Mr. Junior Senator: Good Night and Good Luck!!

Rating: 10/10 (25 July 2006)

What do you think of when you think of the 1950's? You think of a basically pleasant time...America was reaping the rewards of being the World War II champions!! Yet, underneath the facade of a "We Like Ike" complacency, propagated a myriad of ideological and cultural dilemmas!! Segregation signified a rudimentary lack of tolerance for another individual regardless of his race, color or creed!! An issue more pertinent to this film was the fact that the Russians had the hydrogen bomb, which meant every upscale home built in the 1950's included construction of a bomb shelter.. Phobia infiltrated mainstream America,and an integral facet of such archaic thought was "McCarthyism"...Named after the junior senator from Wisconsin, Joe McCarthy!! The most disturbing aspect to this convoluted logic, otherwise known as Communist trepidation via "McCarthyism", was not that some extremist was expounding about the enemy of Communism being ubiquitous!! ..More to the point, this unwarranted paranoia had a strong American market to support it!! What the film "Good Night and Good Luck" focused on was the fact that television was not just about watching "Superman" and "Steve Allen", but also, it served as a vehicle for dissecting the truth ..Now enters Edward R. Murrow !! A newscaster who cogently believed that television was not just tubes and wiring which provided an onslaught of innocuous entertainment, more significantly, it should act as a bevy of information to expose facts to the American public! Countering an issue brought on the potential for depicting lies and distortions about the issue... In this case...McCarthyism!! The small screen communication known as television, which was nationwide, negated the long enjoyed sovereignty for the hegemony of America's revered institutions..in this film, namely, the Air Force!! Television had interpretive reporting to contradict facts issued by military intelligence, this in essence nullified their impunity and carte blanche disposition!!!! McCarthyism was destructive dogma which motivated Edward R. Murrow's professional integrity... Two sides of an issue brought on a liberal view!! Not liberal in the pejorative sense, whereby it manifests itself through patterns of irresponsible behavior, but liberal in the context as a euphemism for intellectual diversification!! This movie was incredibly substantiated by remarkable directing, paramount acting performances, and camera angles which made the cold war motif of this film extremely authentic!! In 1954, television became a tertiary source of information, today it is a primary source of information..This is largely due to the fact that less than 12% of Americans read newspapers!! I recommend to anyone who recognizes that on occasion we encounter milestones in our perception of what reality means in the United States, that they see this film....Ultimately, Edward R. Murrow became the calculated guinea pig for the faulted America...His philosophy of making the distinction between disloyalty and dissent reaffirmed this nation's understanding of our constitutional right of freedom of speech.. Murrow's succinct tenet of how the truth is the truth whether it is heard half way across the world or at the other end of the bar, inevitably prevailed as the television industry's accountability for standards and practices!! Edward R Murrow died a very fortunate man, as he accomplished something most of us do not, his obituary had an added codicil to it that he made a difference in this world... Such a feat is commensurate with the accomplishments such as having a lot of people who love and respect you, or the gratifying reward of raising a child properly!! The inadvertent cultural and social conflicts that television besieged the American people with, let the proverbial horse out of the barn, hence, television would change America forever!! George Clooney, the director of this film, who has had a fabulous acting career, sought perhaps a vehement empathy for Edward R. Murrow in his quest to set an occupational precedent!! A producer of the film, Steven Soderbergh, who also produced "Sex Lies and Videotape" (A fantastic film) possesses a knack for delving into the domicile for the disconcerting, this makes him very effective in his ability for articulating realism!! David Strathairn, who played Edward R. Murrow, conquered an acute resemblance to Murrow, not just in terms of his physical appearance, but also, in terms of Murrow's subtle resolve and undaunted demeanor!! Give the rest of the cast and crew credit for having a grass roots recognition of what fervor these 1954 CBS television executives coveted to unveil the truth concerning McCarthyism!! This film gives the movie audience an opportunity to delve into the plethora of facts and philosophies that immersed this film into intellectual and political rumination!! Clooney perceived this story as a stellar idea for a movie... Giving pontification to the premise that television was more than just a citadel of insulated amusement, and indeed, an avenue for news accuracy for back then as well as for permanently in the future, was something that Clooney thought would titillate the American movie goer!! He was right!!
See this film... Five Stars... No question about it!!!