Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, 2005)

Based on the real-life story, Good Night, and Good Luck covers the standoff between journalist Edward Roscoe Murrow and the staff of CBS, against Senator Joesph McCarthy, as he carried out his anti-communist witch-hunts in the fifties.

Back in 2005, this movie was huge.

Not in terms of box office, but in Oscar season '05, Good Night, and Good Luck was one of the most prestigious.

Coming in the middle of the Bush administration, as the Iraq war entered its third disastrous year, it is easy to see why it took the cultural zeitgeist:

a story of crusading journalists who faced off against a powerful politician and did not blink.

The idea of political witch-hunts, the fear they engender, and the detrimental effect of commercial imperatives on news media, were relevant then, and it remains relevant now - although the explosion of social media and its effect on the general public's understanding of reality can make it feel as archaic as the film's period setting was in 2005.

Good Night... is a fine movie, and a major step up from his debut.

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind is the work of a new filmmaker keen to experiment, and a movie star who has the clout to pick out a unique script that he is not quite capable of converting into a satisfying film.

With Good Night..., it feels like Clooney (who also co-wrote the screenplay with frequent collaborator Grant Heslov) is on a surer footing.

Perhaps his debut was a lesson - Clooney may not have the chameleon-like talent of Steven Soderbergh or the auteurist specificity of the Coen Brothers, but he can handle a sturdy story like Murrow's - a real-life drama based around an evergreen issue.

Once again, Clooney bases his film around a great character actor. David Strathairn's understated, forceful performance is perfectly calibrated to the tenor of the film. As he did in the previous role, Clooney takes a small role as Murrow's producer Fred W. Friendly, while the rest of the cast is stacked with reliable talents like Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels, Ray Wise, and Robert Downey jr.

In the spirt of his subject, Clooney adopts a simple, understated visual style which is more concerned with close-ups of faces and the vulnerability of a tiny human body in a wide, steady shot. 

Most of the film is made up of men in small rooms arguing over tactics and strategy for developing angles on stories, and working out what is important to convey to the audience. This is unpretentious, concise storytelling in a style that does not overshadow its substance. 

Good Night, and Good Luck might have been a bit inflated at the time of its release - and given false promise for Clooney as a director -  but on its own terms it is a solid drama.

The soundtrack by Dianne Reeves is terrific as well.

Related

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind