GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK (George Clooney, 2005) ***1/2

Rating: 8/10 (6 May 2006)

Having now watched all 5 of the Best Picture Oscar nominees, I can better judge whether the awards were truly distributed according to merit, i.e. whether I agree with who the winners were on the night of the ceremony. Well, at this stage, the first thing that's evident to me is that the two films that received the most (and most coveted) awards are, in fact, the ones that I found least satisfactory, i.e. CRASH and BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN! While CAPOTE and MUNICH are both fine pieces of work, the film that I feel really should have won  and, having been left empty-handed on awards night, means that it was well and truly snubbed!  is, in fact, George Clooney's second stab at directing (I've missed out on his debut CONFESSIONS OF A DANGEROUS MIND [2002] and, I guess, I should make it a point now to check that one out)!
Barely over 90 minutes in length and shot on a low budget in black-and-white (the gleaming cinematography is first-rate), it really harks back to the hard-hitting American cinema of the 50s and 60s  and, for me, that's quite an achievement in itself! Even if Clooney himself ended up the winner of the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for SYRIANA (which I haven't watched yet), I feel that his direction was a lot more focused  and, well, interesting  than that of Ang Lee for BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN; likewise, while Philip Seymour Hoffman's portrayal of Truman Capote deserved all the praise that was showered on it (a fact which I commented on in my recent review of that film), I also feel that David Strathairn's performance as another real-life celebrity  Edward R. Murrow  was even more impressive (if anything, because it was understated as opposed to showy) and, for lack of a better word, iconic.
Dealing with one of the most fascinating  and painful  events in American political history, the film utilizes ample stock footage to throw us back into (rather than merely recreate) the paranoia that swept the country in the Cold War era, though attention must be paid for the narrative to be followed in detail. While Strathairn (in the role of a lifetime) is the nominal lead, the film actually features an ensemble cast that includes Clooney himself, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Daniels and, most welcome of all, wonderful bits  in pivotal roles  by Frank Langella (as the long-suffering head of CBS, producer of Murrow's McCarthy-bashing programme) and Ray Wise (as Murrow's fellow journalist who cracks under the strain of the Anti-Communist persecution).