Good Night and Good Luck

written and invested by George Clooney; he was actually paid $3 for it as a token amount. it's a black and white film set in the 1950s during the McCarthy era, made in 2004.Alas as the moment the first scenes of a dinner party start, strung together with soulful jazz music in the background, one quietly sinks in the black and white 1950s. Languid, lazy and musical. yet as Edward Murrow started his poignant speech on the state of media, of decadence, escapism and insulation, one is gripped by the incisive critique. Subconsciously, at the back of one's mind, the parallel is drawn to the present debate of freedom of the press and more importantly, the freedom of the mind. As it proceeds however, all eyes are fixated on Murrow (David Strathairn) as he embodies the civic mind and the staunch advocate for liberation of the public mind in an age plagued by a political climate of fear and terrorism, as McCarthyism penetrates the American society.

Good Night and Good Luck is one of the most brilliant films i have watched. I enjoyed it as much as Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors really. This film is of course very different from Crimes; Good night and Good Luck is a political critique and Crimes more of a philosophical musing. Yet both leave you thinking and pondering long after the credits roll.

Edward R. Murrow, the brilliant newsman who would not compromise the freedom of the press, who would not give up on the freedom to think, who brought down McCarthy and his terrorizing communist-witch-hunt in the 1950s. i was really gripped by the excerpts of Murrow's speech at the start and end of the film, cut and spliced in this Youtube video:

Synopsis
"Good Night, And Good Luck." takes place during the early days of broadcast journalism in 1950's America. It chronicles the real-life conflict between television newsman Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy and the Permanent Sub-committee on Investigations (Government Operations Committee). With a desire to report the facts and enlighten the public, Murrow, and his dedicated staff - headed by his producer Fred Friendly and Joe Wershba in the CBS newsroom - defy corporate and sponsorship pressures to examine the lies and scaremongering tactics perpetrated by McCarthy during his communist 'witch-hunts'. A very public feud develops when the Senator responds by accusing the anchor of being a communist. In this climate of fear and reprisal, the CBS crew carries on and their tenacity will prove historic and monumental.

Once again, the issue of press freedom, the freedom to think and debate grips my attention. I believe so strongly in press freedom, because it's the only hope for freedom of the mind. to expand, correct and eventually to reach the stage of thinking. the majority of the society today is politically and socially apathetic, leaving an a microsm of the world we live in. What's wrong with that? so many ask. As long as i have my family, my career and my security who cares about political and civil liberties? Who cares about enviromental pollution? Who cares about Third World development?

i think it's a sign of ignorance because the mind has not been trained to think, extolled to contemplate on the bigger issues. it's like people who don't bother to know the fire evacuation plan because the risk of fire (or so they deem) is so remote. other people glance at the fire evacuation plan and rough know where the nearest fire escape is but never bothered about fire prevention. either way, we're missing out on something vital, and i say this for myself as well.