Good Night, and Good Luck (PG)

Directed by George Clooney
Written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Screening at FACT from 17th February 2006

Reviewed by Adam Ford

There are times during this film where I felt like I was watching something from another world. There was a politician - Senator Joseph McCarthy - who was convinced that Communists were about to throw him out of power and onto the scrapheap of history. There was a journalist - Edward Murrow - systematically taking a politician to task over his actions, and openly smoking on telly! And yet when you consider the 'anti-terrorist' measures that have been introduced throughout the world since 9/11, it's clear that the excuse has changed but the underlying paranoia remains the same.

Combining archive footage from McCarthy's 'red scare' show trials with documentary style dramatised interpretations of events in the CBS studios, George Clooney's pet project takes us into the heart of the political and media establishment in 1950s America. Television was very much in its infancy, and a few courageous journalists were allowed their hard-hitting investigations in between the cigarette commercials. Murrow was just an old-fashioned liberal, but his belief that “We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home” set him in opposition to the political leaders of the time. He criticised McCarthy's methods; McCarthy called him "the cleverest of the jackal pack" of Communists. In the end, we see that both helped bring the other down. Murrow was brought down by pressure from advertisers; McCarthy fell from favour when he began to undermine the standing of the military - as was exposed by Murrow.

As a movie, this is a startling experience. Filmed in black and white but with modern camera technology, it looks like nothing else. Because the 'action' is almost entirely confined to the CBS studios, an atmosphere of claustrophobic tension is quickly built-up and cleverly magnified by a restrained script and occasional sprinklings of jazz. At an hour and half, it is also just long enough to tell the story without any diluting or padding-out of the film's supreme importance. The entire cast is on peak form, with David Strathairn as Murrow and Clooney as his producer teasing-out a strained but deeply respectful chemistry. William Paley as their boss perfectly portrays the contradictions between pursuing justice and looking after the bottom line, while Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey Jr have their moments as a couple trying to keep their marriage and political sympathies under wraps.

While Hollywood continues to place itself to the left of Bush and company, television has probably never been further to the right, and operates around a narrow corporate ‘consensus’ that is perfectly illustrated by shows like ‘Question Time’ in the UK. Apart from the odd graveyard slot given to the likes of John Pilger, there are no Murrows to be found on either side of the Atlantic. Although Clooney clearly laments that loss, his impassioned call-to-microphones somewhat misses the point: he who pays the piper calls the tune. Here at Catalyst we try our best, but we face the same pressures that restrict the rest of the media. Anyone who really wants to make a difference must find a way of taking money out of the equation. http://www.indymedia.org is a very good place to start.

Good night, and good luck.