Stometer Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Konterr Brilliant and touching

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Claire Dunne One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

SnoopyStyle It's 1953. CBS journalist Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) leads an on-air fight against Senator Joseph McCarthy and his crusade to uncover communists and other unamerican activities. The film follows the CBS news team which includes producer Fred Friendly (George Clooney), reporter Joseph Wershba (Robert Downey Jr.), wife fellow reporter Shirley Wershba (Patricia Clarkson), and others.George Clooney is also the writer and director. He decided to strip this of its Hollywood flash by making it black and white, and keeping the sound design to a minimum. It's a smoke-filled representation of the behind the scenes work in the newsroom. It doesn't have the tension for me. It's inside-baseball for the journalist crowd. Clooney can't escape being Clooney and it's hard to see these characters as flesh and blood. The story could have better tension if McCarthy has an actor playing the group's foil. The news footage serves an useful historical reference but it needs a big performance to deliver the intense drama.

sddavis63 This is an important subject from a historical perspective. The "red scare" era, where everyone and anyone could be suspected of being a communist simply on the basis of rumours or hearsay, and where lives and careers were ruined because of the sometimes questionable connections that were established, and which gave rise to the otherwise obscure and undistinguished Senator Joseph McCarthy, is a fascinating one. This is even a relevant movie - because to some extent the smear tactics used against communists are being used once again against Muslims today, as politicians try to make names for themselves and win elections by whipping up fear. This is an interesting subject - because it focuses on the work of Edward R. Murrow, one of the greatest reporters of all time, in standing up against McCarthy, and committing himself to bringing the man down. And yet, important, relevant and interesting though it is, this is also a pretty dry presentation.Some people liked the decision of director (and co-star, as producer Fred Friendly) George Clooney to film this in black and white. I suppose there were reasons for it. First because it gave the movie a nostalgic feel (although increasingly there are fewer people who would feel the nostalgia because black and white television isn't even in the memory banks of very many people under the age of 50.) It might be that a political point was being made - the dangers of everything being seen in black and white terms. There are good guys and bad guys and never the two shall mix. To me, and I do have some memories of black and white TV, the black and white was a distraction. It added little to the movie. Overall, beyond the black and white, I thought the story seemed to lack something in the power department. It was very low key - TOO low key for my liking. Obviously I wasn't expecting an action movie, but I was expecting something a bit more dramatic.Not that there weren't many good things about this. First, I liked David Strathairn's performance as Murrow. He portrayed Murrow as I would imagine him - a no nonsense, tell it like it is kind of reporter who's willing to butt heads with the powers that be at CBS if he has to in order to tell it like it is. That certainly led to a critique of television that truly relevant today. To what extent does TV news seek to inform, and to what extent does it exist to entertain? How powerful are sponsors in deciding what can and can't be covered? Worthwhile questions, to be sure. I also appreciated the video clips of McCarthy himself. The movie also portrayed the tragedy of CBS newsman Don Hollenbeck (Ray Wise) who became himself tainted with communism after choosing to associate himself with Murrow's attacks an McCarthy, and ended up committing suicide - although, in reality, several weeks passed between that incident and Hollenback's death.Too much was made of the relationship between Joe and Shirley Wershba (Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson.) Co-workers at CBS, they were also secretly married, because at the time CBS didn't allow fellow employees of the network to be married. Quaint, perhaps, but I didn't think it warranted the amount of screen time it got.

Casey Russell My succinct review with no plot summary because I don't feel like putting in a whole lot of effort: Good Night, and Good Luck is definitely a well-made film. Cinematically, it is truly beautiful. The way Clooney manipulates lighting with the black and white creates some great images. That being said, I thought I would really enjoy this movie for 2 reasons. First: I love American history, especially the mid-century. Second: I am a journalism major. While really not a bad movie, I found myself dreadfully bored while watching.... it just didn't live up to my expectations. Do I regret watching it? No, but I didn't particularly enjoy the plot and the way the story was told.

FedRev Set during the reign of Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist witch hunt, Good Night, and Good Luck. is the story of CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow's public battle against the senator. Shot in a beautiful black and white, the film details the pressure put on the public to declare loyalty to the United States and denounce Communism, as well as the struggle to resist that pressure. Murrow was able to leverage his position in the media to expose the evil of McCarthy's crusade, and the film shows the lengths he and his team had to go to do that, as well as some of the contradictions and compromises involved. David Strathairn is brilliant as Murrow, and all in all the film captures the mood and explores the terms at stake in that era with clear purpose. It's also an interesting film on the question of objectivity in journalism. Murrow has a definite perspective, and yet his reporting is fair and accurate. This kind of "activist" journalism is more honest and truthful and ultimately informative than the kind of false "objective" reporting we've been conditioned to accept as the standard.