Good Night, and Good Luck: A Good Evening Spent

It having been ages since I'd sat down and watched a good movie without interruption (ie without having one's time hi'Jack'ed if you will), I decided that yesterday evening was a good opportunity to watch one of the many DVDs I'd recently bought/received as birthday presents. Feeling somewhat in need of an intellect injection, I selected "Good Night and Good Luck". And was most impressed.

Not what you'd describe as action packed, this reasonably short (90 mins) film was still remarkable for its ability immediately to make you feel part of both the era, and the eerie paranoia, in which this true-story is set (post-war, but communism fearing, early 1950s America). The plot synopsis you can read elsewhere, but I was pleasantly surprised by this film – thinking it might be a little heavy-going (perhaps due to my usual scepticism of modern films being shot in black and white in an attempt to prove themselves "arty"), it was clear that the black and white nature of the film not only enabled archive footage to blend seamlessly with the main film, but also helped emphasise that this was a film about two sides (communist paranoia feeding legitimised "witch-hunt" persecution of anyone with suspected communist sympathies). Ultimately, the realisation of the injustice involved in the latter helped dilute the former.

Acting (particularly David Strathairn, Frank Langella, and even (I thought), Robert Downey Jr), cinematography and screenplay all excellent. Mr Sutton said that he knows that he's enjoyed a film if he is still thinking about it the next day. This is certainly true of me today. Strangely though, for me it isn't actually the storyline of 'broadcaster versus politician' that causes me to reflect, but rather the contextual background in which this all played out; an age when television was a relatively new invention and, perhaps as a result of arguments put forward by the likes of Edward Murrow, able to be steered away in the years that followed from what was otherwise becoming an apparent destiny to be solely an entertainment facility. In an age of 24 hour reality-obsessed 'car crash' telly, many of the ideas expressed in this film as to how, looking forward from the 1950s, television had the potential to inform and educate a mass audience, could benefit from being revisited. This film helps to do that.