I was wandering through the Apple TV Movies and noticed that Good Night and Good Luck was not only available, but on sale!
For those of you that may not know this movie, it’s a dramatization of Edward R. Murrow taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy while Murrow was working at CBS.
The movie was released in 2005 and I’d purchased a copy of it on DVD, but never replaced that copy once it was lost.
The movie has an all star cast, including amazing performances by Jazz singer Dianne Reeves.
The subject matter of the movie is timely. It could be argued that Murrow was among the first victims of cancel culture.
He called out Joseph McCarthy at the height of the McCarthy hearings and essentially said what you’re doing is wrong and un-American.
For those who don’t know who Joseph McCarthy was, here’s a brief synopsis of what I remember from history.
McCarthy in the late 1940s and early 1950s chaired a house subcommittee that was supposed to root out communists that McCarthy said had infiltrated the State Department. You need to remember that the cold war was raging and America was just out of World War II.
McCarthy subsequently targeted LGBT people as easily compromised. His lasting legacy was that gay people were considered a security risk well into the 1980s.
McCarthy terrorized Hollywood, created black lists of suspected communists and through these black lists ended the careers of many average people, and writers, actors, producers, and journalists.
The movie mentions one journalist killing himself over the accusation that he was affiliated with communist subversives.
There’s a great deal more negative that the McCarthy hearings did. Look it up for yourself.
Although, in the context of today’s events, I do sometimes find myself wondering if McCarthy might have been right. Perhaps he was just 50 years ahead of his time…
I hadn’t seen the movie in many years, but remembered the jazz. So I bought it last night and sat back to be entertained. There was an irony in the movie because as I watched, I was struck by how the names, causes, and political party has changed but the persecution today is much the same. McCarthy was a Republican, but could as easily have been one of todays politicians of either party.
Edward Murrow, effectively won. But winning cost him his prime time Tuesday evening show. He went on to produce numerous shows until about 1960, and died in 1965.
I remember his voice from my early childhood. I don’t remember the context in which I heard his voice, only that it was distinctive. He was a true journalist, based on what I recall from some of the things I recall reading about him.
I ran across some of his writing at the UK library when I lived in KY. His words were clear and what he said was said plainly and directly. I don’t recall him being apologetic in his writing. What I think I remember most was his somewhat terse style and his eloquent use of English. I learned some new words reading him. (no, they weren’t dirty words.)
He seems to have stood by his words believing in presenting the truth of a situation as he saw it, but assumed that the audience was intelligent enough to draw their own conclusions.
I recall reading an apology to a viewer where he said something to the effect; “Reading your letter, I have rethought my position and you may be right. I apologize for any harm my words may have caused you.” That’s not an exact quote but I remember that it struck me how this fairly powerful journalist saw fit to actually put in writing that he’d reevaluated his position and told a viewer so.
After watching the movie, I still appreciated the vocals of Dianne Reeves. As I watched the credits roll I thought, “We need journalists like Murrow again.”
As is pointed out in one scene, Murrow tried to behave as if he was above editorializing, but he did editorialize to some extent. I thought it was interesting that he was portrayed as accepting the criticism and the consequences as part of doing business.
I thought about that, and have concluded we’re all human, we all editorialize, but a journalist is supposed to keep that natural tendency in check. They’re supposed to present the facts as dispassionately as they possibly can.
One line in the movie is, “We report the news, we don’t make it.” If only journalists still operated on that premise, we’d all be better informed and perhaps less prone to passionate outbursts based on half the information and our emotional response to it.
If you get a chance, check out the movie it’s 94 minutes of your life well spent. Especially if it makes you stop reacting and start thinking.
Oh, if you play the movie, your TV isn’t broken… The whole thing is shot in period correct Black & White.