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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Politics > Journalism > History > TV > Good Night & Good Luck (Blu-ray & HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)

Good Night & Good Luck (Blu-ray & HD-DVD/DVD Combo Format)

 

Picture: B-/C+ for standard DVD     Sound: B-/C+ for standard DVD     Extras: C+

Film: C+

 

 

George Clooney’s second film as director has a forerunner in his live TV reenactment of Sidney Lumet’s Fail Safe that just did not quite work.  He has taken his fascination with black and white images and found another tale affiliated with TV, but much more directly.  Good Night & Good Luck (2005) attempts to recreate the battle between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy.  McCarthy was on a witch-hunt that the establishment let him go on during the infamous Senate Hearings until Murrow showed how idiotic he was and McCarthy made the big mistake of going after the U.S. Military.

 

The film is as much about then as now, since a new wave of Ultra-Conservatism has swept the nation and there are even a few “revisionists” trying to say McCarthy was a great man and that Communists needed to be hunted down.  Those who know better, and as demonstrated by this film, the “hunters” became very, very, very carried away and were going after just about anybody who had the least amount of opposition or who was a weak, easy target.  Yes, history is repeating itself.

 

David Strathhairn, a great veteran actor, gets his due in acing Murrow.  He becomes Murrow and never hits a false note about his integrity or mannerisms.  The film begins with a speech he gives, then flashes back to the reign of McCarthyism (a name it did not earn as Left-wing revisionist history, but because it was such a national disgrace) and how Murrow and his crew decided they should deal with it through journalistic means.  It was a big risk and part of the valid point of the film that does not go far enough (like so much in its far too short 93 minutes) is how this proved television journalism was as important and potent as print or radio media.

 

Through common sense and the quoting of McCarthy himself, the team cleverly and easily deconstructs the one-sidedness of his grandstanding like a tele-inquisitor.  Idiotically, he not only responds by attacking Murrow, but a crazy story about Murrow suddenly being a Communist and even supporting The International Workers of the World is circulated.  Since once again the film falls short in explaining what is really going on, this was considered the most radical and potent of all unions, as well as a threat to big companies who just wanted cheap labor and could care less who got hurt or killed on the job.  You can read more about them in our review of the terrific documentary The Wobblies on this site.

 

If a flat, lack of through narrative was not enough of a problem, expecting the audience to have more of an advanced knowledge of this history than any film should expect, the idea of doing the event in a flashback for 99% of the film is another mistake further distancing the audience from the events as they unfold.  Also, merely telling the audience about the basics about what happened does not go far enough and the film plays it too safe in the end.  This film needed guts, an edge and that does not mean anger and histrionics.  Being somewhat comatose is just as bad.  History is a living thing and the film forgets that.  The result is nearly condescending in its withholding of key information and the climax of the exchange between the two being anti-climactic.  This leaves those on the Right being able to say “see, it was not that bad” and that is a shame.  One person even complained that you would never see a film criticize anyone like this on the Left.  Well, there are plenty of people to complain about there, but none of them got the reign McCarthy did, which is why this film got made.  When I asked them to name anyone on the Left who was McCarthy-like, they could not name anyone.

 

What did work in the film was Clooney as the great Fred Friendly, co-screenplay writer Grant Heslov as Don Hewitt, Ray Wise, Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey Jr. and Jeff Daniels are among a strong supporting cast, while archive footage of McCarthy (again left to speak in his own words) is there among others.  Of course, it is not illegal to be a Communist, but McCarthyism and all those who (still) support(ed) it made it some kind of de facto crime.  Even worse, until The Cold War set in, the massive propaganda was that The Soviets were our friends (a mistake of another kind) when we had to fight the original Axis Of Evil.  Then, they were the new enemy, but this was also en excuse to attack any ideology that disagreed with a certain kind of extremism that made the 1960s possible and upon its return is bringing new horrors worldwide.  Yes, Good Night & Good Luck is as much about now as then.  Too bad it does not hit a much-needed homerun.  In a few years, it will be as unremembered as another film about TV that played it too safe: Robert Redford’s Quiz Show.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.85 X 1 image on the standard DVD is a disappointment, looking softer and lacking more detail than expected and the film looked better than this.  For the 1080p version on both HD-DVD and Blu-ray, it is just about a draw and though they look better than the standard HD versions, they then show the limits of this latter-day, more commercial black and white.  The film was shot by the amazing cinematographer Robert Elswit, A.S.C., who has done everything from James Bond films (the underrated Tomorrow Never Dies) to Paul Thomas Anderson’s best films (Boogie Nights, Magnolia), to Joel Schumacher’s atmospheric 8mm and Clooney’s other big project of the time, Syriana (reviewed in HD elsewhere on this site).

 

There is no doubt that he is one of the best in the business.  However, the issues with the picture here are tricky.  For starters, it wants to look like the kinescope and other black and white film footage of the time.  Also, it wants to look like the era it takes place in.  However, it is not the real black and white of the past, but the kind of commercial black and white used on a film like Spielberg’s Schindler’s List and is weaker in its blacks because of the lack of silver in the print.  To have that is very expensive.  Why the transfer is unusually soft on the DVD is unknown, unless it is because it is the flip-side of an HD-DVD, but the 1080p versions can only improve so much.  The look is good, but it is not true monochrome even in the 1950s sense and you can even see this in the HD versions when the vintage footage plays.  This is instead what Elswit and Clooney settled for, which is still a better option than shooting in digital HD or in color stocks, then trying to make them black and white.  Of course, Jean-Luc Godard got a classic black and white look in his film In Praise Of Love (reviewed elsewhere on this site) and The Coen Brothers shot The Man Who Wasn’t There in color stocks and their Director Of Photography Roger Deakins digitally turned in into that look.

 

Elswit and Clooney had those options, but because of the political stance, they did not want this to ever exist in color and like Martin Scorsese on Raging Bull (1980, also reviewed on this site), likely have a clause in their contract against colorizing, which has not totally disappeared like it needs to.  Instead, the result is a serene, clinical film that makes the CBS Newsroom look like a lab, but those in the know would understand that it was often referred to as “the fishbowl” and that just might be the intent.  For home theater fans, we recommend the standard DVD edition of John Frankenheimer’s Seconds for how good a black and white film shot with real black and white stocks can look on home video.

 

The sound is also a disappointment.  Though this is a film from an earlier era and is obviously dialogue-based, the lack of use of the 5.1 channels is a problem and odd.  I have not heard this many complaints since some questioned the lack of full mix (ironically) on Boogie Nights.  However, where it is passable on the HD-DVD’s Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 and Blu-ray’s PCM 16Bit/48kHz 5.1 mixes, the standard DVD’s standard Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a larger problem, lacking presence throughout.  This is a soundtrack that needs all the help it can get and the High Definition formats cover it best.

 

Extras for all versions include a decent if too jokey audio commentary by Clooney and co-writer Grant Heslov, the original theatrical trailer and a great featurette dubbed the Good Night & Good Luck Companion Piece that has great quotes, thought and ideas about Murrow that are shockingly missing form the film.  It is almost outrageous what can be found here that is not found in the film, but Clooney once again proves as a director that he is more interested in overfocusing on a few aspects instead of a total picture and it ultimately fails the audience again here.  The film is worth a look, but will not hold up on repeat viewings.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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