Good Night, and Good Luck

If you were alive and aware of what was going on in the 1950's, Good Night, and Good Luck will, I'm sure, bring it all back in glorious black and white. If you weren't around then or were too young to appreciate what was going on, it may leave you a little confused.

Good Night, and Good Luck depicts the efforts of CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his producer Fred W. Friendly (George Clooney, who also directed and co-wrote) to bring down Senator Joseph McCarthy, a man on a witch hunt for Communists.

Shown entirely in black and white and including film clips from the era, the movie has the look of either a modern documentary of those times, or a film shot in the 1950's. Either way, it works well. All of the acting, the direction, and the cinematography is excellent.

Still, the movie is weak in one key area: writing. It has the feeling of being a moment caught in time. Unless you remember the early 1950's, you won't fully appreciate the rampant paranoia that led up to these events. And the ending is such that you're left hanging, wondering what's going to happen to these characters after they succeed in humiliating McCarthy and before Murrow's award speech that bookends the film.

Two characters, Joe and Shirley Wershba (Robert Downey Jr. and Patricia Clarkson) are involved in a fascinating sub-plot that is also left hanging. You really feel for these people, remarkable given the limited screen time their story is alloted, and you want to know what happens to them. But like the greater story, you're left unsatisfied.

What Good Night, and Good Luck does accomplish is a not so subtle commentary on today's headlines. Just as McCarthy was only too willing to suspend the freedoms of innocent Americans in his hunt for Communists, some politicians today would do the same in their hunt for terrorists. And the fact that this is happening proves we really haven't learned from history.

Random Notions rating: 7 out of 10. Great acting, but an unsatisfying conclusion.