Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)
by George Clooney
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Actor: Alex Borstein, David Strathairn, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Patricia ClarksonDirector: George Clooney
Brand: Warner Brothers
Writer: George Clooney
Producer: Barbara A. Hall
Producer: Ben Cosgrove
Producer: Chris Salvaterra
Producer: Grant Heslov
Writer: Grant Heslov
Producer: Jeff Skoll
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 93 minutes
Published: 2006-03-01
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-14
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Model: 73678
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- "Good Night, And, Good Luck" takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in 1950's America. It chronicles the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. With a desire to report the facts and enlighten the public, Murrow, and his dedicated staff - headed by his producer Fred Friendly and Jo
DVD Reviews of Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)
DVD Review: The Value Of The Town Crier.
Summary: 5 Stars
(from an earlier article, copyright 2005 Michael F. Hopkins)
Anyone who still holds that George
Clooney is a pretty boy celebrity
lacking artistic talent or aesthetic
virtue will find their opinions
lacking merit once they've seen
this film.
With GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK,
Clooney steps up the challenge,
delivering one of the great
motion pictures of this era,
or any other.
As director, co-writer, and cast
member, Clooney stakes his
credentials as a major
independent filmmaker, choosing
to make a Black and White film
on one of the most pivotal
moments in the history of
this nation, a major milestone
in the annals of Journalism
as a whole.
In this current era, where civil
liberties are too often taken
for granted, callously discarded,
or ruthlessly violated, a film
about television commentator
Edward R. Murrow's battle
against the fascist demagoguery
of McCarthyism could not be more
timely, or more appropriate.
A lifetime of covering an array
of topics taught Ed Murrow the
value of responsibility in
reporting news, and making
journalistic evaluations -not
biased opinionations- when
the need arose. Fallacies of
objectivity and subjectivity
faded before the central
focus and professional call
of fair play.
The need for such intelligence
in a medium already known for
mass idiocy was the point of
Murrow's famous October 1958
speech in Chicago, before a
convention of television and
radio broadcasters.
It remains one of the most
powerful and prophetic
statements ever made on
the potential of televison,
and the decay of mediocrity
that it would fall into not
long after.
Excerpts from that speech
are concisely edited by
co-scripters Clooney and
producer Grant Heslov,
and are soberly enacted
to form the memorable
bookends of this film.
Immediately, one senses
the exacting skill by which
Clooney, cast and crew have
conceived this film.
You're summarily whisked
into a different world,
as the Black and White
imagery of cinematographer
Robert Elswit conveys a
complex mastery of depth
and dimension which belies
the flat illusions of life
and community that the box
insistently churns out.
Within a sea of mannered
programming conveying
little or less of any
genuine manners whatsoever,
the film takes you into
the day-by-day of a small
Editorial team co-led by
CBS producer Fred Friendly
(a splendidly understated
Clooney) and commentator
Murrow (David Strathairn.
The story which ensues is
nicely sequenced by the
twilight moods of a Jazz
ensemble jamming cool,
and on the One.
Featuring noted vocalist
Dianne Reeves marvelously
singing the most authentic
Jazz of her illustrious
career, the ensemble acts
as a latter-day Greek
Chorus, its songs astutely
underlying the inevitability
of all that goes down; at
times reflecting ironically
upon the prices to be paid
for what is to come.
A pair is seen talking
about oaths of loyalty and
the intimidation it could
represent, even as this
pair (played handsomely
by Patricia Clarkson and
Robert Downey Jr.) holds
a secret representing an
equally absurd social
mandate of the day.
We will see a local
commentator (exceptionally
rendered by Ray Wise)
whose personal strife and
professional choices are
being targeted by vicious
columnists bearing
prejudiced viewpoints
fueled by vested
interests.
We note Sig Mickelson
(chumminess and apprehension
blended well by Jeff Daniels),
who balanced Editorial writ
and Corporate whim on the
head of a pin. We encounter
CBS Chairman William S. Paley
(brooding and imperious as
superbly conveyed by Frank
Langella), whose legacy would
contain some of Television's
highest glories, as well as
many of the medium's basest
betrayals.
Against this tapestry of
livelihoods and pursuits, the
specter of finger-pointing
paranoia looms like a distant
nightmare, creeping ever closer
with each moment.
It takes the editorial perspective
which Murrow delivers, in questioning
the persecution of a soldier over
imagined Communist associations,
to drive home the totalitarian
practices running rampant as
governmental policy for a
democratic society.
Slowly, methodically, carefully,
lines are decisively drawn.
