Nathalie Rothschild
posted 14 February 2006

George Clooney's new film is a tribute to CBS news anchor Edward Murrow, who signed off his weekly show See it Now with those words. It is also tribute to a golden age of broadcast journalism, to the medium of television and its potential for truth telling. Set in the early 1950s, at the height of Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communist witch-hunt, Good Night, and Good Luck explores the dangers of state-imposed limitations on civil liberties, the responsibility of the media to resist such infringements and to exercise freedom of speech, even in a climate of fear. As such, Clooney is of course not merely attempting to tell a story about something that happened in the 1950s, but wants to teach crucial lessons for contemporary American society.

Good Night, and Good Luck is a nostalgic film partly because it is personal; Clooney's father was a news anchor for thirty years and Murrow was a hero to the family. And it was of course in television that Clooney started his own acting career. The techniques used also give the film a nostalgic air; it is shot in black and white and interspersed with original documentary footage, including a 1950s TV commercial for Kent cigarettes. We rarely leave the smoke-filled CBS newsrooms, except when reporters go for a scotch at the local watering hole. The film is a journey to a bygone era, but this is a nostalgia trip which leads right back to the present.

Clooney himself has referred to the film as a 'cautionary tale', which opens up the possibility that 'one in a hundred young kids actually might now know who Murrow is and have some discussion and have some understanding of what and how dangerous a democracy can be if fear [ie of Communism/terrorism] is used as a weapon.' The political message is clear and contemporary - when Murrow says 'we cannot defend freedom abroad and abandon it at home', he may as well be talking about the War on Terror. Likewise, his warnings of the demise of television could just as well be issued today. In a 1958 speech, Murrow refers to television as an instrument which can 'teach, illuminate and inspire', but warns that unless humans are determined to use it to those ends, it is only 'a box of lights and wires'.

Those who do not have a great deal of knowledge about the McCarthy era will not walk away from the film much wiser, but the story will certainly resonate. A leading politician suppressing dissent, spreading a culture of fear and suspicion and a media system which largely does not upset the governmental line. Though this is a conventional critique by now, Clooney, a well-known member of the liberal Bush-bashing Hollywood posse, has certainly set out to make a conscientious film, which is to inform, but also inspire its audience. Brought out by Participant Productions, which also produced Clooney's Syriana, the film very much fits with the production company's belief in 'the power of media to create great social change'.

Good Night, and Good Luck is a captivating film, an admiring portrait of a daring, honest and professional man. The decision to cast McCarthy 'as himself' so that every time he appears it is through authentic documentary footage, adds a layer of complexity to the film and the questions it raises with regards to truth-telling and balanced reporting. Thankfully, Clooney did not choose to dwell on the personal lives of any of the characters, except when wanting to give further insight into the social climate in which Murrow's team operated. Instead, the film remains a story about a particular point in Murrow's career from which wider political issues can be deduced.

This is especially clear in the scene which shows the news team discussing the consequences of broadcasting the contentious stories of McCarthy's clampdown on freedom. Murrow tells his team that they are going ahead because 'the fear is right here in this room'. And so, in the film, the CBS offices become a microcosm for the McCarthy era and 1950s America at large, which serve as backdrops to some clear messages: we have to defy fear mongering, uphold personal integrity and use the media for other purposes than mere entertainment.

Good Night and Good Luck is poignant and effective, but it's hardly the risqué or controversial tale that Clooney and others have made it out to be. The film is patriotic, though Clooney has, predictably, been accused of the contrary. The counterposing of good vs. evil and right vs. wrong is as clear as in any morality tale. The narrative is linear and straightforward and the points Clooney is making are as black and white as the film itself.