Movie review - Good night and good luck

Well, that was 90 minutes of black and white boredom I'll never get back. They might as well call the film Good Night for the effect it has on most people.

The black and white effect was obviously to give the film a historical feel to it, of how America was in the 1950s. The film actually used stock footage of Joe McCarthy rambling on about communist infiltrators. And the tobacco advertising and news anchors who smoked cigarettes whilst on air was also quite amusing.

But all in all, it was such a stiff and dry production. Clooney really takes himself and the subject matter too seriously. He only portrays the issue of the film as entirely clear cut and one-sided. There is virtually no character development, the actors rarely smile, there are no scenes apart from the CBS newsroom so its seems the director was obsessive compulsive over the one aspect of that decade.

I still concede that the film was accurate and objective, well-researched and all. But it really failed to represent the other side of the debate and seeks to glorify the CBS journalist Ed Murrow, who publicly stood up to McCarthy, as being solely responsible for his downfall. Whilst its clear that McCarthyism was all about a political witchhunt, the film fails to reveal that history has shown that some of McCarthy's exposed pinkos of the time were actually Soviet spies.

I'll give this film 2.5 stars.