clooney appears as Murrow's co-producer, the legendary Fred Friendly, in a performance that might be the best of his film career. It is a studied turn that is most effective. But the movie belongs to David Strathairn, who consumes Murrow's very being, right down to his chain smoking (on camera, no less) and studied vocal delivery. He was the right choice to inhabit Murrow, and I hope he is rewarded for his superlative performance with an Oscar nomination.
Rather than show off with his material, co-written with Grant Heslov, who plays future 60 Minutes producer Don Hewitt (then the director of "See It Now"), Clooney has made a straightforward film with little flash or bravado. The former er star prefers to shoot straight and let the actors set the stage. Translated into images, the movie's many-layered subtext is given ample room to breathe. The shot of a janitor, his back to the camera, watching Murrow on the televisions in front of him on the wall of an office hallway--the janitor in furrowed darkness, the light from the televisions flickering from the screens--is almost the most important image in the film, for it is the everyman that Murrow was speaking to. To get his or her attention, to cause people to think. To get people to feel.
As important a film as it is entertaining and enlightening, Good Night, and Good Luck is a great night or day out at the movies. Murrow signed off his programs with that phrase, and he meant it; good night, all people, and good luck with your lives.
Alan Haber
November 6, 2005
Go to: The Official Good Night, and Good Luck site