Good night, and good luck: Grade B

B

Good night and good luck

David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, George Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr., Frank Langella. Directed by Clooney.

Edward R. Murrow, broadcasting on CBS News in the 1950’s challenges the constitutionality of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt that destroyed the lives of many. Actual footage of the McCarthy hearings gives a good sense of historical realism. The acting is good, especially RDJ, though not superb. Straithairn does the one stern Murrow look and that’s it. There is no range. He is just a speechifying two-dimensional cutout. We don’t know anything about him, or any of the characters, so the movie overall is emotionally and dramatically flat.

The parallel between the 1950’s government trampling civil rights in the name of “security” and today’s comparable situation is sharply drawn, and no doubt the major motivation for the film, but the political message got in the way of good story telling. There is no dramatic tension. However, the music, sets and costumes are fantastic. It’s a wonderful period piece, worth seeing for that alone. The movie was probably subsidized by the tobacco industry, because cigarettes star as a major character– it’s just too prominent to seem natural. And interestingly, no ashtray is ever shown. Cig companies would not want us to see the filthy butts and ashes everywhere. One false note is when a wife recommends a tie and says “the blue one.” That was an odd thing for a b&w movie and momentarily broke the magic.