Anyone else seen this? I tried doing a search, but it kept timing out.
I watched this last weekend, and thought it was pretty good. I don’t know much about the era other than the very broad basics, so a lot of it was new to me. I did gets lost a few times, but my friend (who is more knowledgeable about this) was able to explain it.
I found George Clooney’s presence to be kind of jarring, actually. Everytime he was on the screen, it reminded me that the movie was now instead of “back then.” I really liked the way it was shot in black and white and mixed with authentic footage, though.
Just saw it, and I thought it was excellent. I didn’t find Clooney’s presence particularly jarring: I did think that the movie could have flowed better as a whole, but it still was well-done.
I just saw it tonight and was looking for a thread on it. And hey, I found three!
I really enjoyed it – the matinee at the movie theater was sold out, and there were three instances of spontaneous applause. I’m assuming all the Murrow broadcasts were replicas of the originals.
Using archival footage of McCarthy was a very journalistic move, and a smart one. No need to fabricate things to criticize when the man does it himself.
Clooney did an excellent job of using relevant material to remind us that it’s not such a wide gap between the 1950s and today – what was the line about “fighting for liberty abroad doesn’t mean abandoning it at home”?
I thought it was excellent, and I’ll probably buy it when it comes out. I have a little kink for ethical journalism.
I really enjoyed it. We could use some more jounalists like Murrow.
It’s interesting how the world has changed. In the 1950’s, Miller used the Salem Witch Trials to write about the Red Scare. Now, we use the Red Scare to write about the current state of reporting and government.
Thank you. Although things have been looking up! Anderson Cooper started a segment called “Keeping Them Honest” last week and I almost fell off the bed.
We can hope. At this point I’m like the woman who’s been flaked out on at the altar too many times. They keep saying they’ll do better but they only do just enough to make you accept that ring again then bolt the next time the White House whispers “9/11” in their ears…
I think some of the criticism from the previous threads comes from a bit of historical ignorance. There was TREMENDOUS conflict involved; any of those men in the newsroom could’ve been arrested and thrown in prison. Anyone those men cared about could’ve been harassed, arrested and thrown in prison. McCarthy was not above using smear tactics; he tried to do that with Murrow during his rebuttal show. And that’s what made McCarthy truly dangerous. Any of the men knew they faced that risk and chose to take it anyway.
I thought the movie was outstanding - one of my favorite of the year. I wasn’t put off by Clooney’s presence at all - I was able to accept him as Murrow’s partner-in-crime (so to speak) easily. In fact, I was most distracted by Jeff Daniels, and have been ever since Dumb and Dumber came out. Any time I see him on screen, including this movie, I can only see him as Harry from D&D…However, I did think he have one of the funniest bits of the movie:
I can’t remember the exact line, but it was when he called Shirley and Joe into the office and let them know that EVERYONE knew they were married.
The whole movie was just wonderful. I’ve always been fuzzy on that particular period of American History - I knew the basics, but I really didn’t understand the level of paranoia engendered during that period.
My other favorite part was his interview with Liberace - the expression on David Strathairn’s face as the interview wound down was brilliant - (more spoiler )
He asked Liberace the questions about settling down and getting married - that in and of itself was humorous as the general public today is quite aware nowadays about Lib’s sexual orientation - and Straithairn’s expression clearly conveyed that Murrow was aware as we were what a sham the questions he asked were and his disgust (not at Liberace, but at having to ask these inane questions) showed just ever-so-slightly. You could just tell that some small, tiny little part of his brain was thinking “Is going after McCarthy really worth having to do a bunch of interviews like THIS!?”
I saw it last week and loved it. Clooney has now directed two good movies. Confessions of a Dangerous Mind was a solid three-star movie, and Good Night, and Good Luck is a three-and-a-half. It’s particualarly remarkable because it’s a movie about a bunch of people in a series of rooms talking. There’s no gunfire or explosions or anything like that. It manages to wring drama out of smoking men in stark rooms. I wasn’t distracted by Clooney’s presence because he did such a good damn job. And Strathorn didn’t look much like Morrow, but he had that voice down cold!
Oh, one of the things that did strike me about it (I mean, beyond the part where it completely convinced me that we’re doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past) was how much people smoked. It seemed like in every single scene, at least two people were smoking. I don’t know if this is really how it was in the 50’s or if it was a bit of an exageration but, man, that’s a lot of smoke.
When the Surgeon General’s report on smoking came out in 1964, Murrow did a show about it. One of the bones of contention was his own habit of smoking on the air, and whether that would make him lose credibility.
Also, public perception of smoking has changed. Smoking on TV is now the exception; no anchor would dare smoke on the air, and many characters in TV shows don’t smoke. What was acceptable fifty years ago isn’t today.
