Good Night, and Good Luck

I was honestly surprised at how few “Hollywood embellishments” were added to the story in Good Night, and Good Luck. Apparently, director George Clooney does not embrace the notion that, in order to make a “based on a true story” movie any good, one has to either have a lot of things explode, or use some cute, wise-beyond-his-years child who makes appropriately-timed commentary. Suffice it to say that this is a very serious movie.

Good Night, and Good Luck depicts CBS television broadcaster Ed Murrow’s series of reports that directly attacked Senator Joseph McCarthy’s questionable tactics in his crusade to root out all communist spies in the U.S. during the 1950’s. The film begins in 1958 at a banquet honoring Ed Murrow’s contributions to broadcast journalism, and after the opening credits have been well and fully displayed, the movie switches its focus to 1954 in order to carry on with the story. The country is in the midst of the Red Scare, with Senator McCarthy on a rampage. Journalists and fellow senators alike are all too intimidated to stand up to McCarthy, for fear that they might become a target for his wrath and summarily declared a communist. The CBS employees are each forced to sign “loyalty papers” in order to categorically state their allegiance to the U.S. and assure the company that they are not aligned in any way with the dreaded communist party. Ed Murrow, a well-respected and trusted journalist whose patriotism is beyond question, talks his producer, Fred Friendly (George Clooney), into running a series of reports in direct opposition to McCarthy’s conduct on their weekly television show, See It Now. After covering a story in which an Air Force airman is dismissed from duty following unsubstantiated accusations that his father subscribed to a communist newspaper, Murrow immediately brings himself under McCarthy’s radar and is vaguely threatened with being publicly accused as a member of the communist party.

With the support of CBS behind them, Murrow and Friendly run a special episode of See It Now focusing specifically on Senator McCarthy, in which they question his routine tactic of accusing people of being communists without offering any proof, using footage of McCarthy’s speeches and senate hearings to back up their challenge. Murrow offers McCarthy a chance to respond to any of the information that was presented in the show, inviting him to correct CBS if he feels that they said anything inaccurate. Murrow predicts that McCarthy will resort to character assassination aimed at Murrow himself rather than respond to the show’s claims and provide evidence to back up his list of "known communists." McCarthy’s eventual response to Murrow was indeed the beginning of the end, and eventually led to McCarthy's censure by the U.S. Senate.

Good Night, and Good Luck is shown entirely in black and white, which gave the viewer a firm sense of the 50’s, but also allowed the actual black-and-white footage from 1954 to blend in well with the movie. This is a very academic portrayal, not of Ed Murrow, but of his and his news team’s bold criticisms toward Senator McCarthy during a time in which no one, not even President Eisenhower, seemed willing to rein McCarthy in. The film deviates from the standard “true story” genre, in that it felt much more like a documentary rather than a portrayal—but then again, that might just be because nothing blew up. I definitely recommend it for anyone who likes historical pieces or enjoys films that give you something to think about when you walk out of the theater.