Good night and good luck

Good night and good luck (2005): A Review

(Now available on DVD)

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"We will not walk in fear of one another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and doctrine and remember that we are not descended from fearful men, not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes which were for the moment unpopular. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. "

This is a film set in the McCarthy era, telling the story of how Ed Murrow and his team of journalists took on McCarthy, and help to finished his communist witch hunt.

It is important today because it shows how someone like McCarthy can become important, and can feed on the fears in society, and fan the flames of prejudice, frequently with no evidence, only hearsay, and the use of a vicious polemic.

The lessons it teaches are wider than the era itself, and certainly in a world post 9/11, where there is fear in Muslim minorities in Western countries that they may be attacked for no other reason than their faith, or fear of those same minorities (who might be a secret terrorist sleeper?), it is necessary to say: do not react out of fear, do not look at others through a filter of prejudice. These are the preliminaries to peace, but they are only the first steps on the road to peace between all peoples of goodwill. Where there is a climate of fear, of people ranting against other people, it is still necessary to speak out, even if it means saying things which are uncomfortable; complacency too often is a cover for a false comfort that hides from speaking truth.

Murrow succeeded in stopping one witch hunt; but he paid a price. There were sudden staff cut-backs, his show was moved from prime-time to a Sunday afternoon slot, and reduced in number of programs. Victory against the forces of fear is never won easily.

This film, with its wonderful black and white photography, its marvelous use of light, and blues music punctuating the story, brings the time vividly to life; an age when cigarette smoke rose pervasively all around (wisps caught in beams of light). The documentary feel to it is precise; it does not make a chocolate coated confectionary, and for this the use of black and white is required; colour would make it seem too artificial.

David Strathairn is perfect as Murrow, George Cluny self-effacing as co-producer, Fred Friendly. The intercut real film of McCarthy blends seamlessly. This is also accurate to history. In his 1954 "See it Now" special, "A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy" , Murrow did use excerpts from McCarthy's own speeches and proclamations to criticize the senator and point out episodes where he had contradicted himself.

It is a film that deserves to be seen wherever there is a climate of fear.

Previously, I had regarded the excellent, but underrated, TV biopic of Murrow ("Murrow", 1985) starring Dan Travanti as pretty definitive; it went from the war years (where he reported from London under the Blitz, with the catch-phrase "This is London." ) through the McCarthy era until his the cigarette-induced death. This new film is more precisely focused, but the sharper for it.

Incidentally, the catch phrase of Murrow used as the title of the film, and his sign off for his shows probably dates from his war years. Londoners in the Blitz used the phrases "so long, and good luck", and Princess Elizabeth, in a radio broadcast of 1940, ended with the words "good night, and good luck to you all." At the end of one of his 1940 broadcasts, Murrow ended with "good night, and good luck" and Ida Lou Anderson his voice coach, insisted he keep it.

When most cinema sets out just to entertain, this is a film with a difference, of which Murrow's own words are most apposite:

"This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire, but it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box."

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