Theresa - Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck
Directed by: George Clooney
2005

Good Night and Good Luck is a look at the historical events surrounding the battle between Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy. The film accounts the battles over Murrow’s show and his back and forth with McCarthy and Murrow’s fight to stop McCarthy’s witch hunt.
The film is meant to look like a historical account of the true events. They are very careful to appear to be historically accurate as possible, despite the freedom they take with parts of the story. The film being shot in black and white helps to achieve this feel of authenticity that is needed for you to believe this historical fight.

This movie connects on many levels for me because of the themes it tries to communicate. One of the main themes that comes across is the fear of that era. Everyone was deathly afraid of communism and of being labeled a communist. It is clear that even Murrow does not like communists and fears being labeled one because of the letter he signs at the beginning of the film promising that he has no communist ties. The film does not try to eject our modern ideals into that age by giving Murrow an enlightened view of communism v. capitalism. He did not like communists but did not want people that did not deserve that label to be branded with it because it was such a curse.

Another theme in his film is the fall of television. Murrow makes his opinion of television clear in how much he hates doing the person to person segments. He feels they are mindless entertainment and that the network should be driven by the news division. He is faced with the reality of primetime television when his segment is banished to biweekly Sunday afternoons because the network believes that people do not want to hear such cold facts. Although Murrow fights that they have to give the audience more credit, the network ultimately disregards him in order to protect itself.