George Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck. makes a fine dramatized documentary

Rating: 9/10 (13 September 2008)

In making Good Night, and Good Luck., director George Clooney has made a nearly perfect dramatization of the issues legendary CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow (perfectly played by David Straithain) had with the "junior senator from Wisconsin", Joseph R. McCarthy and the way he tried to "infiltrate" Communists in the United States. There's also some suspense when one of Murrow's assistants receives some info from an associate of McCarthy that accuses Murrow of having some "Red" connections himself. That assistant, played by Robert Downey, Jr., tells the associate that no one would believe him since publicly, Murrow has proved to the public what a patriot he was since his radio reports from Britain since World War II! Clooney acquits himself nicely taking the supporting part of Murrow's producer Fred Friendly. One Friendly scene that really impressed me was an argument with a Colonel (played by "24"s Glen Morshower) whose military base had basically fired a soldier named Milo Radulovich because of his father's Communist sympathies branding the son as a "risk". The Colonel did not want that story to air. While many of Straithain's lines as Murrow came verbatim from many of "See It Now"s transcripts, there are some liberties taken with when some events took place (like when the Army-McCarthy hearings were on live, Ed was not doing his other show, "Person to Person" since that show aired on primetime and the hearings were on the afternoons). Also, seeing Diane Reeves performing her jazz stylings in rehearsal at an adjacent CBS soundstage throughout the movie was obviously meant to ironically comment on many events depicted here such as "How High the Moon" coming before Murrow eulogizes on a fellow newsman's death (that of Don Hollenbeck who's played by Ray Wise). The screenplay by Clooney and Grant Heslov (who plays a young Don Hewit here), contained enough info to explain why Murrow felt the way he did about the senator and why his boss, CBS chairman Bill Paley (Frank Langella) who Ed is on a first-name basis with, would initially support him before complaining of an "upset stomach" concerning the newsman's point-of-view. Other good performances come from Jeff Daniels as a liaison between Murrow and "See It Now"s sponsor, Alcoa (by the way, check out the irony between the "glamorous" smoking of many of the characters and the way "Person to Person"s sponsor, Kent Cigarattes, tells you how good smoking is in addressing viewers skepticism of many TV messages!) and, as a Louisiana resident who loves to point out performers from the Pelican state, New Orleans native Patricia Clarkson as another Murrow employee who's secretly married to Downey. If there's some quibble with this movie, it's with the long footage devoted to accused "Communist spy" Annie Lee Moss which almost stops the movie though Murrow's explanation at the end does make some points. So to anyone interested in this fascinating piece of television news history, I highly recommend Good Night, and Good Luck.