Not a must watch, but recommended

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2007)

My trip to Los Angeles concluded with another decent film: on the flight back from San Francisco to Boston, the movie showing was the black and white film, Good Night, and Good Luck.
Immediate things to note include a wonderful performance by David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, the television newsreporter for CBS that took on Senator McCarthy during the Communist scare after World War II. Again, director George Clooney takes on a biographical work and succeeds to good effect with a style that's both visible (Clooney's film all have some sort of visual flair) and yet non-distracting from the overall film.
I have to admit that the film is a little hollow, as it's a short story about Murrow v. McCarthy and doesn't delve very deeply into the life of our protagonist. But it's also a message film, about not allowing media to become just another outlet for entertainment and losing the power of the media as a means of providing for the mind as well as civic contributions. In a way, it's about keeping the meaning in media and that spoke immensely to me, as it's something that I'm interested in myself.
So, good performances by the entire cast, coupled with stylish yet not overexposed directing, along with favorable topic for me overcome the weaknesses of the film in terms of overall story and general weakness in impact. Aristotle would say that it's not that great of a drama, since the rising and falling actions are limited, in terms of story. And the story is just so focused on the singular campaign of Murrow and company at CBS that it misses its chance to delve deeper into the characters. Then again, one only has so long to watch a movie.
So, it's good. Not a must watch, but nonetheless, a film that I would recommend. 8/10.