Film Review of Good Night and Good Luck
Year: 2005 Reviewer: Chris Docker
Cinema can be entertainment, it can be art, it can be a popular voice. It can be eye-candy or sometimes it can be a force for good. Modern U.S. cinema and its audiences have long been primarily regarded (sometimes unfairly) as entertainment only. A few Independents have stood out, but works of significant art or important social comment have been largely seen as uncommercial.
Leading filmmakers set out to challenge that with a company called Participant Productions. Their hypothesis was quite simple: there is a mainstream audience for well-made films that have the power to inspire on important issues. They believe "in the power of media to create great social change." Good Night, and Good Luck (like North Country and Syriana) succeeds in attracting critical and commercial success.
Good Night, and Good Luck is about the struggle to protect democratic freedoms. It came on general release in the UK, the day after the United Nations called for the closure of Guantanamo Bay - a centre where people are detained without due process of law and for lengthy periods merely on suspicion of involvement with terrorism. It went on general release on the same day that Channel 4 Television aired a programme by Walter Wolfgang, the lifelong Labour Party activist ejected from last year's Labour Party Conference for speaking out against the Foreign Secretary on Iraq - a programme showing how the British Government has gradually reduced dissent within its own ranks and that new legislation designed to prevent terrorism is being used by the police in ways that are effectively eroding our civil liberties. (Footage included peaceful protesters who had been stopped under the Terrorism Act including an elderly man held in Brighton for wearing an anti-Blair t-shirt and the 11-year-old girl stopped and searched while participating in a peace march.)
Good Night, and Good Luck is set in the 'McCarthy' era of American history, one of the blackest periods for U.S. civil liberties, when the merest hint that a person sympathised with 'communists' was enough to lose them their job. The Junior Senator, Joseph McCarthy, used people's fear of the communists (who were making real and frightening advances in Korea, Eastern Europe and China) to round up people with witch-hunt hysteria. Disagreeing with McCarthy was tantamount to being a 'dangerous communist' and could mean blacklisting for oneself and one's family or even imprisonment without proper trial. It took a long time for people to speak out. Broadcaster Edward Murrow (and his producer Fred Friendly) was one of those who lead the charge, using their own money when CBS and television sponsors refused to publicise their programme. The public was overwhelmingly supportive. Emboldened, televised Senate investigations led to McCarthy's downfall, even as he attacked Murrow.
In only George Clooney's second experiment in the director's chair, he has scored both a palpable hit of a movie and also dug his feet in for integrity in film-making - both in content and style. Parallels between the McCarthy indictment-without-evidence and the U.S. detention-without-trial of Guantanamo Bay (or the UK's powers-of-detention under the Terrorism Act) are exceedingly (and intentionally) plain. If we sacrifice the freedoms that are the bedrock of what we claim to be protecting (whether it be from Communism or Terrorism) then the struggle ceases to lose much of its meaning. What makes Good Night, Good Luck so powerful however, is that it leaves viewers to make the connection themselves, by the careful telling of history, rather than the dubious rantings of left wing softies. The evils of McCarthyism are no longer disputed by many - nor was Murrow's patriotism ever in any doubt - he had a magnificent track record of upholding the liberties of which America is so proud, so the film stands first and foremost as a patriotic clarion call to freedom. Neither does it embroider - the only scenes of McCarthy used are archive footage (just as when Murrow attacked him, he only used actual footage of the Senator speaking). Murrow claimed that Americans were not only able to be strong militarily, but they were able to be strong in robust debate. This movie, 50 years later, is a tribute to that robust debate.
Stylistically, the use of black and white throughout reminds us of the magic of that medium (especially on modern high quality 35mm film). The 50's are lovingly recreated, from the deep jazz soundtrack with Dianne Reeves and Rosemary Clooney's band, the hand-written prompts for announcers in TV's early days, to the (less acceptable today) world of ubiquitous cigarette smoke and a male-dominated business world. The mannerisms, haircuts, dress, and even the way the film is edited, all persuade us that we are watching a film made closer to that era and miraculously brought to us with digital sound and wide aspect ratio. Admittedly, the shots of McCarthy and the Senate are of noticeable poorer quality (and with poorer make-up), but the real and symbolic importance of using original footage outweigh the slight visual inconsistency. Clooney has not only directed admirably, but has excelled himself in co-producing a taut script as well as delivering an excellent performance as Fred Friendly. David Strathairn (as Ed Murrow) establishes himself as an actor of major strength: the indelible picture of Murrow he projects is one of towering humanity, moral probity, belief in self and a courageous judgement free of bias - an icon for any reporter to hold high.
In the USA today, we see vigorous debate and the rule of law replaced by religious conviction and secret knowledge. In the UK, rigorously scrutinised laws and debate within Cabinet and political parties has been replaced by a mass of hasty legislation authoritarian politics. Safeguards in the political systems of both countries have failed. It was against such moral vacuity that the broadcast media defeated McCarthy and returned common sense and democracy to America. Films such as Good Night, Good Luck can be seen as a small step in a similar direction.
Rating: 10/10
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