2008 Woodie Awards
"Luck" Has Nothing to Do With It
LaGina Phillips
Issue date: 10/19/05 Section: Valley Life
- Page 1 of 1
"Good Night, and Good Luck"
Director: George Clooney
Features: David Strathairn, George Clooney
4 out of 5 stars
The docudrama on the keystone of early broadcast journalism, "Good Night, and Good Luck," is much more than a history lesson of "This was the way we did news in my day," sputtered by your pipe-toting grandfather.
The story of newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle in the 1950s with communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy is masterfully told through black-and-white cinematography and eloquent, concise dialog. The film tells the story of what happened during a five-month period in late 1953 to early 1954 from the newsroom perspective, without straying into the characters' personal lives or McCarthy's dealings outside of what the CBS news team covered.
CBS's Murrow did for broadcast journalism in the early 1950s what The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did for print journalism in the early 1970s, when they exposed President Richard Nixon as being behind the Watergate scandal.
Murrow's pioneering CBS show "See it Now" served as the platform for a series of episodes revealing McCarthy's fear-exploiting ways to the public. Murrow's crusade to bring his viewers the truth at any cost led to the end of McCarthy's reign of terror as chair of the House of Un-American Activities Committee, but also led to the end of Murrow's career.
After airing the controversial McCarthy-centered episodes, CBS's head honcho, William Paley nervously allows Murrow and producer Fred Friendly to air what they please. But after advertisers start to pull out, Paley starts killing the show slowly; first by knocking it down from a weekly show to sporadic slots and reducing its frequency and then finally pulling the plug in 1958.
Murrow's team of newsmen, including Friendly (George Clooney) and Joe Wershba (Robert Downey Jr.), stood behind him throughout his tread through uncharted waters. The team, known as "Murrow's Boys," went on to become respected broadcast journalists in their own right.
The cast, led by David Strathairn as Murrow, is rounded out by Clooney, Downey, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels and Tate Donovan. The brainchild of Clooney, who serves as co-writer and director as well as supporting actor, the film weaves actual clips of McCarthy into scenes with the actors portraying the CBS newsmen.
By using clips of McCarthy instead of orchestrating a re-enactment, Clooney pays homage to Murrow's technique. In CBS's McCarthy exposé Murrow ran 25 minutes of uninterrupted footage of the senator, letting McCarthy use his own words to hang himself.
Clooney and his clan pull off documenting a historical event and give viewers a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the CBS newsroom without pounding the audience over the head with mundane details and sensationalizing the hero of the story.
Director: George Clooney
Features: David Strathairn, George Clooney
4 out of 5 stars
The docudrama on the keystone of early broadcast journalism, "Good Night, and Good Luck," is much more than a history lesson of "This was the way we did news in my day," sputtered by your pipe-toting grandfather.
 DEADLY DUO - Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and Fred Friendly (George Clooney) contemplate their next move in their quest to expose McCarthy. |
The story of newsman Edward R. Murrow's battle in the 1950s with communist-hunting Sen. Joseph McCarthy is masterfully told through black-and-white cinematography and eloquent, concise dialog. The film tells the story of what happened during a five-month period in late 1953 to early 1954 from the newsroom perspective, without straying into the characters' personal lives or McCarthy's dealings outside of what the CBS news team covered.
CBS's Murrow did for broadcast journalism in the early 1950s what The Washington Post's Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein did for print journalism in the early 1970s, when they exposed President Richard Nixon as being behind the Watergate scandal.
Murrow's pioneering CBS show "See it Now" served as the platform for a series of episodes revealing McCarthy's fear-exploiting ways to the public. Murrow's crusade to bring his viewers the truth at any cost led to the end of McCarthy's reign of terror as chair of the House of Un-American Activities Committee, but also led to the end of Murrow's career.
After airing the controversial McCarthy-centered episodes, CBS's head honcho, William Paley nervously allows Murrow and producer Fred Friendly to air what they please. But after advertisers start to pull out, Paley starts killing the show slowly; first by knocking it down from a weekly show to sporadic slots and reducing its frequency and then finally pulling the plug in 1958.
Murrow's team of newsmen, including Friendly (George Clooney) and Joe Wershba (Robert Downey Jr.), stood behind him throughout his tread through uncharted waters. The team, known as "Murrow's Boys," went on to become respected broadcast journalists in their own right.
 THE MAN HIMSELF - Edward R. Murrow came to fame as a broadcast journalist after making a name for himself on radio, going overseas to cover WWII. |
The cast, led by David Strathairn as Murrow, is rounded out by Clooney, Downey, Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels and Tate Donovan. The brainchild of Clooney, who serves as co-writer and director as well as supporting actor, the film weaves actual clips of McCarthy into scenes with the actors portraying the CBS newsmen.
By using clips of McCarthy instead of orchestrating a re-enactment, Clooney pays homage to Murrow's technique. In CBS's McCarthy exposé Murrow ran 25 minutes of uninterrupted footage of the senator, letting McCarthy use his own words to hang himself.
Clooney and his clan pull off documenting a historical event and give viewers a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the CBS newsroom without pounding the audience over the head with mundane details and sensationalizing the hero of the story.
