Where are the Murrows of Today?

Rating: 9/10 (23 February 2006)

I sometimes wish I had a typewriter, the tap, tap, tap is quite probably a lot more satisfying than the quiet click of laptop keys. I often wish I, instead of the occasionally annoying gum, had a cigarette in my mouth as I type these endless rants about nothing at all. The smoke slowly curling up towards my ceiling as I screw up another piece of paper and throw it into the bin. My tie would be slackened and my sleeves rolled up to the elbows, the once neatly combed and side-parted hair now flopping down over my forehead. And of course, such clichéd goings on could only be portrayed in the magic of monochromatic film.
Myself and Ed Murrow seem to share few things in common. For one thing, we share a hair cut, albeit that I have substantially more on top than he did. The 50s side-parted, slicked back hair is (wrongly) overlooked nowadays. I think I was born in the wrong era. But we also share a deep disgust and frustration at the way in which television and other medias are used to "distract, delude, amuse and insulate us". It is even more disturbing that after such a man had existed, nothing has changed. He was listened to and then instantly forgotten by the masses, as if his words and ideologies no longer existed after the television was switched off.
It is hard to connect with Murrow on any other kind of level, which shows the skill of Clooney's script, keeping characterisation to a bare minimum as far as Murrow is concerned. Leaving as more of a mysterious character - as all heroes should be. We watch him take on McCarthy for no other reason than to expose what is going on within the country that breaks some of its people's basic rights. We don't need to know about his home life and other such things that could have led this film down the wrong path of biopic.
All that was needed from this film was the newsroom and what went on within. And that is what Clooney gives us, and with some skill it must be said. The script is snappy and witty, without slipping into comedy territory and tells us everything we need to know, without basically re-telling the audience what it going on. The cinematography perfectly captures the the hectic nature of a newsroom, contrasting well with the slow panning and wide-framing of anything outside.
If Clooney's debut (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) was something of a self-conscious affair, Good Night, And Good Luck overcomes this. Sure, it's very idealogical and a little less than subtle in how its message resonates today, but that's point. Sometimes we need someone to slap us across the face to wake us up.