Goodnight and Goodluck Movie Review

Without going into great detail about what exactly goes on during the movie, and for yet another time introducing the plot, it can be clearly seen that the film is based on events that translate into the good old fashion American slogan, and unfortunately, belief, “You are either with us, or against us”. In short, Joseph McCarthy, is an anti-communist on a mission to rid the country of communism after anti-Communism rose to its peaks shortly after the Cold War. On the other side, Edward R. Murrows, is a man who is practicing his Freedom of Speech by introducing and informing the public of situations and circumstances that they have a right to know about in his television program “See it Now”. Therefore, in the eyes of McCarthy, Murrow’s must be a communist. A difference in opinions one might say, and crisis erupts; a vendetta begins between the two men, and it is a long, drawn out battle as to who will be the last man standing.

Within Goodnight and Good Luck, one can detect a number of political elements, but at the same time, and quite predictably, there is a strong tie between the historical aspects of the past, the 1950’s, and the present, and the role television played at the time. The 1950’s was a time where broadcast and journalism was at its early days, and news was no more than interviews and articles about the “rich and famous”. As quoted from a critique written by Charlotte Garson, which is circulating on the Internet: “The parable has an exemplary value, a historical reminder that a television of enlightenment, what Murrow called an “instrument for instruction”, would still be possible. The beginning and end of Good Night embed the events of 1953 in a commemorative box that dissembles reduplicating the very heroizing form of the biopic. It is of course a didactic device: the lapse in time, just 5 years, operates as an echo chamber for the U.S. of 2005”. [1].

The movie primarily focuses on the theme of media responsibility; the importance of reporting news to the public. Reporting news to the public, in the way that we know it now was quite unfamiliar, and the public, in many cases, did not know how to respond to it. Goodnight and Good Luck shows a time in the American past that acted as a model in the way television introduced the format in which the news was going to be portrayed and shown to the public by using the advancements in technology to keep the public informed. In addition to this, the movie also addresses what is capable of happening when media is a voice of dissent against the American government, hence the vendetta mentioned before between the two main characters, McCarthy and Murrow, erupting after Murrow’s decided to publicize events on McCarthy on his show.

An important aspect that has been indirectly introduced in the film was the concept of McCarthyism. According to Wikipidia, the Online Encyclopedia, a definition of this concept has been provided. “McCarthyism is the term describing a period of intense anti-Communist suspicion in the United States that lasted roughly from the late 1940s to the late 1950s. This period is also referred to as the Second Red Scare, and coincided with increased fears about Communist influence on American institutions and espionage by Soviet agents. Originally coined to criticize the actions of U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy, "McCarthyism" later took on a more general meaning, not necessarily referring to the conduct of Joseph McCarthy alone” [2].

During this time period, a great number of the American people were accused of either being Communists, or favoring Communism; being Communist sympathizers. As a result of this behavior, these people underwent aggressive, and at