There's Good and There's Bad

Rating: 7/10 (4 May 2007)

"Good Night, and Good Luck" is a good film. The thing that is bothersome is that it could have been a great film, given a bit of tweaking.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" is a deceptive film. From the commercials and advertising campaign, you would think that it was a film about the fight to bring down the dreadful McCarthy. You'd be wrong. This is not a film about McCarthyism and its collapse, but rather about television at the time of the before-mentioned collapse. George Clooney's messages in this film are mostly about censorship and the corruption involved in major TV stations. This is actually the film's biggest flaw.
The best parts of the film are the times when we are able to see the slightly doctored broadcasts that brought McCarthy down. David Strathairn's impeccable performance spruces these interesting segments up. The rest of the film is what keeps it from greatness.
Throughout the film, we are forced to view the unimportant and dull conflicts that the other characters in the story are going through. These take us away from the interesting McCarthy sub-plot and bring us towards the boring moral tales about the television industry. George Clooney's acting makes these side-stories even more dull and less authentic. Unlike the other major actors and actresses in the film, Clooney acts very casually, as if the film were supposed to take place in the 2000s rather than the 1950s. Still, Strathairn's performance and the documentary segments make this film good.