Substance over flash! GNAGL is excellent in all aspects!

Rating: 10/10 (1 June 2006)

In 1953, Edward R. Murrow stood up for a lieutenant named Milo Radulovich, whom the Air Force tried to discharge from the Air Force Reserve as a security risk due to his father's subscription to a newspaper published by the American Slav Congress, a periodical which had been labeled as a Communist organization. Radulovich's indictment came in the form of documents in a sealed envelope, and his severance came without him or his attorney being allowed to see it. Murrow denounced the Air Force's actions as un-American because, regardless of his father's political leanings, they violated Radulovich's right of due process. Murrow insisted that the son shouldn't bear the sins of the father. Murrow and producer Fred Friendly (whom Murrow called his partner), had been wanting to take on arch-conservative senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin and his campaign of terror for months, and the Radulovich episode gave them the ammunition. A month after the episode aired, Radulovich was reinstated. What follows is a battle between the rights of free speech and the right for the people to know and national security.
The film is almost perfectly cast. David Strathairn is stunning in his portrayal of Ed Murrow and George Clooney (who also directed) is effective as Fred Friendly. Frank Langella (as CBS boss William Paley) has very little screen time, but makes the most of it. Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson (the secretly married Joe and Shirley Wershba) and Ray Wise (Don Hollenbeck) ably put forth the pressures the real people who worked for Murrow faced when they took on McCarthy. In Hollenbeck's case, sadly, the pressure lead to suicide.
Murrow's message was simple: "dissent should never be confused with disloyalty." It's a belief that's relevant today as ever.
"Good Night, and Good Luck" proves that you don't need a $100 million budget and flashy visuals to make a good film.