Good Night and Good Luck (2005)

  I'm not as knowledgeable on the McCarthy era as I should be for watching this movie.  I know that he was a Senator who spun people into a frenzy, playing on their fears of a Communist takeover.  In the day and age of terrorists flying planes into landmarks, that seems a little simplistic and laughable but I try to keep in mind that at the time it was a major thing for people.  They felt like their entire lives were hanging in the balance of these two superpowers and that at any moment they could be obliterated by a nuclear bomb.  That's why a man like McCarthy was able to get so powerful, feeding and exploiting people's paranoia, and why it was so important for someone to stand up to him. 

I wasn't alive for any of this and neither was George Clooney, since he was born in '61 and McCarthyism lasted from the late forties through the fifties.  I bet his parents probably had a lot to say about it, though.  My mother was born in '53 and she remembers the scars that left, which had a lot to do with how people reacted later.  Still, his sophomore directorial effort is a stark look at the period as well as an indictment of our own media--so afraid of being shut out that they water down and softball questions to politicians instead of shining a light on them.  Somehow I doubt Edward R. Murrow is pleased with his successors.

Murrow (David Strathairn) was a news reporter already famous for delivering the "This is London" broadcasts during WWII.  He and his producer, Fred Friendly (George Clooney), indirectly take a potshot at McCarthy by taking up the case of an Air Force lieutenant, Milo Radulovich, who was discharged after refusing to denounce his father and sister without a trial or due process of any kind.  Then they took on the big man himself, using his own speeches against him.  CBS executive Bill Paley (Frank Langella) warned Murrow and Friendly that they would lose sponsorship if they continued.  McCarthy retaliated predictably by raising questions of Murrow's loyalty, but the damage had been done.  He was already under fire by the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations and those hearings were broadcast live on rival network ABC.  The Red Scare was waning, but so was Murrow's clout.  His relationship with Paley never recovered.

This was an extremely well done film.  The only problem I had with it was that it dropped you right in the middle of the action and didn't do a lot to set up various characters.  I loved the use of black and white throughout to really evoke that era, and I especially appreciated all the real footage from the broadcasts, including all of the McCarthy appearances.  I wouldn't buy it because I am not a huge fan of dramas and I can't see myself watching this over and over again.  There are a ton of stars in it, though, including Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Tate Donovan, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Wise.  It's definitely worth a rental.