Everything about Good Night And Good Luck totally explained
Good Night, and Good Luck. is an
Academy Award-nominated
2005 film directed by
George Clooney and written by Clooney and
Grant Heslov that portrays the conflict between veteran radio and television journalist
Edward R. Murrow and
U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of
Wisconsin, especially relating to the
anti-Communist Senator's actions with the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
The movie, although released in
black and white, was filmed on color
film stock but on a
grayscale set, and was later
color corrected to black and white during
post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when the media offer a voice of dissent against the government. The movie takes its title from the line with which Murrow routinely closed his broadcasts.
Cast
Plot
Good Night, and Good Luck. takes place during the early days of
broadcast journalism in the
1950s.
Edward R. Murrow, and his dedicated staff—headed by his co-producer
Fred Friendly and reporter
Joseph Wershba in the
CBS newsroom—defy corporate and sponsorship pressures, and discredit the tactics used by
Joseph McCarthy during his crusade to root out communist elements within the government.
Murrow first defends
Milo Radulovich, who was facing separation from the
U.S. Air Force because of his sister's political leanings and because his father subscribed to a
Serbian newspaper. A very public feud develops when the Senator responds by accusing the anchor of being a communist. Murrow is accused of having been a member of the leftist union
Industrial Workers of the World, which Murrow claimed was false.
In this climate of fear and reprisal, the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity ultimately strikes a historic blow against McCarthy and his methods. Historical footage also shows the questioning of
Annie Lee Moss, a
Pentagon communication worker accused of being a communist based on her name appearing on a list seen by an
FBI infiltrator of the
American Communist Party. The film's subplots feature recently married staffers having to hide their marriage to save their jobs at CBS; and the suicide of
Don Hollenbeck, who was accused of being a Communist. The film is
framed by a speech to the
Radio and Television News Directors Association, in which Murrow harshly admonishes his audience not to squander the potential of
television to inform and educate the public.
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the New York Film Festival: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate." Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father,
Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an
anchorman in
Cincinnati,
Ohio, and
Buffalo, New York. The elder Clooney also ran for congress in 2004.
George Clooney has been paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in
Good Night, and Good Luck, which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of
Syriana a few months earlier, Clooney couldn't pass the tests to be insured. He then proposed to mortgage his own home in order to make the film.
Dallas Mavericks owner
Mark Cuban and former
eBay president
Jeff Skoll invested money in the project as executive producers.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a
soundstage. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an
elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out
perpendicular to one another. The "elevator" was actually built on a large
turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets, and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location.
Production designer James Bissell used the
3D computer graphics software program
SketchUp to model the entire studio set including all sets and camera angles.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film. Young
Robert Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
Distribution
The producers used the following taglines when marketing the film:
They took on the government with nothing but the truth.
We won't walk in fear of one another.
In a nation terrorized by its own government, one man dared to tell the truth.
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo was featured in the movie in several scenes, for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she's recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards, and it won the Grammy Award in 2005 for best jazz vocal performance.
Reception
The film received generally glowing reviews. It was named "Best Reviewed Film of 2005 in Limited Release" by Rotten Tomatoes, where it achieved a 94% positive review rating. The movie received six Academy Award nominations, including ones for Best Picture, Director, and Actor.
Jack Shafer, a columnist for the online magazine Slate, accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography of Murrow. Roger Ebert, in his Chicago Sun-Times review, contends that "[t]he movie isn't really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless."
Awards and nominations
American Film Institute (AFI) award:
2006 Academy Awards nominations:
2006 BAFTA nominations:
2006 Golden Globe Awards nominations:
2005 Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations:
Ratings
All Movie Guide link
Roger Ebert
Empire link
Filmcritic.com link
Premiere
Rolling Stone Further Information
Get more info on 'Good Night And Good Luck'.
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