Film Review: Good Night, and Good Luck. (dir. G. Clooney, 2005)

Well, this film will get at least three Oscar nominations, so it's worth seeing for that reason alone. (I would predict Best Actor, David Straitharn (amazing as Edward R. Murrow), Best Original Screenplay (Clooney, co-author), and Best Picture, although this is the iff-iest of the three. It will probably get nominated in some other category, so three is still probably a safe bet.) But it's also a great film, timely, and very engaging, even though the ostensible subject is McCarthyism, circa 1953-54.

The film works because it's not too preachy. It escapes preachiness and didacticism (the latter being the worst offense of film) by focusing on Murrow. The film is really a character study of Murrow--a real straight arrow, but someone who is serious and "responsible" in the sense that everything he says is, well, motivated by a concern for things greater than himself. Indeed, responsibility is one of the themes of the film, with McCarthy as the anti-Murrow, spewing irresponsible charges for his own ends. Straitharn as Murrow, somehow avoids caricature, achieves something sublime. An amazing performance.

Clooney, as Fred Friendly, Murrow's producer, is also quite good. I'm a fan of Clooney's. Not because he's a Democrat, although that doesn't count against him. Not because he's the most handsome man on the planet. I'm a fan because here's a Hollywood star who actually says things that make me think he's a smart guy; that if, through some bizarre circumstance, I was seated next to him at a dinner, I would not find talking to him boring. This film is his statement, and it's not a bad statement.

This is one of those message pictures, emphasizing that television (and by extension, film) has a role to play, socially, other than mere entertainment, insulation, and distraction. This film achieves this end, by raising questions about current practice. Really quite an achievement. It says a lot more than McCarthyism is bad, although that probably could use saying, again, now that McCarthyism has found some new defenders.

Also, a film that achieves the beautiful. Luminous black and white.

Go see this one.

(I wrote a much better review, which Blogger ate.)