Good Night, and Good Luck
Nov. 6th, 2005 01:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elfsOne of the things I would never have expected from George Clooney as a director, a scriptwriter (admittedly with an old pro), and so forth is a powerful, effective movie-- and yet, that is exactly what we get with Good Night, And Good Luck, the fictionalized biopic of Edward R. Murrow's decision to take on Joe McCarthy and make of him an embarassment of the U.S. Senate.
It's filmed in black-and-white and happens almost entirely within the studios at CBS, where Murrow and producer Fred Friendly, and their staff of reporters and writers, assembled a damning portfolio of film clips (made with real celluloid) of McCarthy and his crusade against Communists everywhere: his deceptions, his snide elisions, his callous disregard for the Constitutional processes. McCarthy appears entirely in archival footage, which is how the American people saw him.
The film is amazingly sparse, but never empty: the black-and-white creates a lack of texture that gets filled with the sheer pressure under which Murrow and Friendly operated. Frank Langella plays the president of CBS, and Frank Downey Jr and Jeff Daniels make for terrific reporters.
Obviously, Clooney is making a point about political overreach and arrogance here, but he couldn't have done it in a more effective or more entertaining manner. This is a civics lesson everyone should go see.
And while I'm here, I have to say that I love and adore my wife, who chose to go with me to this film rather than pick some sappy chick-flick or lighthearted comedy.
It's filmed in black-and-white and happens almost entirely within the studios at CBS, where Murrow and producer Fred Friendly, and their staff of reporters and writers, assembled a damning portfolio of film clips (made with real celluloid) of McCarthy and his crusade against Communists everywhere: his deceptions, his snide elisions, his callous disregard for the Constitutional processes. McCarthy appears entirely in archival footage, which is how the American people saw him.
The film is amazingly sparse, but never empty: the black-and-white creates a lack of texture that gets filled with the sheer pressure under which Murrow and Friendly operated. Frank Langella plays the president of CBS, and Frank Downey Jr and Jeff Daniels make for terrific reporters.
Obviously, Clooney is making a point about political overreach and arrogance here, but he couldn't have done it in a more effective or more entertaining manner. This is a civics lesson everyone should go see.
And while I'm here, I have to say that I love and adore my wife, who chose to go with me to this film rather than pick some sappy chick-flick or lighthearted comedy.
