Good Night and Good Luck is a film centrally based around Ed Murrow, a broadcaster and journalist who took it upon himself and his team to bring the truth and some intelligence to the masses that watched television. During the 50s it was a simpler time when black and white were obvious, except when it came to Communism and those associated with it.

Senator Joe McCarthy produced a sort of witch hunt to oust and find spies of the Communist enemy within the ranks of the US, in order to deter and remove potential security risks. Although it could be argued that the goal was sound, the methods that were used were anything but. Calling it a witch hunt is fair game, as anyone who was remotely associated to any Communist party or any political group that valued Communist beliefs.

Add to the embroling of accusations came hearsay and circumstantial evidence, which when the accused was tried, would rarely be produced to offer any hard evidence that could be rebuked. This indeed was a simpler time, and certainly one where the line between black and white could easily be drawn as to what stood out as the truth, and what stunk of a cover up or cock up.

Ed Murrow chances upon an article in a newspaper about a member of the US Army who is forced to quit his job as he has been associated with Communist links. His son is asked to disassociate himself from his father, as well as his sister, to expunge any links with Communism they may have.

Both brother and father refuse to bow down to the nonsensical treatment and Murrow picks up on the story to expose it in his modern day equivalent of 60 Minutes. Murrow is successful in achieving his goals, as the evidence upon which the sacking was issued was hidden within a manilla envelope that no one could claim to have seen. For all we know, nothing was contained in the envelope, and it was perhaps a case of another witch hunt. A witch hunt that proved fruitless when the father is reinstated back in the US Army, cleared of all charges.

McCarthy can be compared to Bush, in his expulsion of known and unknown foreign entities entering the US, and his management of the populace mass in exerting the same sort of brainwashing, political nonsense that got the US and Britain into an illegal war. McCarthy may not have claimed to have any ideals towards gaining greater power, but in his one minded, single track objective, this was anything but the truth.

It’s interesting to note how Clooney manages to include a cigarette advert, which proclaims that intelligent people who smoke it, also watch Ed Murrow’s show, are of a good education and can think for themselves. This contradictory element is a fascinating inclusion, considering the irony that Murrow’s died of lung cancer.

Good Night and Good Luck is not an easy film to watch, simply because the content of the film is so focused and single minded with it’s references to McCarthy and the whole sorry saga of the end of Murrow’s show in unjustified terms, making way for unintelligent TV shows that offer nothing but superficial throwaway entertainment. It’s perhaps a reflection of our times where prime time is horded with television shows that offer nothing worthwhile or worth redeeming, and news shows are slotted in to fit around the major entertainment, itself presented in bite size chunks that spoon feed the audience.

There are many parallels with what happened to Murrow and the freedom of speech that was so cherished by him, and the cowardice with which new programs now barely dare to challenge their Government, nor those that may be abusing their powers. Television is still a strength, but like most programmes, there’s someone who knows someone who won’t like what is being said and story will be killed. It’s an unfortunate way of the world, so thank goodness for the Internet.

Performances throughout are brilliant, and I felt David Strathairn certainly deserved an Oscar for his performance as the straight laced, no nonsense reporter Ed Murrow’s, with Clooney offering a subdued performance as Murrow’s thought outlet and producer.

Good Night and Good Luck shows that Hollywood is capable of producing a decent political drama when it wants to, and in this case a damned fine one. So why don’t we see more intelligent films from the land of ‘Wood? Probably because it just isn’t the money spinner a Hollywood blockbuster is. Another contradiction, then.

Verdict: Exemplary performances in a tightly directed political drama