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
