GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK

Director: George Clooney (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind)
Starring: David Strathairn, George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr, Patricia Clarkson)

Film is intended to entertain. Good film has the added benefit of enlightening. I have a problem reviewing film that, for lack of a better word, panders. I try to remove myself from personal tastes when doing a review just to avoid this problem. I think that this film panders, although I’m not entirely sure. Good Night and Good Luck is a short, small and straightforward look at Edward R Murrow, the nearly mythic (to journalists) newsman and his confrontation with Senator Joe McCarthy over his red scare tactics. Rather obviously this is a topical film about the current, ahem, issues in America today. Personally, I agree with the statements made in this film. That certain of our leaders are using scare tactics to immorally constrain and ruin the lives of a few good (or even evil) men. Yes, conservatives generally believe that stability for the masses is more important than the lesser freedoms afforded us, and that breaking a few eggs making their stable society is perfectly acceptable. Hell, everyone believes that to one degree or another. As for me, I think we’ve gone too far, that we’ve used the rallying cry “national crisis” to do (a few) pointedly evil things. Yes, it’s absurd to talk endlessly about this when each year hundreds of thousands are being killed, and raped, and maimed, and tortured in Uganda and Congo and Liberia and Angola and Eritrea and … I hope you get my point. But this is my back yard, and this is what I can most directly affect with my vote, so it’s important. Now with that said, back to the film. I’m not sure that this film will do much enlightening. It may exist rather to rally the few liberals such as myself who will see it. As such, I doubt that makes this a great film. Given the fine acting of David Strathairn as Murrow, and the solid production, and the important topic of the film, however, it does make it a good one. If nothing else, it is the reminder that we should never forget history. Hopefully, it will help in some small way to broaden the conversation. That is important, and great. (June12)


Standouts: David Strathairn’s Murrow, logical, concise, and direct.
Blowouts: It’s a surprisingly light script, more documentary than story. Characters are never fleshed out.

Grade: B

12/01/2005