''Good Night, and Good Luck'' (stylized as ''good night, and good luck.'') is a 2005
historical drama film
A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction such as c ...
directed by
George Clooney
George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and philanthropist. Known for his leading man roles on screen in both blockbuster and independent films, Clooney has received numerous accolades, including two Ac ...
from a screenplay by Clooney and
Grant Heslov. It stars
David Strathairn,
Patricia Clarkson
Patricia Davies Clarkson (born December 29, 1959) is an American actress. She has starred in numerous leading and supporting roles in a variety of films ranging from independent film features to major film studio productions. Her accolades incl ...
, Clooney,
Jeff Daniels
Jeffrey Warren Daniels (born February 19, 1955) is an American actor. He is known for his work on stage and screen playing diverse characters switching between comedy and drama. He is the recipient of several accolades, including two Primetime ...
,
Robert Downey Jr.
Robert John Downey Jr. (born April 4, 1965), also known as RDJ, is an American actor. One of the highest-grossing actors of all time, his films as a leading actor have grossed over $14 billion worldwide. In 2008, Downey was named by ''Time ...
and
Frank Langella
Frank A. Langella Jr. (; born January 1, 1938) is an American actor. He eschewed the career of a traditional film star by making the stage the focal point of his career, appearing frequently on Broadway. He has received four Tony Awards (out of ...
, and portrays the conflict between veteran journalist
Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and
U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican Party (United States), Republican United States Senate, U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death at age ...
of
Wisconsin
Wisconsin ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest of the United States. It borders Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michig ...
, especially relating to the
anti-communist
Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communist beliefs, groups, and individuals. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in Russia, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when th ...
Senator's actions with the
Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color
film stock
Film stock is an analog medium that is used for recording motion pictures or animation. It is recorded on by a movie camera, developed,
edited, and projected onto a screen using a movie projector. It is a strip or sheet of transparent pl ...
, but on a
grayscale
In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a greyscale (more common in Commonwealth English) or grayscale (more common in American English) image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample (signal), s ...
set, and was
color-corrected to black and white during
post-production
Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...
. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when U.S. journalism offer voices of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow routinely
signed off his broadcasts.
The film was a box office success and received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six
Academy Awards
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence in ...
, including
Best Picture,
Best Director and
Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
On October 25, 1958, at a gathering entitled 'A Salute to
Edward R Murrow', Ed Murrow delivers a speech where he mentions Senator McCarthy among others. The film then reverts to October 14, 1953, in the
CBS Studios, with on-screen titles explaining that McCarthy has claimed that there are over 200 Communists in the US government.
Fred Friendly and the news team discuss the latest news stories for the forthcoming episodes, and Murrow declares that he wants to go after the American military, who have tried and convicted a member of the Air Force,
Milo Radulovich, because his sister and father have been accused of being communist sympathizers. Murrow mentions that the charges against Radulovich were in a sealed envelope and that nobody saw them, suggesting that they investigate the story to see if it is worth covering.
Five days later Friendly, Murrow, and
Sig Mickelson, CBS director, watch footage of CBS correspondent
Joseph Wershba interviewing Milo Radulovich; Mickelson criticizes the report as being unbalanced and accuses the reporter of editorializing. Military men come to Friendly's office, attempting to persuade him not to broadcast the story, but CBS goes ahead and the segment features on Murrow's show ''
See It Now''.
The focus of the news team shifts to going after McCarthy himself. In one clip, McCarthy accuses a man who was provided with an attorney by the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million.
T ...
(ACLU) in 1932 of being a communist.
During the segment on McCarthy, Murrow personally invites the Senator on the show to defend the claims made about his corrupt influence. As the story continues, Murrow challenges McCarthy's questioning techniques, and the untruths he espouses in his hearings. Murrow notes that the ACLU is not on the list that McCarthy claims it to be, and that it has in fact been commended by several U.S. presidents.
Shirley reads out mostly favorable reports from the newspaper, but one journalist, O'Brien, accuses Hollenbeck, a CBS journalist, of being a "pinko", meaning a communist sympathizer. The team is informed that the Air Force has reinstated the wrongfully terminated Radulovich.
