Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

"An electrifying movie event!  Peter Travers, Rolling Syone
"Smart, sharp, and lively.  Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly
"4 stars  USA Today, Chicogo Sun-Times, New York Post, Newsday, The San Francisco Examiner, New York Daily News
"An electrifying movie event. One of the year's best.  Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Editor's Note With GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK, George Clooney delivers a riveting account of a crucial chapter in 20th-century American history and, in the process, firmly establishes himself as a major force behind the camera as well. The crisply paced, tautly scripted docudrama recounts the events of the mid-1950s leading up to acclaimed CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow's (David Strathairn) decision to stand up against fiery Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was out to rid the country of communism. McCarthy's seemingly reckless behavior, in which he condemned individuals without giving them a fair trial, angered Murrow and his producer Fred Friendly (Clooney) into action. The resulting few episodes of Murrow's show, SEE IT NOW, found Murrow on a personal, patriotic crusade to challenge McCarthy and rid America of his callous persecution. Set almost entirely inside the smoke-filled, pressurized newsrooms at CBS, Clooney's assured picture moves at a breakneck pace. Cinematographer Robert Elswit miraculously recreates the black-and-white look of that era, giving the film an added air of legitimacy. And while Clooney and co-screenwriter/producer Grant Heslov wisely chose to use stock footage of McCarthy instead of finding an actor to fill his shoes, they couldn't have found a better Murrow than Strathairn, who delivers his lines with heroic conviction. Clooney's stellar ensemble cast also includes Ray Wise, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr., Jeff Daniels, and Frank Langella.

	David Strathairn
	Patricia Clarkson
	Ray Wise
	Robert Downey, Jr.
	Ben Cosgrove - Executive Producer
	George Clooney - Director
	George Clooney - Writer
	Grant Heslov - Writer
	Mark Cuban - Executive Producer
	Robert Elswit - Cinematographer
	Stephen Mirrione - Editor

New York Times
"[A] passionate, thoughtful essay on power, truth-telling and responsibility." 09/23/2005 p.E1

Rolling Stone
3.5 stars out of 5 -- "Clooney emerges as a powerhouse filmmaker....Clooney has crafted a period piece that speaks potently to [the] here-and-now..." 10/20/2005 p.89

USA Today
"David Strathairn plays Murrow, a performance eerily on the money and tinged with irony....The extensive footage of McCarthy is artfully integrated." 10/07/2005 p.4E

Los Angeles Times
"[A] marvel of classic restraint in a hopped-up film culture. Shot in elegant black and white with impeccable ensemble acting and moody jazz riffs for a soundtrack, it wouldn't exist except for the lonely passion of director, co-writer and costar George Clooney." 10/07/2005 p.E1

Premiere
3.5 stars out of 4 -- "[W]hen the movie's at is smartest, it's dazzlingly bright....David Stratharin, playing Murrow, follows his writers' lead beautifully, delivering a performance that's all understatement on the surface and searing fire underneath." 11/01/2005 p.46-48

Entertainment Weekly
"[A]n energized sliver of history, smart, sharp, and lively, staged with enjoyable panache..." -- Grade: B 10/14/2005 p.117-119

Sight and Sound
"David Strathairn's extraordinary performance dominates the film with its gravitas, pathos and even a streak of deadpan humour." 11/01/2005 p.26

Uncut
5 stars out of 5 -- "[C]ontinually astonishing for its poise and its impeccable attention to detail....Clooney achieves his objectives with clarity and concision." 03/01/2006 p.122-123

Movieline's Hollywood Life
"Righteous and superbly evocative of the era, the film also reacquaints us with a more sophisticated yesteryear, when media stars had principles, spoke in full paragraphs, and faced down the corrupt..." 03/01/2006 p.106

Widescreen Review
"Strathairn's subtle and serious Oscar-nominated performance demands the respect of his audience." 05/01/2006 p.66

Total Film
4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] well-judged and well-timed Clooney lament about the state of television journalism in a trying age..." 06/01/2006 p.102

Ultimate DVD
3 stars out of 5 -- "[A] healthy reminder that in any political crisis, history is always the final judge." 07/01/2006 p.112

Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
As a director, Clooney does interesting things. One of them is to shoot in black and white, which is the right choice for this material, lending it period authenticity and a matter-of-factness. In a way, b&w is inevitable, since both Murrow's broadcasts and the McCarthy footage would have been in b&w. Clooney shoots close, showing men (and a few women) in business dress, talking in anonymous rooms. Everybody smokes all of the time. When they screen footage, there is an echo of "Citizen Kane." Episodes are separated by a jazz singer (Dianne Reeves), who is seen performing in a nearby studio; her songs don't parallel the action, but evoke a time of piano lounges, martinis and all those cigarettes. Clooney's message is clear: Character assassination is wrong, McCarthy was a bully and a liar, and we must be vigilant when the emperor has no clothes and wraps himself in the flag. It was Dr. Johnson who said, "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." That was more than 200 years ago. The movie quotes a more recent authority, Dwight Eisenhower, who is seen on TV defending the basic American right of habeas corpus. How many Americans know what habeas corpus means, or why people are still talking about it on TV? - Roger Ebert

Variety.com 9 of 10
Clooney and his co-scenarist, producer and fellow actor Heslov lay out the contemporary relevance of some of the issues for anyone to see, particularly as regards civil liberties and the existence of an extreme socio-political divide in the United States. But they don't push it, which frees the film from the dreaded limitation of preaching to the choir. In fact, "Good Night, and Good Luck." is the second picture this year from ostensibly liberal-left filmmakers (after the hit Sundance docu "Why We Fight") to use speeches by President Eisenhower to endorse their perspectives on post-war American history. Robert Elswit's agile, lustrous black-and-white lensing mixes beautifully with the vintage 16mm and kinescope material in which McCarthy himself and others are seen. While Clooney's elegant, on-the-move visual style makes no attempt to match the more static, high-contrast look of '50s TV, it is nevertheless highly evocative of it, providing a rich atmosphere for the densely packed drama. All other design elements, from the credible newsroom and studio sets to the detail of the period equipment, are exemplary. Strathairn is first among equals in the exemplary ensemble, with Clooney's vigorous Friendly, Langella's polished and authoritative Paley and the more understated duo of Downey and Clarkson making the strongest impressions. - Todd McCarthy