Good Night and Good Luck; a film by George Clooney

Shortly after the red menace scare of the 1950’s, this country went to war to stop the spread of communism based on the lies of an American President. At this point you might ask, what has a history lesson to do with a film review?

As in the art of editing, juxtaposition is everything. Certainly when Clooney began writing and conceptualizing this film, the subject of W. Bush’s excuses for war must certainly have been on the entertainer’s mind. For while the subject matter may have been about the esteemed broadcaster, Edward R. Murrow, the core of the film’s sentiment was juxtaposed against the current background of another government lying to its electorate as it leads us down one more slippery slope. Whether intentional or not, Mr. Clooney sharpened the focus of our current dilemma in trusting and believing our elected officials when they tell us why they are declaring war, whether it be on the communist or the terrorist.

Outside this commentary on intent, the film is an Ansel Adams photograph, full of fine details beautifully crafted in a perfectly chosen frame. Adams photographed nature in black and white, oddly enough with a large format camera, the type used during the opening scene at the party. Strangely, a flash is shown off screen to indicate the picture was taken. Yet seconds before, the camera had no flash attached to the top. Despite that distraction, Clooney has crafted a fine work of art not seen since “The Last Picture Show,” also in black and white (that film and this are dissimilar to Schindler’s List). There’s something about shooting a film in black and white that lends cinemaphotographers to do their best work. There are subtle lighting effects sprinkled throughout that lend the air of the Guggenheim. Between the acting and the photography, this film should easily be recognized come February.

Murrow had a keen intellect. His compatriots like Eric Severeid and Howard K Smith were giants in their new divisions and sharpening their rapiers of wit when it came to their command of the English language. It’s a shame his insights were largely lost on a bored and dulled television audience seeking celebrity gossip and less concern over the misgivings of a crumbling democracy. While his battle with Senator Joseph McCarthy is recreated with incredible detail, the real message of this film has more to do with unspoken subtleties. When Murrow finishes one of the many celebrity interviews he’d been arm-twisted to do, David Strathairn’s face demonstrated with just a relaxed nature everything Murrow must have felt. If that’s not the Best Actor of the year, I pack it in for Wisconsin. Dianne Reeves lyrical blues singing set the low key tone for the piece between sultry and sad.

Ironically, as I watched the various versions of the evening news this week on CNN, PBS, NBC, and CBS, I caught a strange parallel to Clooney’s film. There was David Brooks and other Republican spokespersons crying “McCarthyism” when Democrats attacked the President this week for lying to the American people using false information to justify their war in Iraq (remember the Gulf of Tonkin?). It struck me as ironic that someone like Murrow couldn’t counter with commentary, no longer allowed by television journalists, when the Republican pundits cried “Mia culpa!” When it’s been the administration that has used McCarthy tactics of character assassination on their critics.

The final shot in the film couldn’t illustrate juxtaposition better. President Dwight D Eisenhower is discussing the rights of citizens and use of habeas corpus. Currently in Cuba and other secret bases around the world, such rights have long been abandon for countless numbers of nameless men being held in the dark, all alone, and accused of being an enemy of the state. For them, Democracy and the Geneva Convention don’t exist, and Ike’s words are ashes in the mouths of those who feel free to trample the constitution in the pursuit of their goals.