"Good Night and Good Luck" a DVD Movie Review

Rating: 5/10 (14 March 2006)

"Good Night and Good Luck" a DVD Movie Review
by Bradley A. Draper
This a good TV movie, but it is not Oscar class and it certainly is not classic cinema. Nothing to stand up to and applaud. Clooney should stop producing. I am reminded of his aping of the classic "Fail Safe" film and novel via his attempt at live TV with a retelling of a story that needed no reprise. Great movies should not be remade and those that attempt so only do so at the critic's peril. Just because you are a popular actor, George, this does not make you a directoral talent.
In this film, much can be made of similarities of our own paranoid times, of the communist witch hunts of the early 1950's with todays suspectful techno intrusion on our privacy. That is what this movie is all about. It is couched in a period piece but tries to be a political statement of our time. The clichés are even chosen for this affect. Not that our time does not need reflection. But today's political climate is far more tolerant and liberal than the early 1950's. I get letters from the ACLU almost every week. Even though I am sympathetic to their cause, I do not join, because they just want my money, and I do not want to be on anybody's list.
This film is shot in stunning silver black and white. Very well done. An effective period piece, even down to the obligatory black jazz music. Still, one of the clichés that were hard to ignore was that of the cigarette. Every character it seemed smoked a million cigarettes in this movie, and they even throw in a "Kent Cigarette" commercial, with little subtlety. Was this an indightment of cigarette smoking some how? It seemed so. This obsession with tobacco's smoke was to me very distracting.
Although filmed well, and the acting, sliding into the realm of TV soap style still, was good, the writing was contrived and weak.
I found the portrayal of Edward Murrow, legendary CBS World War II broadcaster, by the severe and constant jaw clenching of David Strathairn clichéd and consistently boring. The weird Fred Friendly cameo of George Clooney was unexplainable? Why, other to include his ego into a Oscar territory in a weak Oscar year. Patricia Clarkson and Robert Langella's outstanding character portrayals, were totally wasted in this film. Too bad as they are iconic character actors. And what is the point of including the sad Robert Downing Jr. in a totally inconsequential part?
There is no social impact in this film, although it was very apparent that the film attempted this. I liked the movie, but it is what it is, a tiny little TV film made, to exploit the paranoia of our time, which had nothing to compare to those ultimate "look over your shoulder 1950's." This film, already dated, will be forgotten in six months.
I give it 5 stars.