A well-made, well-acted history lesson

Rating: 7/10 (19 January 2006)

The fact that Good Night and Good Luck is going to be a history lesson, heavy on the word 'lesson', is evident in the first few minutes with the extensive caption setting the context of Joseph McCarthy and HUAC. This is a history lesson that is exceedingly timely and well made and it has drawn extensive praise for both of these qualities. However, it concentrates so much on being faithful to the history, including details of television production in Murrow's day (fascinating as they are), that this history lesson does not make for great drama. Murrow's knock-out blow on McCarthy is a counter-punch but it is so total, unanticipated and without build-up that much of the drama is lost. While viewers can briefly cheer the triumph of his few lines of rebuttal that do the trick, their emotional impact is not sufficient to carry the denouement as Murrow's brand of high quality journalism is moved out of prime time. As a result the denouement does not produce the sense of loss that it might.
David Strathairn is outstanding as Edward R. Murrow. As one might expect, he perfectly captures Murrow's intonation, mannerisms, and familiar hard-hitting journalistic style, but Strathairn also subtly and eloquently communicates how Murrow squirms while doing his obligatory celebrity interviews, or is affected by his protégé's suicide. Frank Langella is also excellent in showing the two sides of CBS head William Paley, both the broadcaster willing to go out on a limb and the CEO whose decisions are dominated by the bottom line. (It is interesting to think that CBS also led the resurgence in prime-time journalism with "60 Minutes" more than a decade later.) George Clooney as Murrow's producer Fred Friendly adds little; he seems better behind the camera. Robert Downey Jr and Patricia Clarkson as secretly married staffers on Murrow's show are very good, though their subplot seems put in place solely for the history lesson since they disappear as soon as we learn how the 1950's work rules affected married couples.
The script feels somewhat thin and is stretched by frequent interludes with a jazz singer (Dianne Reeves who is excellent) and repetition of footage that we see twice, once as the staff is previewing it and again as the show airs. There is a certain sense of smugness in the point of view. We know that right (not the right, of course) will triumph and it seems inevitable. We can also be smug with our knowledge of the future of commercial television (while we of course watch Frontline on PBS). That seems right: Good Night and Good Luck is like a superbly acted Frontline episode without the usual narration.