An intimate, behind-the-scenes closeup of a man and his passion

Rating: 8/10 (27 November 2005)

"Good Night, and Good Luck" was well-directed, and well-acted. It was a good re-creation of the 1950s era when smoking was not known to cause cancer. While the movie re-created the glamour of 1950s black and white movies with the dress, the jazz soundtrack, and the closeups of the actors, the movie seemed abrupt.
The movie could have had a greater buildup to Edward R. Murrow's career, say a fifteen minute series of flashbacks to his career as a news reporter in the 1930s, and then taking us to the 1950s, where most, if not the entire movie, was set, between 1953 and 1958.
While we are first given a glimpse into the character of Edward Murrow as being lauded by his peers at a dinner for the press on a date set in 1958, the story then goes directly into the year 1953 with an intricate look behind the scenes of CBS news during 1953. I wished that there could have been a bit more background on Murrow's career like in a flashback. Instead, the viewer is taken into a time period. The re-creation may work for people who do recall living in the 1950s, and watching Edward R. Murrow on TV. However, I went into this movie "cold", not knowing who Edward Murrow was, other than that he was a broadcast journalist.
The ending was also abrupt, as it did not follow up with the end of Edward Murrow's career, and what had happened during the course of his latter days. We do get many glimpses of Murrow chain smoking cigarettes, which is a habit of many characters in the film.
The film is a very good portrait of Edward R. Murrow and what he strove to achieve in the media for a period of five years. It would have been an excellent movie if the beginning and the end of the movie had been expanded to include perhaps a bit of his private life. We were not even given a glimpse of what his private life was about. Maybe he was a workaholic; maybe he lived for his work. But at ninety minutes and change, I get a good perspective of the man, and his challenges to bring the truth out of Sen. Joe McCarthy and others, who labeled people as Communists by the tactic of guilt by association.
The mannerisms are authentic, the acting is top notch, and the camera work is very intimate. This film will definitely win at least one Academy award nomination, and one Golden globe nomination
for 2006.
Technically, the film is excellent. As an entire film, it appears to be chopped off in sections, which is too bad, because the acting by the ensemble cast is dynamite. The black and white camera-work adds a sincere authenticity to the acting.
Jeff Daniels is great as Sig Mickelson, a CBS manager. George Clooney and Robert Downey Jr. are terrific in their roles as reporters. David Straitharn as Murrow is a great example of acting--he should get a nod for best Actor, because his mannerisms and expressions of Murrow look authentic. Patricia Clarkson should get a nod for best supporting actress; she does a good job of playing the pretty messenger, delivering the newspaper reviews to the CBS news crew in a methodic fashion. Frank Langella does an excellent job portraying William Paley, the top executive at CBS watching over to see if Murrow will make CBS look foolish.
Langella should get a nomination for best supporting actor.
I would rate this as a very good movie; I hesitate to call this movie an excellent movie for the reasons I have given above. I think it will do well come Oscar time.