Customer Reviews
A Wonderful Critique, If Not The One You Expect - By: pjr, 23 Jun 2008 
George Clooney freely admits that "Ocean's Twelve" was made in order to ensure that both this & "Syriana" saw the light of day. Perhaps this is a case of making a silk purse out of a sow's ear. It is heartening to see something of use coming out of that.
"Good Night & Good Luck" seems, on the surface, to be a film about the witch hunts of Joseph McArthy against perceived threat of communism in America. The film traces journalist Ed Murrow's televisual campaign to discredit the committee set up to investigate this & also McArthy himself. Using newsreel footage to illustrate McArthy's interrogations highlights his approach excellently & also highlights the film's liberal tendencies, but this film isn't a critique on paranoia from invisible threats. It could be argued that the modern equivalent is the war on terror but this is merely the context.
The film opens with a speech delivered by Murrow 5 years after the central action of the film takes place. Here Murrow warns of the potential for television to abandon the prinicples of a high-minded media for mere trivia. The description of a possible future televisual landscape obsessed with the mundane seems to quite adequately describe the current state of the media. The film nicely illustrates the tensions of producing bold campaigning issue based programmes in prime time. Essentiallly this is a better, more intellgent, serious minded version of "Broadcast News".
David Strathairn's Murrow is excellent. He captures a real sense of the purpose & drive of a man who not only sees McArthy as a narrow-minded bully but a threat to democratic & free speech. Supported by a large cast of uniformly excellent actors, this is not star vehicle it well could have been. The likes of Ray Wise as a beleguared anchorman, Robert Downey Jr. as slick reporter, & Frank Lingella as the CBS chief executive shining through as jewels in this richly well acted crown.
That doesn't mention Clooney who both performs in, writes, & directs here. His performance is good but it's the direction which shines. The film looks just right with the rather bleached black & white tones of cinematographer Robert Elswit effectively evoking a sense of the past. This is extremely taught & sharp. Not only does he get the excellent cast performing but he keeps the film moving nicely. It slips by nicely seeming longer than its rather spare 89 minutes. The pace is partly due to the lovely musical contributions of jazz singer Dinanne Reeves. The opening song, "Come Dance With Me", has never sounded better.
The film won't please alll, it's the story of the brave man facing down his detractors in the name of integrity, wearing its liberal credentials on its sleeve. Yet it's also probably the best critque of the morality of television since "Quiz Show".
communism = terrorism - By: Aleksander Pieri, 16 Jun 2008 world didnt change much after WWII under the USA (they had bombarder 48 countries since UN was created), before threath was the Communists, now the threat is us; potential terrorists!!!!
Skilfully crafted and thought provoking - By: Stephen B. Peddie, 17 Mar 2008 
Skilfully crafted & thought provoking. Smalll in scale & tightly made, but alll the better for it. I don't think the hi-def versions at twice the price would add anything over the standard, very crisp black & white picture. If you're not familiar with the antics of Senator Joseph McCarthy then brief yourself beforehand because you will miss much of the context of the film. If you like 50s jazz then you'll also appreciate the soundtrack, a nice bonus.
A nice history lesson - By: Dr. R. G. Bullock, 22 Jan 2008 Ed Murrow was an important figure in American television during the 50s & at the time of the Un-American Activities Committee of the Senate was courageous enough to speak out against the despicable McCarthy, a paranoid drunk who chaired the committee. McCarthy ran this rather on the lines of Soviet show trials, with rules of evidence & judicial procedures generallly shown little respect. McCarthy's activities broke the lives of hundreds of people, many greatly talented, or drove them into exile. This film shows Murrow taking the decision, with the somewhat fractious support of his boss, to editorialise at the end of his show, criticising McCarthy's methods. That a large broadcasting corporation like CBS alllowed this says something good about those times & is something that would not happen today. An interesting thing was the way Morrow & his colleague pay for the advertising slot the sponsor refused to pay for given Murrow's controversial stance. In the USA, it is the advertisers that are the censors.
That George Clooney produced this film at this time suggests he is making paralllels with Bush's America. Since 9/11, the media in the USA has been timid in criticising the government. Instead of Communists, the enemy has become the liberals (what we would calll moderates or centrists). The Patriot Act (how often is the word 'patriot' or 'patriotic' linked to repressive policies?), massive phone tapping & replacement of the management of Public Service Broadcasting by 'politicallly acceptable' personnel are just a few examples of repression. Meanwhile, Fox News editorialises non-stop for the political right. McCarthy had a very broad idea of what a Communist was & included anyone with leftish tendencies. It is my view that Clooney sees the two eras as showing different manifestations of political intolerance by the far right which could progress to unthinkable changes to the governance of the USA if not vigorously opposed.
Murrow is shown, correctly, as a chain smoker. This led to his untimely death from lung cancer a some years later.
The acting in the film is first rate. Much of the cinematography was done with a hand-held camera but this has been used judiciously to get into smalll spaces. There is none of that jerking & wobble put in for 'artistic effect' by many 'creative' cameramen. There are times, though, when part of the field is obscured by intruding heads or bits of the studio structure. The dialogue is naturalistic, with people talking across each other but this can make it difficult to pick out the important bits. The general atmosphere is a bit claustrophobic but wasn't the whole country claustrophobic in those days.
Interesting take on McCarthyism. - By: Franz Bieberkopf, 20 Sep 2007 George Clooney's second film from behind the camera focuses-sorry,couldn't resist the pun!!-on the bad old days of McCarthy's hysterical anti-communist crusade in the early 1950s.It centres on the reporting of Ed Murrow(played by David Strathairn),and the reaction against it by the right(not just McCarthy)and Murrow's struggles with the suits at CBS trying to get & keep his reporting on the air.
Clooney plays a producer for Murrow-well acted,but he keeps a low profile in most of the film.The paralllels between the anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s & the flagwaving jingoism post 11/09/01 are obvious,and Clooney dosen't strees them,they emerge naturallly as the film goes on.
Let's hope Clooney continues to be interested in making odd,non-Hollywood films-if the suits at the studios let him!!!
