Good Night, and Good Luck
—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (George Clooney)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
Imagine a time when those who voiced public dissent about U.S. policies were criticized as being disloyal. Or when others who had remote ties to suspicious foreign groups were viewed as guilty by association.
The parallels to the contemporary debate about responses to possible terrorist threats are immediately evident in viewing one of the best films so far this year. Good Night, and Good Luck, which draws its name from the signature signoff of CBS-TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, focuses on another time of fear.
About two-thirds of Americans living today (this reviewer included) weren’t alive when Murrow on March 9, 1954, presented his 30-minute See It Now special, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy.� While Murrow was not the first to criticize McCarthy nor did his report bring about the Senator’s political downfall, the See It Now broadcast was significant because press freedoms were more limited for the embryonic broadcast media than for their print counterparts. And the broadcast became viewed as a turning point regarding public perception on what was later termed the Red Scare.
More than 50 years ago at the height of the Cold War, communism was perceived as the nation’s primary threat. The fear was so great that McCarthy and others conducted aggressive Congressional investigations into prominent individuals accused of being Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers. Many people’s lives were destroyed, while many who knew better stood by silently in fear.
Murrow had become a kind of patron saint of early broadcast journalists, first in radio and later on television. He came to fame at the outbreak of World War II, in which he was noted for his live radio reports from the rooftops of London during the Nazi bombing blitz and later for providing one of the first eyewitness news reports of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Rather than chronicle Murrow’s professional career, Good Night, and Good Luck wisely focuses on the conflict between the rising television journalist and the waning political leader. What we get is a fast-paced and exciting film that gives us a glimpse into the tension and apprehension of the era.
Actor George Clooney, who directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay, made another excellent decision in using archival footage of McCarthy. Any attempt to have an actor portray McCarthy would have come across as an unbelievable caricature. That black-and-white video is woven in with portrayals of CBS journalists, including Clooney included as producer Fred Friendly and a sensational David Strathairn as Murrow. (Although appearing as black and white, the film technically was shot on a grayscale set with color film that was later converted to black-and-white.)
Although we may think of matters as black and white, that technical nuance (provided by Internet Movie Database) illustrates the point that the world really has a lot more gray than is evident at first glimpse. McCarthy never obtained any convictions in his witch hunts, but recently declassified information from the former Soviet Union indicates that some of his targets were actually guilty. Some have raised questions about Murrow’s reporting methods, which did not hold to standards of objectivity. Yet the search for complete objectivity is a fantasy. (McCarthy’s tactics did a great deal to highlight the problems of reporting claims attributed to official sources.) Everyone has biases. What’s important is reporting that demonstrates values of fairness, accuracy, even-handedness and responsibility to seek out the truth that may be known.
Set almost entirely in the CBS studios and a bar frequented by Murrow’s crew (in which we hear much of the fine jazz soundtrack), the atmosphere of Good Night, and Good Luck feels like another world. And it was. No Surgeon General’s warning on the dangers of the ever-present tobacco smoke. Far less equality for women. Only three television networks.
But some things don’t change. Watching Good Night, and Good Luck, the viewer quickly realizes that Murrow’s broadcast was not so much an indictment of McCarthy, but of Americans. Of We the People. “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,� Murrow said. “The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it.�
As Murrow said in a speech to his staff on the day of the broadcast, “No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.�
Perhaps we have a lot more personal responsibility for what goes on in our world than we’d like to admit. May it take something less than standing face to face with God for us to realize our culpability.
—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (George Clooney)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (George Clooney)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
Imagine a time when those who voiced public dissent about U.S. policies were criticized as being disloyal. Or when others who had remote ties to suspicious foreign groups were viewed as guilty by association.The parallels to the contemporary debate about responses to possible terrorist threats are immediately evident in viewing one of the best films so far this year. Good Night, and Good Luck, which draws its name from the signature signoff of CBS-TV journalist Edward R. Murrow, focuses on another time of fear.
About two-thirds of Americans living today (this reviewer included) weren’t alive when Murrow on March 9, 1954, presented his 30-minute See It Now special, “A Report on Sen. Joseph McCarthy.� While Murrow was not the first to criticize McCarthy nor did his report bring about the Senator’s political downfall, the See It Now broadcast was significant because press freedoms were more limited for the embryonic broadcast media than for their print counterparts. And the broadcast became viewed as a turning point regarding public perception on what was later termed the Red Scare.
More than 50 years ago at the height of the Cold War, communism was perceived as the nation’s primary threat. The fear was so great that McCarthy and others conducted aggressive Congressional investigations into prominent individuals accused of being Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers. Many people’s lives were destroyed, while many who knew better stood by silently in fear.
Murrow had become a kind of patron saint of early broadcast journalists, first in radio and later on television. He came to fame at the outbreak of World War II, in which he was noted for his live radio reports from the rooftops of London during the Nazi bombing blitz and later for providing one of the first eyewitness news reports of the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp. Rather than chronicle Murrow’s professional career, Good Night, and Good Luck wisely focuses on the conflict between the rising television journalist and the waning political leader. What we get is a fast-paced and exciting film that gives us a glimpse into the tension and apprehension of the era.
Actor George Clooney, who directed the film and co-wrote the screenplay, made another excellent decision in using archival footage of McCarthy. Any attempt to have an actor portray McCarthy would have come across as an unbelievable caricature. That black-and-white video is woven in with portrayals of CBS journalists, including Clooney included as producer Fred Friendly and a sensational David Strathairn as Murrow. (Although appearing as black and white, the film technically was shot on a grayscale set with color film that was later converted to black-and-white.)
Although we may think of matters as black and white, that technical nuance (provided by Internet Movie Database) illustrates the point that the world really has a lot more gray than is evident at first glimpse. McCarthy never obtained any convictions in his witch hunts, but recently declassified information from the former Soviet Union indicates that some of his targets were actually guilty. Some have raised questions about Murrow’s reporting methods, which did not hold to standards of objectivity. Yet the search for complete objectivity is a fantasy. (McCarthy’s tactics did a great deal to highlight the problems of reporting claims attributed to official sources.) Everyone has biases. What’s important is reporting that demonstrates values of fairness, accuracy, even-handedness and responsibility to seek out the truth that may be known.
Set almost entirely in the CBS studios and a bar frequented by Murrow’s crew (in which we hear much of the fine jazz soundtrack), the atmosphere of Good Night, and Good Luck feels like another world. And it was. No Surgeon General’s warning on the dangers of the ever-present tobacco smoke. Far less equality for women. Only three television networks.
But some things don’t change. Watching Good Night, and Good Luck, the viewer quickly realizes that Murrow’s broadcast was not so much an indictment of McCarthy, but of Americans. Of We the People. “We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home,� Murrow said. “The actions of the junior Senator from Wisconsin have caused alarm and dismay amongst our allies abroad, and given considerable comfort to our enemies. And whose fault is that? Not really his. He didn’t create this situation of fear; he merely exploited it.�
As Murrow said in a speech to his staff on the day of the broadcast, “No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are all his accomplices.�
Perhaps we have a lot more personal responsibility for what goes on in our world than we’d like to admit. May it take something less than standing face to face with God for us to realize our culpability.
—1. Overview (multimedia)
—2. Overview Basic (dial up speed)
—3. Reviews and Blogs
—4. Cast and Crew
—5. Photo Pages
—6. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—7. Posters (George Clooney)
—8. Production Notes (pdf)
—9. Spiritual Connections
—10. Presentation Downloads
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home