Good Night, and Good Luck

This movie is pure brilliance.

George Clooney's film about Edward R. Murrow's battle with Sen. Joe McCarthy, Good Night and Good Luck is entirely in black and white. Almost every scene takes place in the CBS studios. With the exception of a woman singing on-air between programs (and in the opening and closing credits), there is no swelling soundtrack to alert the viewer when to be inspired. The script is extremely dialogue-heavy. The real-life footage from the Senate hearings is not edited for cute soundbites. Ultimately, like the underlying premise of the profession Clooney's Murrow seeks to defend, the film attempts to report simply "the facts" (however pre-screened, edited and fictionalized in a hyper-real account).

I kept thinking about Arthuer Miller's The Crucible throughout the screening -- I think it's because Miller's play, about 17th-century Salem, was written in response to McCarthy's witch hunts. I have no idea what Clooney's underlying political motivations might be, but the timing of his film might indicate that the screenplay was written in response to certain current events and legislative trends.

Go and see it!