It is what it is

Rating: 8/10 (28 June 2011)

Good Night and Good Luck seems more like a re-enactment of key "See It Now" broadcasts than a movie. In doing so, George Clooney has performed a public service, helping to bring the history of that era alive to a new generation, and generations to come. But those totally unfamiliar with the period will need to read up on Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Edward R. Murrow to better understand the events.
The Murrow broadcasts were before my time, but there was an old book I treasured that had the transcripts of the key programs along with photos. Perhaps the most memorable was the Milo Radulovich episode. That could have been any of us being accused unfairly, and defended by Murrow.
America would be a different place today, had it not been for Edward R. Murrow. But it is not different enough. Each generation needs a new Murrow to defend the truth. And we have had them, thanks in part to the talented journalists Murrow hired, beginning in the 1930s for CBS radio, and later for the CBS television network. (See the Murrow's Boys entry in Wikipedia.) That is the larger impact Murrow had, untold here.
Perhaps what is needed is a fuller biography on film of Murrow, going back to his time as a war correspondent in London, reporting live by radio to the United States, microphone in hand, from the roofs of buildings as bombs fell around him before America entered the war, continuing through to the early days of television in 1948, Murrow's first live coast to coast broadcast, and television's rapid maturation as a medium of entertainment in the 1950s, ending with the famous 1960 Harvest of Shame program.
It is tempting to editorialize about the message this film has for our time, but that is unnecessary. It is what it is. Either you see it, or you don't. Sometimes simple objectivity is more powerful than preaching. I sat in silence when the film was over, and almost felt like crying.
I was not in a hurry to see this film because I already knew so much about Murrow and the surrounding events. The film seems to have gotten everything right, especially the ethos of the era.
The main problem with this film is that it is too short. I think there should have been more discussion about the making of the episodes to give more context. They had time to show more of the actual Murrow episodes. If there is enough good stuff on the cutting room floor, perhaps there could be a longer director's edition.
It is always interesting to see an actor playing a real person, and succeeding. David Strathairn seems to have gotten inside Murrow's head and recreated his inner character. He also gets the pace, tone and intensity of his voice right.
Murrow was a chain smoker, had a cancerous lung removed, and died of lung cancer in 1965. Eric Sevareid said, "He was a shooting star; and we will live in his afterglow a very long time."