Just watched Good Night and Good Luck, and I can’t think of anything but good things to say about this movie. Everything from the cinematography and directing to the acting was superb. Especially David Strathairn as broadcast journalist, Edward R. Murrow. The movie follows Murrow through his battle with Sen. Joseph McCarthy during the communist witch hunts of the 50s, and one of the great things about this film was how it blended the movie footage with original footage of McCarthy and the trials from that time period. Hats off to George Clooney for his directorial chops on this one.
In terms of the issues of the movie, I don’t know if I should be depressed or fascinated by how relevant the issues of this movie still are today. The fight against a totalitarian mindset. A government that uses the tactics of fear and paranoia to keep dissidents in line. And television as a tool to educate and inform vs. television as a tool to pacify and distract. Any modern journalist would do themselves a huge disservice by failing to see this movie. Murrow is the proverbial island of sanity in a sea of the absurd. Which is what we all rely on our press corps to be.
Having said that though, the movie also does an excellent job of humanizing Murrow and his contemporaries. They give you just enough personal story behind the characters to remind you that these are actual people fighting the fight, and not just nameless soldiers. At the same time, the crux of the story is never lost to the personal turmoil if it’s characters. The only complaint I could have with this movie is that it ends too soon. It really leaves you wanting more. Which, after all, is what any good movie does.
