Good Night And Good Luck Film Analysis
Good Night and Good Luck’ is a historical film based on the work of Edward Murrow and the television crew of ‘See It Now’, a programme broadcasted by CBS in the 1950s. Murrow and the crew are determined to confront the anti-communist command of the Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy. Throughout the film, the CBS team work in an effort to dismantle the views of McCarthy and prevent the spread of McCarthyism in the U.S.
The film was written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov and was released in the U.S in October 2005. Clooney also directed the film, which is fitting to the subject matter of the film, given his background. Clooney would have already had background knowledge in television production in the 1950s as his father, Nick Clooney, was a young television journalist in those times. Clooney himself also studied in broadcast journalism in Northern Kentucky
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During the film, real footage from the 1950s is used to show the brutality of McCarthy in his investigations. As this material was only available in black and white, it was only fitting that the rest of the film was also done this way. As an audience, we have never seen McCarthy or Murrow in colour therefore, why would we see them in colour when they would not match the real footage. When we watch Murrow on the television, it feels like we are the audience that he is talking to. The use of camera angles is also identical to the camera shots used for the real Edward Murrow when he was broadcasting. The sense of watching the film in black and white gives us the sense that we as viewers are in the 1950s and experiencing the media that was used at that time. After watching a number of clips of the real Edward Murrow, David Strathairn imitates Murrow flawlessly. Strathairn is able to convey Murrow’s accent and when speaking on air he uses a combination of looking down at his notes and looking directly into the
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