"If we're gonna go down, we might as well go down swinging."

Rating: 8/10 (18 March 2006)

Good Night, and Good Luck is an honest and upright look at broadcast politics during the 40's and 50's, when Senator Joseph McCarthy was on a witch hunt to uncover Communist sympathizers living in the U.S. The film, which was directed, co-written and starring George Clooney, is a nice look back at old school film-making, from decades long since past, and is shot in gorgeous black and white looks great. I think more films these days should be made in black and white, because they force you to concentrate on the story and characters, and allow you to not get distracted from anything else.
What I meant by "old school film-making" was that Good Night, and Good Luck isn't buried beneath a lot of modern day film-making techniques; including overindulgent and quick paced editing, or fast, sudden camera movements, or a heavy handed booming musical score. Every thing in Good Night, and Good Luck is underplayed, and aimed at accomplishing a sense of realism, without having to "amp" anything up, or going dramatically over-the-top. That's what I what I meant by old school film-making, and this is a nice change of pace from the norm, because it's rare to find a film with a relaxed pace, and requires you to think for yourself, and at the same time the film isn't overly long, finishing up in about 90 minutes.
At the heart of the picture is Edward R. Murrow, a CBS news journalist, played to perfection by David Strathairn. Murrow standed up to Sen. McCarthy (which is shown using entirely old film stock footage) and his tactics when no body else would, for fear that they too would be seen as a Communist. Murrow is represented as a noble hero, seeking out the truth, and not gossip or rumors; a reporter who believes in integrity and honesty; a real American.
This is George Clooney's second film to direct, but he easily convinced me that he'd been directing movies for far longer. He's a man that can not only act, but write, produce and direct as well, now that takes talent. Good Night, and Good Luck was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Director, Actor, Screenplay, Cinematography and Art Direction. Which is pretty much saying that Good Night, and Good Luck is well made, well directed, acted, written and also looks mighty fine as well, and that pretty much sums it up for me.
However, the film certainly isn't perfect, and in fact does suffer from a few things. First, the subplot of the married couple, played by Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson felt pointless and tagged on, just some extra "padding" to increase the already too short running time. The film also lacks strong character development, or arch; the characters never go through any change from the very beginning to the very end. And the film may have also been too fact driven, as if Clooney didn't want to "Hollywoodize" any part of the film, even if it means creating a more interesting, or riveting plot, or characters. I found these few things to weak the overall feel of the film, but not enough to really discourage me from recommending it, but I must say that out of all the films I saw last year I could name at least five other films I saw that could have and probably should have been nominated for Best Picture over this one. Good Night and Good Luck succeeds in the really important areas; it has a really good message that's backed up by some solid performances and is presented with strict attention to the facts.