McCarthy appears on the show on April 6, 1954, and addresses the camera directly without interruption, accusing Murrow of being a communist, something that Murrow suspected would happen. In the proceeding show, Murrow gives his response, where he unequivocally denies the accusation that he was a member of the Communist party and highlights that anyone who criticizes or opposes Senator McCarthy's methods is accused of being a communist. From this point on, the tide turns on McCarthy and he himself is investigated, due to charges the Army has made against him and his Operation. John Aaron later announces this in the newsroom, but the celebration is cut short when a phone call to Friendly informs the news team that Hollenbeck has committed suicide by gassing himself.
Footage is shown of the
Army–McCarthy hearings
The Army–McCarthy hearings were a series of televised hearings held by the United States Senate's Subcommittee on Investigations (April–June 1954) to investigate conflicting accusations between the United States Army and U.S. senator Joseph ...
, where
Joseph Welch, the Army's special counsel, questions McCarthy's sense of decency. Shortly after, CBS chief executive Paley speaks with Murrow and Friendly in his office and tells them they have lost one of their major sponsors, and as a result, he will only give them five more one-hour episodes and also move their slot from Tuesday night to Sunday afternoon. Paley speaks to Friendly privately and informs him that he needs to fire some people. At the same time, Mickelson calls Wershba and Shirley to his office: He knows they are secretly married, in violation of CBS's policy forbidding marriage between colleagues. With layoffs coming, he asks that one of them choose to be laid off to save face. Wershba volunteers to be let go.
Murrow finishes his speech from the opening scene, extolling the importance of ideas and information, and that television's potential of informing and enlightening its audience shouldn't be discounted, else it will become "merely wires and lights in a box." Murrow concludes his speech with his catchphrase, "Good night, and good luck."
Cast
Production
In September 2005, Clooney explained his interest in the story to an audience at the
New York Film Festival
The New York Film Festival (NYFF) is a film festival held every fall in New York City, presented by Film at Lincoln Center. Founded in 1963 by Richard Roud and Amos Vogel with the support of Lincoln Center president William Schuman, NYFF i ...
: "I thought it was a good time to raise the idea of using fear to stifle political debate."
Having majored in journalism in college, Clooney was well-versed in the subject matter. His father,
Nick Clooney, was a television journalist for many years, appearing as an
anchorman in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...
,
Ohio
Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
;
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
,
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
;
Los Angeles
Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
,
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
; and
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
. The elder Clooney also ran for Congress in 2004.
George Clooney was paid $1 each for writing, directing, and acting in ''Good Night, and Good Luck'', which cost $7.5 million to make. Due to an injury he received on the set of ''
Syriana
''Syriana'' is a 2005 American political thriller film written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, loosely based on Robert Baer's 2003 memoir '' See No Evil''. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Jeffrey Wr ...
'' a few months earlier, Clooney could not pass the tests to be insured. He then mortgaged his own house in Los Angeles to make the film.
Dallas Mavericks
The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Divisi ...
owner
Mark Cuban
Mark Cuban (born July 31, 1958) is an American businessman and television personality. He is the former principal owner and current minority owner of the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA) and co-owner of 2929 Entertain ...
and former
eBay
eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
president
Jeffrey Skoll
Jeffrey Stuart Skoll (born January 16, 1965) is a Canadian engineer, billionaire internet entrepreneur and film producer. He was the first president of eBay, eventually using the wealth this gave him to become a philanthropist, particularly thr ...
invested money in the project as executive producers. The film ultimately grossed more than $54 million worldwide.
The CBS offices and studios seen in the movie were all sets on a
sound stage
A sound stage (also written soundstage) is a large, soundproof structure, building or room with large doors and high ceilings, used for the production of theatrical film-making and television productions, usually located on a secured movie or te ...
