Buried in historical sensibility, with a careful and respectful study of an organisation's reaction to accusations.

Rating: 8/10 (6 January 2010)

Good Night, and Good Luck is a superb capturing of a tense and suspicious time in which the very identity of certain men is called into question by those who believe they have the power to command and control if it is, in their view, for the good of the nation. The film covers these individuals and their reaction to the accusation the're guilty of certain 'bad' deeds, all playing out at a very important time, both politically and in regards to media progression and overall modernity. Beneath all this is the very gradual, very natural realisation that television and television journalism can be used to the powerful degrees that are possible.
Clooney's 2005 film, shot in glorious black and white adding to the 1950s period feel, begins with a montage of various people at an expensive function talking to one another. But what they're talking of is impossible to make out due to the limited time we are given to focus on one group of people twinned with the fact the entire sequence is drowned out by diegetic jazz music compliments of the in house band. What follows is a speaker at the function, talking in front of this array of different people about television of the time and what might become of it in the future. He warns of what it might become, for the bad, and how it'll have the ability to contribute to the dumbing-down of society if misused. We realise, briefly, that during the preceding montage we were merely observing stuff on screen and people interacting without the ability to take in what they were saying. We were transfixed, zombified even, as an hypnotic score and clear things being exchanged were playing out but without sound – maybe sound was not needed. We were passive, absorbing stuff on screen without truly being able to engage with it, much in the way the speaker warned television would become if misused.
The sequence highlights the ease in which it is to just observe and absorb, two characteristics or actions one might associate with the masses of items on television in the contemporary age of now. Andre Bazin once wrote about his dislike for the montage as it was a passage of play in a moving image piece which essentially told the viewer what to see and what to focus on, and that it rendered the experience false, pushing it away from a realistic sense in the process as things are progressed in an unnatural manner. What springs to mind when we think of television nowadays anyway? We think highly kinetic, colourful, blurry nonsense for most of the time; punctuated by advertisements of a similar nature. Good Night, and Good Luck sees one man talk into a camera, for extended periods, without much in the way of cutting away delivering important speeches on specific subjects. Quite a contrast, but it's the substance of what he's talking about that counts. The film is about an era in which television saw one man, a certain Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) whom was addressing the crowd in the opening scene, attempt to lay everything out for what it truly is set amidst the backdrop of paranoia and politics as the American Media and American Government, respectively, fell out over the item of individuals suspected of being enemies of the state.
The early signs of this falling out occurs when Clooney's character, acting within his own piece proving he can juggle both roles at once in an effortless manner, named Fred Friendly; a producer of Murrow's talk show named See It Now , is challenged for attempting to broadcast a supposedly Communist story to the watching nation. This jousting that the military, a sub-division of the government, do with the professionalism driven; usually typically egotistically driven journalists at a national TV broadcast centre over the ability to get across information and broadcast 'the truth' to a nation makes for fascinating viewing. In what is a battle of words between a group of people at the peak of their respective careers, and all the power that comes with these respective positions, it is brilliantly played out tale of two sides desperately attempting to get across what they perceive as 'the truth', simultaneously to one another and the watching public. The film is a glorious blending of ideas and historical reconstruction that explores the real-life questioning of the extent of McCarthyism; combining an overall reflective aura with moments that sees the film dip into a more sombre mood; skip upwards into a more positive refrain when the characters momentarily succeed in something and it knows when to deliver the facts and use the necessary found footage to show the man McCarthy himself. There are few tricks and few gimmicks, just an unadulterated focus on the subject matter, seeing Good Night, and Good Luck act as a wondrously guided, well executed piece which informs and entertains in equal measure.