Good Night, and Good Luck
Hollywood films are so often
created and marketed towards the younger demographics that it is sometimes
shocking when a truly adult movie is made. A movie about important,
serious, mature men and women doing vital work to make the world a better
place; this is still a rarity.
Another thing that is rather
shocking about this film is its stately, measured, considered pace. In
a cinematic world where audiences have the attention span of a goldfish, it
is a brave stylistic choice — made even doubly risky by filming the movie
in black and white. This is necessary due to an important decision
they made with the film, instead of hiring actors to play some vital historical
roles they splice in real news footage of 50s personalities and stories, in particular
of the infamous Vermont senator Joseph
McCarthy. McCarthy is pretty much remembered in history as an
irrational legislator who turned the Cold War into his own personal witch
hunt. (Though the argument seems to still simmer long after communism
has fallen, one review I saw of this film insisted that McCarthy was
completely correct in his beliefs, he was just wrong in his methods of
dealing with the problem.)
Good Night, and Good Luck
was the story of one of the most famous journalistic showdowns in
history — the early television outing of Senator McCarthy's methods by
pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his
journalistic team (which includes George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert
Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Reed Diamond and Tate Donovan). Murrow
and his staff recognized the danger of McCarthy's unhinged power and used
his own words to hang him, politically speaking. It was a huge moment
in both journalistic history and American history. Hats off to
co-writer/director/supporting actor Clooney for creating a film that is not
only worthy of the story, but one that easily lives up to the legendary
face-off.
The Murrow-McCarthy
confrontation was a war of words that ended up bringing down both men —
McCarthy was disgraced and Murrow's broadcasting career never really
recovered. There were tragedies and lives lost, symbolized here by CBS
newsman Don Hollenbeck (Ray Wise), who ended up cracking up due to a mixture
of poor health and the severe pressure of constant accusations of communist
affiliations.
This is a story that is
obviously near and dear to co-writer/director/co-star Clooney's heart.
(Murrow was a hero of his journalist father, Nick Clooney.) Due to
this affection, Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov (who also appears as
future CBS exec Don Hewitt) have been extraordinarily attentive to
details, from the completely realistic sets of 50s television to the
fetishistic observation of the facts of the event. He has also put
together an amazing ensemble cast, led by the Oscar-worthy work of Strathairn who has to juggle the certainty of being the face of the story
and the self-doubt of whether his views will bring down his network, his
friends or himself.
Of course, the film is all
the more trenchant because many of the beliefs being debated in the halls of
power and the studios of CBS back in 1954 are still relevant today. Often the parallels with the
current White House administration are spooky — McCarthy's insistence that
anyone who disagrees with his beliefs are communists seem spookily similar
to the early Iraq war "you're-either-with-us-or-you're-against-us"
propaganda. The communist trials, the lack of civil rights and the
government's ability to skirt the need for evidence bring to mind an earlier
version of The Patriot Act.
Writers Clooney
and Heslov are all too aware of the parallels between McCarthyism and the
current political climate. They are not shy to create speeches for
Murrow and his co-workers to point out the importance of civil liberties and
human tolerance — in fact, as good as the movie is and as valid the points
are that it is making, that is the film's one slight weakness. The
points have been made, and they have been made convincingly. The
audience doesn't have to be hit over the head with it. People open to
the message will grasp it in the story. People who disagree will
inevitably continue to disagree or not even recognize the correlation, no
matter how much the film stacks the deck.
However, in one astounding
scene, the film actually acknowledges this slight bias. While CBS head
William Paley (a fantastic performance by veteran Frank Langella) does stand
behind his newsman, despite intense pressure and his own personal doubts, he
does suggest that Murrow's crusade might not be totally pure. After
all, he points out, Murrow has gone out of his way to point out each one of
McCarthy's lies — with the exception of one statement the Senator made
about Alger Hiss, one of the occasions that McCarthy's red-scare paranoia
was actually justified. The statement and tension just floats in the
air between them as these two powerhouse thespians say more with no words,
just physical discomfort, than many of the most striking speeches.
This film is a reminder,
more than anything else, of a time when journalists actually held public
officials to a higher standard and were not afraid to question authority.
In a news world where serious journalists unquestioningly repeat government
talking points, the truth is not as important as the spin and the
corporation decides what is reported (yes, I'm talking about you, Fox News
Channel...), seeing journalists taking risks and putting their jobs in
jeopardy simply for the public good is the most powerful statement that this
film makes. Years of political hectoring, bad-mouthing, disrespect and
huge media conglomerates has rendered the modern press corps relatively
toothless. (The oft-repeated myth that the media is mostly made up of
members of the left is at least fifteen to twenty years out of date.)
This lack of accountability
upon our public officials (on both sides of the political divide) has
stained the reputation of the media and colored the people's respect of the
good work that they do. The apparent belief seems to be that if a
politician says something untrue often enough or stonewalls the press from
receiving vital public documents then the media will finally become bored
with trying to find out the truth and go back to talking about Terry Schiavo,
Mary Kay Letourneau
or Michael Jackson. Signs of a revival of journalistic spirit were
raised during the calamitous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina when reporters
actually started to try to pin down the government on the ineptitude which perhaps led
to... at the very least exacerbated... the near-total destruction of a major
United States city and cultural center. Whether that bravery and call
for accountability will subside with the waters in the streets of New
Orleans, only time will tell. It may be naïve (in fact it undoubtedly
is) to think that this movie can play a large part in fixing what is broken
in the Fourth Estate. However, it can never hurt to remind people of a
time when things were better and hope that it will inspire people to raise
their expectations and performances. So in this way, Good Night, and
Good Luck is not merely an extremely entertaining film, it might just be a
vitally important one, too.
(9/05)
Ken
Sharp
Copyright ©2005
PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved.
Posted: September 22, 2005.
