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George Clooney leaps into the top ranks of
writer/directors with Good Night, and Good Luck, a smart, pointed, timely
and superbly realized biopic about broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow's courageous
confrontation of the sleazy, destructive political opportunism of Senator Joseph McCarthy,
the unprincipled witchhunter of the mid-twentieth century.
Maybe you had to have lived through it to appreciate the crushingly
oppressive air that hung over the United States in the 1950's. The cold war was intense
and fear of the USSR and the international Communist movement was widespread in the United
States. McCarthy fanned those fears and, as chair of a Senate subcommittee, held extensive
hearings, watched by millions on television, in which witnesses were questioned about
their connections to Communist or Communist-sympathetic organizations and asked to name
others as well. On the flimsiest of evidence (rumors, innuendo, hearsay), a web of lies,
and guilt by association, McCarthy ruined careers, destroyed lives, and turned the
principles of justice and democracy on their head, all in the name of anti-Communist
patriotism.
As Clooney makes clear, the fear of being targeted by McCarthy pervaded
the newsrooms and media. CBS (among many corporations) required its employees to sign
loyalty oaths and swear that they had never been members of Communist organizations. In
the face of that kind of pressure, Murrow challenged McCarthy, revealing the lies and
deceptive techniques. His courageous stand led the charge that ultimately deflated the
demagogue.
Filmed in black and white, Good Night, and Good Luck utilizes
archival television footage of McCarthy and the hearings, footage which is seamlessly
integrated with the contemporary reenactment of the events in the CBS newsroom. Much of
Murrow's own text is used for the broadcast segments, prose of articulate and persuasive
power that hasn't been matched since. Murrow's determined fortitude in the face of
corporate and political pressures is fully realized in David Strathairn's exceptional
performance, one surely to bring an Academy Award nomination. Clooney plays Fred Friendly,
co-producer of Murrow's program, Frank Langella exudes power as CBS boss William S. Paley,
and some of Hollywood's finest actors round out the cast of newsroom characters.
The intensity of the conflict and the grave political circumstances are
provided some relief in the contrast with a clip from Murrow's other popular show, Person
to Person (the show that made the money and gave Murrow leverage with CBS), a fluffy
bit of interview with Liberace. Satisfying and appropriately moody breaks are also
provided in a series of interludes of superb jazz singer Dianne Reeves singing songs of
the period.
But Clooney as director keeps the focus tight and paces the narrative
with the inevitability of Greek tragedy, albeit with an upbeat finale. Clooney, as
screenwriter (along with co-writer Grant Heslov), concentrated on this moment of
historical conflict, avoiding digression into other aspects of Murrow's biography, a smart
strategy not unlike that in another fine recent biopic, Capote.
In a speech to his peers, Murrow points out that the news media had
grown "wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent" and had developed "an
aversion to disturbing information," observations that seem particularly timely today
when the media supply phony, trumped up debate and cheesy sensationalism. There's no one
now who fills the shoes of Edward R. Murrow and that is profoundly discouraging at a time
of national divisiveness, war abroad, and self-serving political doublespeak at the
highest levels.
- Arthur Lazere
