Good Night, and Good Luck
Whether or not you were alive in the 1950s, the opening scene of Good Night, and Good Luck puts you there with unerring detail the clothes, the hair, the smoke filled room, the subtle lack of sophistication as friends gather for a photo. But most of all it’s the richly shadowed black and white cinematography.
The scene is a hotel ballroom where reporters are gathered to pay tribute to Edward R. Murrow. When Murrow (David Strathairn) rises to speak he warns that he is about to bite the hand that feeds him television. He accuses TV of decadence, escapism and insulation. With that the film jumps back five years to show how he reached these conclusions.
Good Night, and Good Luck is about integrity, particularly in journalism. The story line itself is about the chilling effect that the House Un-American Activities Committee, chaired by Senator Joseph McCarthy, had on freedom of speech and freedom of association, and the fear it generated among journalists and other Americans.
Murrow is not immune to intimidation, signing the dreaded loyalty oath extracted by the leadership of his employer. The network’s corporate owners do not want to risk the political fallout of McCarthy’s wrath, and the sponsors want it even less. TV reporters do not want to jeopardize their jobs. McCarthy’s campaign to root out suspected Communists (with claims he has a secret list of 200 registered Communists who have infiltrated the Eisenhower administration), was noted for dragging witnesses before the committee’s televised hearings, accusing them by innuendo and guilt by association, ruining careers, destroying lives.
But the Murrow generation of reporters is also committed to bringing the facts to their audiences. Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly (played by George Clooney, who also directed the film), pursue a news story that demonstrates the loss of civil liberties that can result from government exploitation of fear. Pressures are brought by a threatening visit from two high ranking military officers and by Alcoa’s withdrawal of its sponsorship of the show.
head William Paley (Frank Langella) turns out to be as heroic as Murrow, though reluctantly. Despite risk to himself and the network, he nervously backs Murrow when the chips are down.
Strathairn’s portrayal of Murrow is uncanny. Director Clooney has Senator McCarthy play himself through the use of blurry historic kinescopes. And the repetitive use of jazz vocals for bridging scenes is very effective. Unsteady handheld shots and the use of McCarthy’s own televised hearings make us believe this is not just drama but is real.
It calls us to look again at the responsibility of major news operations to speak truth to power. As Murrow says: “Our history is what we make of it.”
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