Mood of the 1950s Well Caught in Film ***

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2006)

Excellent film editing highlights "Good Night, and Good Luck." I haven't seen such good splicing of film since Woody Allen's "Zelig."
In reality, Joe McCarthy could have been up for best supporting actor. That really isn't saying much because the acting here is just fair. At times, there appears to be too many guys in the newsroom puffing away on cigarettes. The American Cancer Society should have put out a warning before the film began. That would have been appropriate.
This film is really a documentary. However, it does adequately capture the period of the 1950s when Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R-Wisc.) led a cause of terrorism in this country and civil liberties just about ceased to exist. Edward R. Murrow, a brilliant reporter, stood up to him. We see Murrow taken to task by Frank Langella's Bill Paley.
Jeff Daniels, who looks like he gained 40 pounds for his role as Sig, identifies a couple (Robert Downey and Patricia Clarkson) as being married. That's against CBS policy. How ironic that they go after McCarthy but yet have this archaic rule against employees being married. The usual excellent Clarkson seems out of touch in the role. She just seems to mouth her words.
David Strathairn does well in the role of Edward R. Murrow. He adeptly captures Murrow in his crusade for fairness in treatment of individuals as well as civil liberties. It is also hoped that Strathairn went for chest x-rays at the end of filming of this picture. He will probably need follow up x-rays yearly following all that Murrow-like smoking.
McCarthy was evil in every sense of the word. Just dare to criticize him and you'd incur his wrath. He even equates Murrow with being a member of the I.W.W.
The movie never explains why McCarthy had to leave a meeting involving the Moss woman accused of being a Communist. What happened to this lady?
George Clooney, who directed this film, deserves credit for tackling the McCarthy issue head on.