Good Night, and Good Luck

The minute I saw Robert Downey Jr. appear on screen, consider my attention grabbed. Of course, the plot of the film itself was intriguing, but I am also a fan of RDJ's work in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Shortly after starting this post, the camera then turned to George Clooney. This film has quite a star-studded cast! Anyway, I'll stop fangirling. Let's continue the rest of this post professionally. 

Good Night, and Good Luck is a drama from the early 2000s directed by George Clooney that is based on a true story. The film opens with the head of CBS, Sig Mickelson, introducing Edward Murrow, a broadcast journalist for CBS, to the audience. Murrow is preparing to give a speech. In this speech, Murrow mentions that "We have a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this." It is unfortunate how true this statement is today when it comes to certain topics. I believe that our government does in fact have a built-in allergy to unpleasant information, which only sets us back a hundred steps as a nation. My belief is reflected by recent events in our country that have been overlooked, swept under the rug, or blatantly ignored by government officials. As of today, March 30th, the year 2023 started only 88 days ago. In that time, there have been 130 shootings. LGBTQ+ rights are on the line. Abortion is no longer a woman's protected choice. The tragedies don't stop there. Rather than focusing on real issues, all the government has done as of late is yell at the creator of a social media app (Tiktok) and ask him the most inappropriate, idiotic questions surrounding wifi networks and dilating pupils. Whatever happened to liberty and justice for all? Whatever happened to liberty and justice AT all? America is falling apart at the seams, and patching those holes up only makes them look uglier. As much as I'd love to go on, I think it would be best to end this here and resume talking about the film. 

The main idea behind Edward Murrow's speech is that people must be told the truth by the media. Nothing should be sugarcoated in order to save face. The end of Murrow's speech states, "But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late." Edward Murrow can be seen as a protagonist in the film. He believes in doing what is right, even if it means going against his superiors and getting to the heart of uncomfortable topics that no one wants to touch upon. Murrow is displaying the attitude of a true, trustworthy journalist, insisting on telling the truth and nothing but the truth. One might consider him to be a muckraker journalist. 

Towards the middle of the film, I noticed something interesting. Certain scenes opened with a jazz singer in a recording studio. Her songs seemed to set the tone for those scenes and act as a symbol. If you listen closely to the lyrics, she brings up ideas of darkness, heaven, light, and love, among other things. 

 

Edward Murrow's goal in the film was to expose Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was continuously exploiting fears of communism in the U.S. during a time when the threat of communism had already created a stir. McCarthy was seemingly adding fuel to the fire...and for what? Who was that supposed to benefit? There is a discussion at work between colleagues of alleged communists hiding around in the U.S. which led to an innocent man getting dismissed from the air force on a pure assumption. The man was given the most unfair trial I've ever seen, unaware of the charges against him and with evidence remaining sealed in an envelope. The man was found guilty, and the majority of journalists backed away from reporting about it for the fear of being penalized by McCarthy. 

Edward Murrow eventually steps up, eager to air out McCarthy's dirty laundry and give the people the truth on his show, while also requesting comment in self-defense from McCarthy. McCarthy agrees to come on the show, only to accuse Edward of being a communist himself and listing what he believes are pieces of relevant evidence. Edward denies most of them aside from being on a foreign payroll for a short amount of time and declares that since McCarthy did not deny any facts that were reported about him, the audience can assume that all of them are in fact true. Edward wins! The air force man goes back into the army, and all is well. A clip of Edward's speech is shown again, ending the film with its title, which I thought was a perfect way to summarize everything. Way to go, George Clooney!