Not enough superlatives can
be utilized to describe the
magnificent performance of
David Strathairn as the
legendary Dean of Broadcast
Journalism. The acclaimed
character actor is cunning
in capturing Murrow's mix of
calmly-toned, straight-shooting
honor, campfire wisdom and
sharp-eyed wiliness which
made his broadcasting
stand out above the pack
of hard-bitten, carny-barking,
sound-chomping Walter Winchell
acolytes.
Not only does Strathairn convey
the dignity of Murrow's linguistic
dynamics with formidable precision;
he hits the commentator's strong
ethical beliefs -and vulnerabilities,
as well- with a quiet fire which
builds from smouldering ember to
ignite and illuminate the entire
screen. A performance for the ages.
With such performances and
craftsmanship marking this
compelling drama, GOOD NIGHT,
AND GOOD LUCK is further
distinguished by the
documentary atmosphere
infused within its subtlely-
placed, expressly thespian
demeanor.
The SECTION EIGHT production's
usage of actual McCarthy footage,
interposed within the expertly
enacted tableau, brings the
reality of its deadly subject
dead-on home.
As the Warner Bros. DVD aptly
reflects, Clooney and Heslov
drew input from very reliable
sources; two of whom are enacted
in the film, while another is
shown in actual 1953 news footage.
All, with the children of Murrow
and Friendly, offer incisive
perspectives in the Companion
Piece, the DVD's invaluable inside
look at the film.
Time has certainly verified the
dire predictions made by Murrow
concerning the bottomless pit
that Television could -and has-
become. The overall decline of
broadcast journalism, too often
overrun by gossip column pundits
and ambulance chasers today, is
a stark contrast to the perceptive
commentary of Ed Murrow, Chet
Huntley, Walter Cronkite, Peter
Jennings, Jane Pauley and other
pioneers who reported with thorough
deliberation, human consideration,
and a rounded insight which brought
it all together.
Nor has its print counterpart fared
any better. Too many newspapers and
news periodicals find their Editorial
policies dictated by their Ad
departments.
At its absolute worst, such a lackwit
absence of principle is reflected in
today's proliferation of blurb-happy
cheat sheets which grudgingly allow
an infrequent paragraph or two to
justify its status as a journalistic
forum.
Yet, if this has done incalculable harm
to the practice of authentic journalism
regarding issues and policies, the harm
inflicted upon authentic coverage of Arts,
Music, and Culture has proven far worse.
In most cases, expect Arts Journalism to
be relegated to the print ghetto of the
weekend entertainment section for major
papers; meager lip service in the majority
of glossed-over magazines and ego-happy
tabloids purporting to represent the voice
of the Arts, let alone the will of the
people.
Far too often, raging stereotypes of the
buffoon-acting fop, the edge-crazed
nihilist, the bored easygoer and the
sneering revisionist find easy access
to podiums of aesthetic reporting;
positions of responsibility that few
in play -today- have earned, and even
fewer deserve.
Were noted critics and civic spokesmen
Nat Hentoff, Ralph Wiley or Thulani Davis
to start their world-renowned careers
today, each might be judged too
long-winded by the interests who find
the over-abbreviated nature of many
Web critics to be the model example
of how to "sell a subject".
Langston Hughes or Ralph J. Gleason
would doubtlessly be told that their
precedent-setting forms of analytical
advocacy are far too "esoteric" to be
considered applicable in a professional
market which largely considers the Arts
a barely tolerable curiosity... or a
decadent luxury.
Clearly, the points raised by GOOD NIGHT,
AND GOOD LUCK address every facet of
Journalism, what it's supposed to stand
for, and what it sorely lacks in much of
America today. It's an unmistakable
gauntlet to every citizen, from all walks
of life, to stand firm and be counted for
what's ethical and best.
For each and every person purporting to
be a journalist, the mandate is to bring
a balanced, fair, informed perspective
to bear upon these turbulent, uninformed
times. Now, as if was in the 1950s, the
message is clear. The choice awaits.
Even the title of one game show called
it straight.
Shall it be Truth?
Or Consequences...
Description of Good Night, and Good Luck (Widescreen Edition)
IN THE EARLY 1950S, THE THREAT OF COMMUNISM CREATED AN AIR OF PARANOIA IN THE U.S. & EXPLOITING THOSE FEARS WAS SENATOR JOSEPHMCCARTHY. HOWEVER, CBS REPORTER EDWARD R MURROW & HIS PRODUCERFRED FRIENDLY DECIDED TO TAKE A STAND & CHALLENGE MCCARTHY &EXPOSE HIM FOR THE FEAR MONGER HE WAS.Bestsellers in DVD
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