Good Night, and Good Luck

Simone Ubaldi: 'Do me, you twinkly-eyed devil!'

By Simone Ubaldi

George Clooney may have the broad smile and twinkling eyes of a Hollywood heart throb, but there’s a wealth of artistic savvy behind those very white teeth.

Clooney's second stint behind the camera, following Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind, is an elegant elegy to a great man in difficult times. “Good night, and good luck” was the signature sign-off of Edward R Murrow, a CBS newscaster who braved public censure and political persecution to challenge the witch-hunting, anti-Communist crusade of Senator Joseph McCarthy, acting as a catalyst (according to Clooney) in the turning tide that knocked McCarthy from his pedestal.

Murrow (played with consummate dignity by David Strathairn), with producer Fred Friendly (Clooney) and a dedicated news team, presented a current affairs program called See It Now. In 1953, with anti-communist paranoia and panic at its peak, the See It Now team decided to launch a critical attack on McCarthy and his campaign of terror, using his own words to condemn him. McCarthy, true to form, replied by accusing Murrow of having communist sympathies. Responding to this accusation, Murrow championed the true tenets of a democratic society, including the value of freedom of speech and association, pointing out that American society was founded by men who were not afraid to speak publicly in favour of ideas that were unpopular at the time. “We should not confuse dissent with disloyalty", Murrow said, with implications that resonate through the last 50 years into the heart of our new War on Terror.

Clooney has made a saint of Edward R Murrow, in a beautifully photographed, black and white ode to television’s Golden Years, but his sure-handed prejudice serves to highlight the disturbing allegorical relationship between then and now. Whether or not Murrow was the first to criticise McCarthy, or the most responsible for his downfall, Good Night,and Good Luck illustrates powerfully the need for resistance and rational debate when fear and hostility threaten to take hold. The ensemble cast are precise and colourful, and the frantic energy of the CBS newsroom brings a bygone era vividly to life, as great ideas and great moments of history are gracefully examined in the foreground, making Good Night, and Good Luck both well-timed warning and a deeply satisfying film.