Save your Job. Save your @$$. Save your soul.

Rating: 10/10 (8 January 2006)

I saw this movie the day after I saw Peter Jackson's King Kong. Compared to a movie that drones on and on for 3 hours, I found Good Night, and Good Luck, a movie no longer than 90 minutes, to be a much more rewarding and worth-while film experience. As the story begins, we see room full of reporters and investigators chatting and joking about what they should air, while in the back of room, sitting still and silently, is Edward R. Murrow (played wonderfully by David Strathairn). This quiet, humble man, as we learn in the prior scene, will soon emerge as a hero.
When I came into the movie I expected to see a rousing story about the little guy standing up to the big powerful villain and taking him down. What it ended up being was so much better than that. This is not a David versus Goliath story, it's not a "going the distance" story ala Rocky Balboa, this is a story about right and wrong. It's about morals. Edward Murrow saw that senator Joe McCarthy was doing wrong, abusing his power, and causing unneeded grief in already difficult times. Murrow saw that he himself had a position of power, having access to millions of homes as a television personality, and he used it to get his message across. With help from some other brave friends, including Fred Friendly (George Clooney), this mission came with both victory and sacrifice, both of which he was willing to accept. The film opens and closes with a speech Murrow makes several years after his battle with McCarthy. His words tingle with relevance, urgently and obviously intentionally applying to modern times. It really doesn't matter if it's the 1950's or 2005: if used with honourable intentions, and most importantly, the truth, the media can change the world for the better.
George Clooney, merely in his second directorial effort, has made an excellent film. It's serious when it needs to be, and it's casual and down-to-earth at moments when we need to be reminded that this is real life. David Strathairn leads an enormously talented cast, giving the best performance of his career, and one of the best acting showcases of year (topped only by Philip Seymour Hoffman as Truman Capote in my opinion). See you on Oscar night. Good Night, and Good Luck.
My rating: 10/10