The Red Scare of the late 40’s and early 50’s was the product of fear and cowardice. Fear of the American public and cowardice of it’s leadership. Senator Eugene McArthy capitalized on this moment to destroy lives and to send America to precipice, before courageous people were able to pull America back from the brink.

One of those individuals who helped America pull back from the brink of mass hysteria was Edward P. Murrow. At least I suppose he was one of those heroes. In the film Good night and good luck we are sent back into the past to watch the events of that era. It’s unclear from the film, however, what we are watching. Are we watching the journalistic process? Are we watching good fight evil? Are we watching a couple caught in the wierd rules that CBS had about married couples? Are we watching George Clooney shoot a black and white film for his final thesis in his directing masters?

The film focusses on a set of critical broadcasts, Murrow’s attack on McArthy and McArthy’s attack on Murrow. By shooting the entire film in black and white (technically: The film was shot on color film on a grayscale set, then color-corrected in post) and using original footage, the impact and drama of those broadcasts is not lost. What is lost is why did Murrow do it. What motivated him to attack McArthy? Why did he, unlike everyone else, go out on a limb to attack a madman? The film suggests that it was his own natural outrage, but then why did he feel so outraged? Or was it that he was a great journalist and like all great journalists saw that there was a great story to be told?

We’ll never know.

And that’s the problem with this film. At no point do we understand why Murrow did what he did, and at no point do we get a feeling for why what he did was so important and at no point do we get the drama of what he did. Instead we see a collection of journalists pursuing a story against a madman using TV to destroy his reputation.

Ironically, Edward P. Murrow’s main contribution may not have been his attack on McArthy, but his persuasive demonstration that by editing and cutting footage you can construct a case proving anything. From the See It Now episode on McArthy there is a direct line to Michael Moore’s Farhenheit 9/11 and television’s Survivor. The message is no longer controlled by the speaker but by the editor of the message.

Maybe the soundbite culture emerged when McArthy blew it on television.

As a film, it’s an interesting exercise in directing skills, but the story is best read on your favourite web site where more color and texture can be added to the tale.

In a year of weak movies, this may have squeaked by because the Academy is always impressed with someone telling them how heroic they are, and because Clooney as a director did a good job.