Sunday, July 21, 2013

On DVD: Good Night, & Good Luck (2005)

Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy ignited feelings of paranoia & fear with his "witch hunts" of suspected Communists in the 50's. CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow decided that McCarthy was as wrong as wrong could be on a number of counts, and exposed him on the air on TV.

This conflict was the basis for George Clooney's "Good Night, & Good Luck", which takes its title from Murrow's signature tagline. Nominated for six Oscars, "Good Night" was filmed in black & white, as opposed to color, to reflect the subject matter. Clooney himself plays producer Fred Friendly, with David Straithairn headlining as Murrow. Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov opted to use archived footage of McCarthy rather than undertake the arduous task of finding an actor for the part. The ensemble cast also includes Jeff Daniels (currently in the HBO series, The Newsroom), Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey, Jr., & Alex Borstein (Family Guy, MadTV).

In order to fund the movie, Clooney got help from a number of sources, including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Like, whodathunk?

Straithairn is spot on as Murrow, and rightfully earned a nomination for Best Actor, as did Clooney for Best Director.

Rotten Tomatoes uploaded the trailer:



Rating: A.

6 comments:

magicdog said...

Like Oliver Stone's "JFK", and Norman Jewison's "The Hurricane", this movie was a pack of lies.

Joe McCarthy may not have been a saint but he was dead on about the Communists and his attempts to expose them. His work was confirmed and documented in the book, "Treason", by Ann Coulter and "Blacklisted By History", by M. Stanton Evans.

hobbyfan said...

So it only tells one side of the story.

Ann Coulter hasn't exactly been a darling of most of America, either.

My thinking is, if McCarthy had evidence----actual, physical evidence, mind you---to support his charges, maybe things end up a wee bit differently. If you go by just heresay and little else, you're going to lose credibility instead of gain it.

magicdog said...

Oh he had the evidence. In fact, as I stated, the books are heavily documented with sources that can be verified - they are not based on hearsay.

The media (dominated by the people he was trying to expose) did what they do best - make their enemies look bad by any way possible (and in an era before the internet/new media - it was easy). Straight out of Saul Alinsky's book, "Rules For Radicals". If you should ever read it, you'll see a lot of similarities between the books teachings, the mainstream media, race hustlers, and the Occupy movement.

hobbyfan said...

I've never heard of the Alinsky book, but I'll bet my brother probably has a copy. That's more his speed.

What people do in their spare time is supposed to be private. Of course, that's nigh impossible now, but back then, couldn't a case be made that McCarthy was being intrusive and interfering with people's civil rights?

magicdog said...

Maybe, but the case the MSM made was that McCarthy was a "witch hunter" who saw a commie behind every bush and persecuted the innocent. Unfortunately, that image persists to this very day, and it couldn't be further from the truth.

We need McCarthy like figures now - whistleblowers who aren't afraid to come forward and expose evil to the light. The recent IRS scandals and the NSA spying reports are more recent examples.

Alinsky's book could be easily found on Amazon or at your local library or bookstore. There was also a best selling book originally published in the late 50s called, "The Naked Communist" by former FBI agent Cleon Skousen, which also documents the Communist/Progressive modus operendi.

hobbyfan said...

Maybe Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men" was right---some of us can't handle the truth. Snowden's on the run, and some politico went so far as to suggest we boycott the Olympics next year because Snowden is in Russia. Oh, please, give me a break.