| Movie Review by JHL: Good Night, And Good Luck
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| _____Movie Review: Scroll Down Page
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| _____FYI: Edward R. Murrow and Sen. Joseph McCarthy
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Edward R.Murrow-wikipedia.org
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For those of you who don't know, Edward R. Murrow has a pioneer CBS newscaster who produced reports in 1953-1954 about the overzealous pursuit by Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin, of communist party
members or sympathizers. McCarthy sought out anyone whom he thought had links to the Communist Party including suspect employees of the State Department and members of the Hollywood Community. Murrow's reports eventually lead to the censure of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
The term McCarthyism was coined to specifically describe the intense anti-Communist movement that existed in America from 1950 to about 1956, a time which became popularly known as the Red Scare. During this period, people from all walks of life who were suspected of being Soviet spies or Communist sympathizers were brought before Congressional inquiries.
Joseph McCarthy-wikipedia.org
| These inquiries later came to be referred to as "witch hunts" by McCarthy's detractors. Senator McCarthy was accused of victimizing innocent people - and to this day, dictionary definitions of "McCarthyism" include the practice of publicizing accusations of political disloyalty or subversion with insufficient regard to evidence and the use of unfair investigatory or accusatory methods in order to suppress opposition.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License
(Source and for more info:)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_R._Murrow and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy)
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Good Night, And Good Luck was about Edward R. Murrow's(CBS newscaster) search for truth by reporting about Joseph McCarthy's witchhunts to find Communist sympathizers, Soviet Spies, and Communist party members in the United States. The underlying theme was a need for a free and independent press compared to what is going on today.
The movie was interesting, but not quite what I had anticipated. Based on the content, i.e., Edward R. Murrow, crusader for truth, I wanted to come out and be totally inspired. I wasn't.
In the movie, there were many backslapping "attaboys" on the courageousness of CBS news and the heroism of Edward R. Murrow in confronting a misguided, intolerant super patriot. Murrow, the reporters, and CBS were, relatively speaking, courageous and they took some risks. But, the movie was not as evenhanded as I guess I had hoped.
McCarthy was a zealot and used strong-arm tactics. In the movie, he came across not nearly as bad as history has made him out to be. He was misguided, but somehow the moviegoer got the idea that he believed what he said.
I don't remember McCarthy because, at the time, I was thirteen years old, but the time period was very familiar to me. I loved the old clothes, the automobiles, and the vintage approach to TV. In fact, my family lived "out in the country" and were the first ones around who got a black and white TV. I can remember gathering around it and being awed by the fact that it was "right there" in the living room. Wow!!!!!!
The smoking blew me away-no pun intended-in the movie. Everybody literally smoked and not just a pack a day, but chain-smoked, lighting one cigarette after another. A smoke-filled room was the order of the day during that time. In a sense, who could imagine these guys without a cigarette, just as you could not imagine Humphrey Bogart as Rick in Casablanca, without a Camel hanging out of his mouth. I doubt any of the original types, survived lung cancer. A commercial scene for Kent cigarettes was priceless and I kept thinking, "What was that about?"
If only the crusaders could have seen into the future, they would have forgotten McCarthy. He would have self-destructed anyway, and gone after the perils of three packs a day. Now that's a cause!
Good Night, And Good Luck was in black and white and a nice touch. it seemed a little like a documentary. See it on DVD on an afternoon when you're just hanging out.
Two parachutes.
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