I so looked forward to watching Good Night, and Good Luck. It was advertised as everything I like in a film; smart dialogue, strong acting and a focus on characters. Add the black and white look, and I'm buying without the test drive. So, I popped it into the DVD player last night, hit "play" and fell asleep almost 50 minutes later. The movie kept the same pace and rhythm throughout, causing me to fall into a deep, hypnotic snooze.
Good Night, and Good Luck is not as much about the McCarthy/Edward R. Murrow feud than it is about the journalistic process that ended the tyranny of McCarthyism. In the modern era of 24-hour news channels, sound-bite journalism and Fox News it is easy to miss the idealism and integrity of golden age reporting.
An aspect of Good Night, and Good Luck that I did like was the parallel between the witch hunt led by McCarthy in the 1950s with today's Bush-invented War on Terror. Both men questioned the patriotism of anyone who disagreed with them. Both had an intensely narrow focus, and limited ability to see the perspective of others. Both benefited personally from power and authority. Both were bastards.
Such similarities!
Anyway...
Skip the movie. You already know how the McCarthy thing turned out. Hopefully the Bush era will be equally embarrassing 60 years from now. **
2 comments:
I admit that I was disappointed by the film. I suppose I was expecting too much out of both history and Hollywood to imagine that more than anti-communist liberalism might be the tone of an anti-fascistic movie. Nevertheless, it is an important signal of the radicalization taking place in the US.
alright, if you are going to talk politics on your film site I'm not coming back. you said no one came to your other blog...are you trying to run away the people who come here?
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