. To accomplish a pair of scenes showing characters going up an elevator, different "floors" of the building were laid out on the same level. The "elevator" was actually built on a large turntable at the intersection of the two floor sets and rotated once the doors were closed. When the doors reopened, the actors appeared to be in a different location. In doing so, the movie exercised a bit of dramatic license—the CBS executive offices at the time were located at 485 Madison Avenue.
CBS News
CBS News is the news division of the American television and radio broadcaster CBS. It is headquartered in New York City. CBS News television programs include ''CBS Evening News'', ''CBS Mornings'', news magazine programs ''CBS News Sunday Morn ...
was located in an office building just north of
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
(demolished and now the site of the
MetLife Building
The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Designed in ...
); and the ''
See It Now'' studio was located in
Grand Central Terminal
Grand Central Terminal (GCT; also referred to as Grand Central Station or simply as Grand Central) is a commuter rail terminal station, terminal located at 42nd Street (Manhattan), 42nd Street and Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York Ci ...
itself, above the waiting room. For dramatic effect, all three areas were depicted as being in the same building.
Clooney and producer Grant Heslov decided to use only archival footage of Joseph McCarthy in his depiction. As all of that footage was black-and-white, that determined the color scheme of the film.
[ A young Robert F. Kennedy is also shown in the movie during McCarthy's hearing sessions. He was then a staff member on the Senate subcommittee chaired by McCarthy.
]
Music
A small jazz combo starring jazz singer Dianne Reeves was hired to record the soundtrack to the movie. This combo ( Peter Martin, Christoph Luty, Jeff Hamilton and Matt Catingub) was featured in the movie in several scenes; for example, in one scene the newsmen pass a studio where she is recording with the rest of the band. The CD is Dianne Reeves's second featuring jazz standards (including "How High the Moon
"How High the Moon" is a jazz standard with lyrics by Nancy Hamilton and music by Morgan Lewis. It was first featured in the 1940 Broadway revue '' Two for the Show'', where it was sung by Alfred Drake and Frances Comstock. In ''Two for th ...
", " I've Got My Eyes on You", "Too Close For Comfort
''Too Close for Comfort'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on ABC from November 11, 1980, to May 5, 1983, and in first-run syndication from April 7, 1984, to February 7, 1987. Its name was changed to ''The Ted Knight Show'' ...
", "Straighten Up and Fly Right
"Straighten Up and Fly Right" is a 1943 song written by Nat King Cole and Irving Mills and one of the first vocal hits for the King Cole Trio. It was the trio's most popular single, reaching number one on the Harlem Hit Parade for ten noncons ...
" and " One for My Baby"), and it won the Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...
in 2006 for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack to ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' was released on September 27, 2005. The film's score was composed by Jim Papoulis.
Reception
Critical reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 93% based on 226 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The website's critics consensus states: "A passionate and concise cinematic civics lesson, ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' has plenty to say about today's political and cultural climate, and its ensemble cast is stellar." On Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the film has a weighted average score of 80 out of 100 based on 41 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert ( ; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American Film criticism, film critic, film historian, journalist, essayist, screenwriter and author. He wrote for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. Eber ...
, in his ''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspaper ...
'' review, contends that "the movie is not really about the abuses of McCarthy, but about the process by which Murrow and his team eventually brought about his downfall (some would say his self-destruction). It is like a morality play
The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts ( ...
, from which we learn how journalists should behave. It shows Murrow as fearless, but not flawless." Margaret Pomeranz and David Stratton
David James Stratton (born 1939) is an English-Australian film critic and historian. He has also worked as a journalist, interviewer, educator, television personality, and producer. His career as a film critic, writer, and educator in Austral ...
from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
's film review show '' At the Movies'' each gave the film five stars, making ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' the only other film besides ''Brokeback Mountain
''Brokeback Mountain'' is a 2005 American neo-Western romantic drama film directed by Ang Lee and produced by Diana Ossana and James Schamus. Adapted from Brokeback Mountain (short story), the 1997 short story by Annie Proulx, the screenplay ...
