Good Night, and Good Luck. (2005): Filmed in tight frames of black and white, 'Good Night, And Good Luck' also brings back the smoke-filled atmosphere of broadcast journalism and television in the 1950s. The film focuses around CBS journalist Edward Murrow and his attempts to take down Senator Joseph McCarthy through his news program, 'See it Now.' David Strathairn, playing Edward Murrow, gives one of the best performances of the year and is surely swimming in Oscar territory. Clooney makes his biggest leap in the film industry yet.
bought a cheap used dvd more than a year ago - watched tonite before watching FridayNightLights.

AudioRevolution DVD Review of "Good Night, and Good Luck": In interviews, George Clooney has stated that he’d always been drawn to Edward R. Murrow’s decision to take the fight to Senator McCarthy. What most people don’t know is that Clooney comes by the interest naturally. In college, he majored in journalism, and Edward R. Murrow’s career and onscreen, in-the-news fight against McCarthy had to be prime study material.
Starring as Fred Friendly, Clooney brings an honest delivery of Murrow’s right-hand man, never once upstaging Strathairn’s portrayal of the crusty newsman.
David Strathairn’s no-nonsense job as Edward R. Murrow really shines in this film. He has all the late newsman’s behaviors and mannerisms down to a T, including the cocked head looking at the camera while burning a cigarette.
Murrow, the real Murrow, came to the attention of the American radio listening public during World War Il. Stationed in London, he broadcast the news of the war effort with calm demeanor and created a stock phrase, “This…is London”, with the emphasis on the first word. His onscreen battle with Senator McCarthy was the stuff from which legends are made. Murrow also championed television as a vehicle for news and information rather than just an entertainment system.
.. Another sympathetic and telling role during the fight between McCarthy and Murrow was the plight of Don Hollenbeck, the night anchor on CBS. Hollenbeck had worked for PM (Picture Magazine) which was accused of leftist leanings because the magazine often championed the “little guy” and tried to ensure a fair treatment. Badgered in the press, deserted by his wife, Hollenbeck ended up taking his own life. Actor Ray Wise brings the reporter’s frailty and vulnerability to the screen in the few scenes he’s scattered throughout the film.

“Good Night, and Good Luck.” has no musical score, though there are songs scattered throughout. The singer who appears was shot on the stage with the other actors. The effect is charming and very evocative of the times the film represents. Even in the commentary sections by Clooney and Heslov, the same quiet tones seem to permeate the audio portions, making it easy to imagine the two men sitting in a sound stage putting the piece together.


Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipient Edward R. Murrow, CBS News Broadcaster
Awarded by
President Lyndon B. Johnson
September 14, 1964
A pioneer in education through mass communication, he has brought to all his endeavors the conviction that truth and personal integrity are the ultimate persuaders of men and nations.
He was very bright and as drama was unfolding in the European stage, he saw an opportunity for radio to bring events right into America's homes.
Murrow is not only known for his cogent point-of-view, but also for his clipped, slow but deliberate style of speaking. Gerald Nachman in his Raised on Radio says Murrow "picked up his basic speech patterns from his Quaker mother, who often spoke in inverted phrases like 'This I believe.'"

companion piece on the dvd was punctuated with quotations from Murrow, elegantly typed on the screen, incl:
Just because your voice reaches halfway around the world doesn't mean you are wiser than when it reached only to the end of the bar. I like the bar being the venue of men speaking, now ~replaced by broadcasting.
Most truths are so naked that people feel sorry for them and cover them up, at least a little bit. that's an int way to say. concealment. (H: disclosing unconcealment). as if (do we?) we conceal even when there is no special motive, no reason not to prefer to show the truth, but that it is the truth and therefore is naked, is bald - too shameful, just because apparent. open.

I also liked something said about Murrow in the piece, by the man I take to be Grant H the co-writer with Clooney, about Murrow reluctant to adapt "Hear it now" into "See it now" - because he preferred words, thought the visual engaged a different mental process.

not in the piece, but of int to me (but, a list of quotations is not a form I like)
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it.
The obscure we see eventually. The completely obvious, it seems, takes longer. heh. here's the rub: this would be more powerful (to me) in its axiomatic brevity if a closing to, or contextualized by, sentences without that punch (which it likely was). A list of quotes tends to be one after another like this, and the repetition of what is meant to be a standout syntax then seems impotent. (also what I feel a touch of when (re)reading Adam Phillips, GK Chesterton).
The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order. With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved. ah. I know that personality. (though it may not be most politicians, I don't know. Nixon? like thorpe.)