Film: "Good Night and Good Luck": The Past, Again

We finally rented "Good Night and Good Luck." This is through and through a George Clooney (cue female voice: "oooh, he's dreamy!") project, and God bless him for it. In addition to playing TV news producer Fred Friendly, Clooney co-wrote the film with Grant Heslov and directed it. Based on the movie's contents and the parallels of said contents to today's America, every American should see this film and start a conversation and about what is right and what is really wrong.

Let's get a few things out of the way first. The cast is excellent, with David Strathairn as Ed Murrow and Frank Langella perfect as CBS chairman William Paley. There is also the lovely Patricia Clarkson, the underrated Robert Downey, Jr (drug addiction and prison time will steal attention away from your acting abilities), and Jeff Daniels. Additionally, singer Dianne Reeves is seen performing a beautiful jazz standard score that very nicely accompanies the black and white photography.

And now the facts as we know them: "Good Night and Good Luck" is based on the battle in the 1950s between CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow and the junior U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, Joseph McCarthy. Actual footage of McCarthy and his henchman Roy Cohn (and I used that term in the nicest way possible) are used at length throughout the film, and to good effect. Agree or disagree with McCarthy and his methods (and there is a current attempt amongst some conservatives to resurrect McCarthy's image) there is no denying these are the words and actions of the real Tailgunner Joe.

The film gives us McCarthy and his Red-baiting tactics, accusing people of being fellow travelers when maybe they had done nothing more than attend a union meeting in the 1930s. Many of McCarthy's accusations, such as his claim of there being outright Communists and a spy ring in the State Department and commie infiltration of the U.S. Army were unsubstantiated. While the charges may not have stuck, the taint on people's lives and careers did.

We are also told the story of a young man who stood up to the system in a small way, a way that began the turning of the tide against McCarthy. Milo Radulovich was dismissed from the Air Force after a hearing where evidence was presented in a sealed envelope only to the panel of judges, never to Radulovich nor his counsel. It was commonly believed that the basis for dismissal was that Radulovich's father, a Yugoslav immigrant who kept up on the news of the old country by reading a paper with alleged Red ties, and sister, were Communist sympathizers.

Murrow, on his "See It Now" program, ran a story about Radulovich, pretty openly questioning how anybody could be given a fair trial without being told what exactly they were on trial for (is anyone catching on to the modern day Bush administration parallels yet?). Murrow also did a very controversial show about McCarthy and his tactics.

Ultimately, Radulovich is reinstated into the Air Force, and McCarthy is censured by the Senate, but not impeached and removed.

Clooney says in a DVD extra that he wants this film to be a conversation starter. "Good Night and Good Luck" is certainly that. It is an instigator. Or at least it should be. I don't know that many people have actually seen the film. But it certainly brings up topics that should be discussed in the United States.

"Good Night and Good Luck" does a good job of simply presenting the main characters of this national drama, Murrow and McCarthy, by giving an honest recounting of what they said and did without really veering off into editorializing, as admittedly Murrow did on his programs about McCarthy.

Secret trials should be discussed in our society on a daily basis. Fear mongering and it's consequences should be discussed. The idea of dissent being disloyalty should be discussed. These were issues of great importance in the very conservative 1950s and that past has come around again, because we have let it.

While he made a famous name for himself, Joe McCarthy was not only one to incite fear in the name of patriotism. No one man could do that alone. He was part of a bigger system, a system that still exists today, one that finds profit and success in the dark shadows of secrecy and the attempt to remove freedoms from the Land of the Free. Left to their own devices, these shadow warriors would have US be no more free than our purported enemies.

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home."
- Edward R. Murrow