'' to receive such a score from the hosts in 2005. Both described the film as "beautiful", but also praised Clooney for the film's importance. Pomeranz commented that, " he filmis so important, because it's about things that are really vital today, like the responsibility of the press and examining the press' role in forming opinion." David noted: "Though he filmis in black-and-white, there's nothing monochromatic about Clooney's passion for his subject or the importance of his message."
Jack Shafer
Jack Shafer (born November 14, 1951 is an American journalist who wrote about media for ''Politico'' until June 2024. Prior to joining ''Politico'', he worked for ''Reuters'', wrote and edited for ''Slate'', and edited two city weeklies, ''Washi ...
, at the time a libertarian
Libertarianism (from ; or from ) is a political philosophy that holds freedom, personal sovereignty, and liberty as primary values. Many libertarians believe that the concept of freedom is in accord with the Non-Aggression Principle, according ...
-leaning columnist for the online magazine ''Slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
'', accused the film of continuing what he characterizes as the hagiography
A hagiography (; ) is a biography of a saint or an ecclesiastical leader, as well as, by extension, an adulatory and idealized biography of a preacher, priest, founder, saint, monk, nun or icon in any of the world's religions. Early Christian ...
of Murrow. Clooney's film gives the impression that Murrow brought down McCarthy single-handedly, while Shafer notes that in reality much of the mainstream media, many Democrats and some Republicans were condemning him before Murrow. Furthermore, Shafer writes, evidence obtained via the declassified Venona espionage program confirmed that many Soviet agents and sympathizers were in fact in positions of influence in the U.S. government, a disclosure the film entirely overlooks: "Clooney and company ignore the material that might argue against their simple-minded thesis about Murrow, the era, and the press to produce an after school special".
One complaint about the film among test audiences was their belief that the actor playing McCarthy was too over the top, not realizing that the film used actual archive footage of McCarthy himself.
Accolades
The film received six Academy Award
The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...
nominations, including Best Picture, Director (Clooney), and Actor
An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...
(Strathairn). It was also nominated for six BAFTAs at the 2005 BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globes at the 2006 Golden Globe Awards. The American Film Institute
The American Film Institute (AFI) is an American nonprofit film organization that educates filmmakers and honors the heritage of the History of cinema in the United States, motion picture arts in the United States. AFI is supported by private fu ...
named ''Good Night, and Good Luck'' as one of the Top Ten Movies of 2005.
Adaptations
Television series
As of November 2022, AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** ...
is developing a television adaptation with Jonathan Glatzer
Jonathan Glatzer (born 21 October 1969) is an American writer, director, and producer.
Life and career
Glatzer is a television writer and producer for such shows as ''Succession'',''Better Call Saul'', ''Bloodline'', and ''Bad Sisters'' A ...
as showrunner and Clooney as executive producer.
Broadway adaptation
In 2024 it was announced Clooney would make his Broadway debut starring in a stage adaptation based on the film. The play began previews at the Winter Garden Theatre
The Winter Garden Theatre is a Broadway theatre at 1634 Broadway in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City, New York, U.S. Originally designed by architect William Albert Swasey, it opened in 1911. The Winter Garden's current des ...
on March 12, 2025, with an opening night set for April 3. The performance before the closing night show was broadcast live on CNN on June 7, before closing on June 8.
See also
* 2005 in film
2005 in film is an overview of events, including the highest-grossing films, award ceremonies, festivals, a list of country-specific lists of films released, notable deaths and film debuts.
Highest-grossing films
The top 10 films released i ...
* George Clooney filmography
* History of CBS
CBS Broadcasting, Inc. (CBS; originally the Columbia Broadcasting System) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial Television network, broadcast television and radio network owned by Par ...
* McCarthyism
McCarthyism is a political practice defined by the political repression and persecution of left-wing individuals and a Fear mongering, campaign spreading fear of communist and Soviet influence on American institutions and of Soviet espionage i ...
* '' Tail Gunner Joe''
* Television news in the United States
References
External links
*
*
*
*
Good Night, and Good Luck
at Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcas ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Good Night, And Good Luck
2005 films
2005 independent films
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Japanese black-and-white films
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