"Good Night, And Good Luck." takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in 1950's America. It chronicles the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee. With a desire to report the facts and enlighten the public, Murrow, and his dedicated staff - headed by his producer Fred Friendly and Joe Wershba in the CBS newsroom - defy corporate and sponsorship pressures to examine the lies and scaremongering tactics perpetrated by McCarthy during his communist 'witch-hunts'. A very public feud develops when the Senator responds by accusing the anchor of being a communist. In this climate of fear and reprisal, the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity will prove historic and monumental.
NOTES
George Clooney's 'Good Night, And Good Luck.' is set to kick off the 43rd New York Film Festival. The "official" Opening Night screening of "Good Night, And Good Luck" will be the one held at the Avery Fisher Hall on September 23rd 2005.
It´s also in competition at the 62th BIENNALE in Venice, Italy, the Venice Film Festival!
Official Trailer at yahoo | Quicktime and Windows Media
CAST & CREDITS
Starring in alpabetical order:
Rose Abdoo .... Millie Lerner
Alex Borstein .... Natalie
Robert John Burke .... Charlie Mack
David Christian .... Attorney
Patricia Clarkson .... Jenny Darmondy
George Clooney .... Fred Friendly
Jeff Daniels .... Ted Church
Reed Diamond .... John Aaron
Tate Donovan .... Jesse Zousmer
Joseph Dowd .... Reporter
Robert Downey Jr. .... Jimmy Darmondy
Simon Helberg .... CBS Page
Grant Heslov
Frank Langella .... William Paley
Thomas McCarthy .... Palmer Williams
Glenn Morshower .... Colonel Anderson
Katharine Phillips Moser .... Jesse's wife
Bruna Raynaud .... Franck Stanton's Wife
Matt Ross .... Eddie Scott
David Strathairn .... Edward R. Murrow
Ray Wise .... Hollenbeck
Director: George Clooney
Producer: George Clooney,
Steven Soderbergh,
Grant Heslov
Executive Producer: Jennifer Fox,
Ben Cosgrove,
Todd Wagner,
Mark Cuban,
Marc Butan,
Jeff Skoll
Screenwriter: George Clooney,
Grant Heslov
MOVIE POSTER ART
US Poster above, Italian poster art below
WHO WAS EDWARD R. MURROW?
MURROW, EDWARD R. - U.S. Broadcast Journalist
 Edward R. Murrow is the most distinguished and renowned figure in the history of American broadcast journalism. He was a seminal force in the creation and development of electronic newsgathering as both a craft and a profession. Murrow's career began at CBS in 1935 and spanned the infancy of news and public affairs programming on radio through the ascendancy of television in the 1950s, as it eventually became the nation's most popular news medium. In 1961, Murrow left CBS to become director of the United States Information Agency for the new Kennedy administration. By that time, his peers were already referring to a "Murrow legend and tradition" of courage, integrity, social responsibility, and journalistic excellence, emblematic of the highest ideals of both broadcast news and the television industry in general.
Source: MBC
For further information, please visit the Museum of Broadcast Communications http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/M/htmlM/murrowedwar/murrowedwar.htm
You can also download his BIO as a PDF file.
LINKS
Good Night, And Good Luck Official Site
David Strathairn Fansite
Report it Now - Participant Productions
REVIEWS
Review: Good Night, and Good Luck
Posted by Film Cynic on September 22, 2005 01:37 AM
2005 New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival opens Friday, September 23 with the U.S. premiere of Good Night, and Good Luck, a film enacting broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow’s televised criticisms of the McCarthy hearings of 1953-54. Directed by George Clooney, the historical drama is more than a labor of love for the filmmaking actor, who also co-wrote the screenplay and appears in a major supporting role.
David Straithairn won best actor honors at the Venice Film Festival for his immersed portrayal of Murrow, a man often credited with inventing television news reporting with his CBS program See It Now. He leads a talented ensemble that includes Clooney as the show’s co-producer Fred Friendly plus Robert Downey, Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Jeff Daniels and Frank Langella. Joseph McCarthy is only featured through archival footage.
The movie is no more a biopic, however, than The Crucible is about the life of John Proctor and just as that play debuted as a professed allegory for McCarthy’s “witch-hunt” of communists, the senator’s hearings now serve as an undisguised parallel to the Patriot Act and other encroachments of constitutional civil liberties as well as the complacency of today’s broadcast media. During one scene recreating a segment from March 9, 1954, Murrow’s pledge that, “we will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason,” hits most pointedly at the present. Clooney’s intention to anchor his film and his stance on current affairs with this moment is evident in the full quotation’s reprinting in the press notes.
In addition to representing his politics, Clooney’s film works as homage to many personal influences, the most obvious being his newscaster father Nick Clooney. Even before making the connections between then and now, there were plans to do something with Murrow and the dawn of broadcast journalism, a subject that he got into while literally growing up in a TV studio. Another family tribute is made with the soundtrack of songs performed by Diane Reeves including standards previously recorded by the director’s aunt Rosemary Clooney and accompanied by musicians who had worked with the legendary singer.
Good Night, and Good Luck easily fits with Network and The Insider to create a trilogy of films focused on the difficulty of communicating the truth, let alone editorial, via commercial television. This film also bookends the other two by taking place before each of them while being produced after. Many scenes are so similar to aspects of Network that if not completely based on true events, it might be thought too influenced by Sidney Lumet’s 1976 picture. Clooney’s film, he says, is so factual that each scene is “double-sourced”, meaning that unlike many of todays true stories, every bit of Good Night, and Good Luck happened. Perhaps a dialogue here or there was written but none of it could be considered made up, every moment crafted through testimonials, memoirs and extensive research into everyone’s notes. Just as Murrow made certain that McCarthy could not find an iota of error in his program, Clooney seems to want the same accuracy in the film. Critics might attack his motivation but not his veracity.
As writer-director-actor of Good Night, and Good Luck, a film that lays out his familial and political devotions, George Clooney has created something as reflective of himself as the literal subjects. Whether perceived as a personal expression or egotistical vanity project, an important film or insignificant yet overstated association, Clooney’s sophomore effort is an accomplished piece of cinema.
Good Night, and Good Luck plays two shows Friday as part of the festival before opening in limited release on October 7.
source: http://blogcritics.org/
|
