Not Coming to a Theater Near You

Good Night, and Good Luck / USA / 2005

I’m certain one’s response to George Clooney’s films depends a great deal on one’s opinion of Clooney. The consensus on his first project, Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, seems to be that Clooney’s ego went berserk and delivered a weak film. Confessions is certainly flawed and Clooney may have thrown us too much visual flash without ever being able to wrestle Charlie Kaufman’s script down to a few essential narrative ideas, but it remains an interesting film with a few moments of noteworthy luster.

Good Night, and Good Luck is thankfully a bit more modest in technique, but more importantly it’s far more focused. Shot in black & white, the film is actually far more grey in tone while detailing Murrow’s battle against McCarthy (a producer points out Murrow lacks the nerve to touch the story of a known communist, even if McCarthy’s tactics in condemning the man are unjustified), with Clooney avoiding the shallow Hollywood gloss of misguided message movies in favor of smooth polished filmmaking. It also contains a wonderfully designed composition as Murrow addresses his friend, Don Hollenbeck, to tell him he cannot offer him shelter. Clooney’s point isn’t really about fighting against immoral persecution conducted at the expense of civil liberties, though the film does devote much of its material to such causes. Instead, the film is a caution against the deterioration of a medium that promises immediate influence and veracity, if we could only subdue our tendency to request distraction via amusement. It is a welcome critique, though I wonder if Clooney is slightly reticent to address the fact that film also suffers from a similar brawl between potential integrity and appealing artifice.

Recently, Clooney has come under fire for his decision to cast McCarthy as his primary antagonist, since McCarthy serves as an easy target within the collective American conscience. The accusation is that Clooney reduces McCarthy into an evil caricature by not allowing him empathy and understanding, abstracting and distancing the Senator through the authentic footage that apparently conveys the Senator as too evil to fictionalize. It’s an allegation worthy of consideration, but it would carry greater merit had Clooney not chosen to focus his film around the work of these men, rather than their personal motivations. Clooney actually doesn’t allow us to empathize with our central characters outside of their duties and decisions within their work, and he thus grants McCarthy the same criteria for evaluation. Thus, when we judge our characters by the actions they take within the roles they are responsible for, McCarthy will always end up routed and damaged simply because he was so deliberately irresponsible with his influence.

by Chiranjit Goswami | Source: Warner Independent Pictures 35mm Print
14 Nov 2005 12:03 AM | Submit Comment