Good Night and Good Luck has been a movie that I have
avoided for around 10 years now because 1) I wasn’t well acquainted with the
main subject of the film: famed newscaster and journalist Edward R. Murrow’s
fight against Senator Joseph McCarthy and his criminal methods of rooting out
suspected communists in American society and 2) to me, from its previews, the
film looked extremely boring. I know it is unfair to judge a film by its
promotional ads. There have been many films, too many for me to count, that I
have written off as shallow or simply not entertaining by a glib rendering of its
most interesting scenes. Then after viewing the film, I have come away with a lesson on not judging books by their shitty cliff
notes.But after watching I understood something. This movie isn’t extremely
boring. It is excruciatingly, unbelievably, almost criminally boring to the
point where it’s avoidance of any dynamism whatever seems skillful on the part
of director George Clooney and even the cast! What a disappointment.
Many, I know, will disagree with my feelings for this movie. Even my hero, Ebert, gave it 4 stars. My experience clearly differs from the average viewer and legendary film critics entirely. This is almost completely incomprehensible as there is hardly any episode
in recent political history that holds more drama, more fascinating characters
and incites more outrage than does McCarthyism of the 1950s. My knowledge of it
until recently has been very touch and go. I knew terms like ‘Red Scare’ and
‘Political Witch Hunt’ and names such as Elia Kazan, Lauren Bacall and Humphrey
Bogart but hardly anything in depth about it. After watching a biography
channel doc on John Garfield, I became aware that his short career was marred
by an accusation from the McCarthy board that he was a communist spreading un-American sentiment
through the films that he produced. Interested in knowing how an almost
baseless accusation would poison such an illustrious career, I did some research. I found that
Joseph McCarthy was a soldier turned politician imbued with undue power by a
vulnerable American public terrified of a nuclear attack from Russia and a Republican
party succumbed by the same fear coupled with a single minded reliance on the
adage “an ounce of prevention Is worth a pound of cure.” Using his influence as
chairman of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations he alleged that one person
after the other was either a communist or a communist sympathizer usually with
little or no evidence. Edward R. Murrow attack on McCarthy and his methods was
unprecedented in a time where the CBS evening news was more for entertainment than a platform for serious investigative journalism. Murrow stayed on top of McCarthy’s goings on,
joining the list of the senator’s many carpers early. He turned his dislike of
the man into nerve enough to launch an attack on McCarthy’s handling of
investigations within the State Department and the man himself. His hard
hitting expose of McCarthy’s questionable methods eventually created enough
ire to condemn McCarthy in the public, the senate and finally in the annals of
American History. Murrow’s drive against McCarthy despite the resistance from
his network and the risk of ending up on the black list himself represents the best of Journalism. It demonstrates a dedication to truth and almost reckless disregard of personal safety on par with Woodward and Berstein and even Julian Assange in a way.
This is a linear delineation of the facts of this period and in communicating these facts, the film is successful. I know what happened. The problem is, I don't really know why. What Clooney's production gains in historical accuracy and detail, it loses in the pure art of storytelling. In Clooney's production all of the action happens within clips from the era showing footage of McCarthy himself, the trials of his victims and interviews with those involved. The characters (Clooney as Fred Friendly, Murrow's producer, Robert Downey Jr. as Joseph Wershba, another journalist, Patricia Clarkson as his wife Shirley Wershba, Frank Langella as William Paley, CBS chairman and David Straithairn as Murrow) surround these clips in limp scenes where clever intelligent dialogue is whispered drolly to one another with all of the energy of your 10th grade geometry teacher in 6th period. Each of these actors, all boasting a well known personal charm and charisma have all seemed to dial back these attributes to play these serious news people convincingly. Even Clooney and Downey Jr., usual powerhouses of personal charisma, walk in and out of the movie with all the energy and magnetism of, well an aging jaded movie critic.The movie doesn't give them enough room to, well, act. Running a tight 93 minutes, The film is too tightly wrapped around its good intentions to develop characters and create relationships that are meaningful to the audience. Staihairn's performance as Murrow basically amounts to a stiff list of characteristics. In the film's estimation, Murrow is only a tight lip, a low brow, a deep voice and one expression: somber and resolute. And of course an ever present cigarette held loosely between two fingers. His words echo the real Murrow and even contain the gravity of the journalist, but there is a distance that the film never allows us to overcome. Who is Murrow? What was his motivation for fighting McCarthy? Because he's a journalist and that's what journalists do? Well that gives him as much depth as The Man in the Yellow Hat. It's History with a capital 'H' that we're dealing with, but we're also dealing with the people involved.
This is a linear delineation of the facts of this period and in communicating these facts, the film is successful. I know what happened. The problem is, I don't really know why. What Clooney's production gains in historical accuracy and detail, it loses in the pure art of storytelling. In Clooney's production all of the action happens within clips from the era showing footage of McCarthy himself, the trials of his victims and interviews with those involved. The characters (Clooney as Fred Friendly, Murrow's producer, Robert Downey Jr. as Joseph Wershba, another journalist, Patricia Clarkson as his wife Shirley Wershba, Frank Langella as William Paley, CBS chairman and David Straithairn as Murrow) surround these clips in limp scenes where clever intelligent dialogue is whispered drolly to one another with all of the energy of your 10th grade geometry teacher in 6th period. Each of these actors, all boasting a well known personal charm and charisma have all seemed to dial back these attributes to play these serious news people convincingly. Even Clooney and Downey Jr., usual powerhouses of personal charisma, walk in and out of the movie with all the energy and magnetism of, well an aging jaded movie critic.The movie doesn't give them enough room to, well, act. Running a tight 93 minutes, The film is too tightly wrapped around its good intentions to develop characters and create relationships that are meaningful to the audience. Staihairn's performance as Murrow basically amounts to a stiff list of characteristics. In the film's estimation, Murrow is only a tight lip, a low brow, a deep voice and one expression: somber and resolute. And of course an ever present cigarette held loosely between two fingers. His words echo the real Murrow and even contain the gravity of the journalist, but there is a distance that the film never allows us to overcome. Who is Murrow? What was his motivation for fighting McCarthy? Because he's a journalist and that's what journalists do? Well that gives him as much depth as The Man in the Yellow Hat. It's History with a capital 'H' that we're dealing with, but we're also dealing with the people involved.
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