Good Night, and Good Luck
October 23, 2005
George Clooney was on The Daily Show promoting his new movie, Good Night, and Good Luck. After hearing him talk about it along with the short clip shown, I was hooked.
This is a Warner Independent Pictures film done in black and white with a bunch of real footage mixed in. The cinematography alone interests me, but more importantly, the story revolves around the real life conflict between Edward R. Murrow and Senator Joseph McCarthy in the 1950’s. McCarthy was on a witch hunt for communists and Murrow plus his newsroom staff at CBS stood up to him in an extremely public feud.
Unfortunately, as an independent film it isn’t getting shown on as many screens as I would hope. Right now the closest place to see it is in Boston. Now I’m trying to find an excuse to be in Boston so I can see this. Probably won’t happen and I’ll have to wait for the DVD.
Tags: 1950s, black and white, cbs, clooney, Daily Show, edward r murrow, george clooney, good night and good luck, independent film, joseph mccarthy, mccarthy, murrow, newsroom, press, the daily show, warner independent pictures
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7 Responses to “Good Night, and Good Luck”
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This is an outstanding movie, and also a must see in theatres; not only is it in black and white, but the prints are all on black and white film stock. This is uncommon at best nowadays, and the results are nothing short of stunning. I’d suggest the dvd will pale in comparison, if there’s any movie worth driving a distance for this is it. This is a pretty rare opportunity, as it will probably be a while before another black and white movie comes along, let alone one on black and white film, let alone a movie this good that also has great cinematography.
Where did you see it? I’m planning on going to Boston for the Ansel Adams exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts later in the month. This may be an opportunity for me to catch it.
Sounds like a compelling topic. It’s dubious whether Warner Brothers, one of the major studios, can slap the word “independent” onto a project and make it so. Still, it’s encouraging to see something other than vapid rehashes of novels, TV shows, old movies, and comic books. I don’t live near any theatres and I don’t own a TV or DVD player, but I might actually see this.
I saw this at the Landmark Embassy 6 in Waltham, cinema 5 (the big house :) - Very nice theater, and walking distance for me.
This is being distributed by Warner Independent Pictures, a seperate company from Warner Brothers (though owned by them) which handles independent films. No more dubious than many other indy lables, like Fox Searchlight, Focus Features, Sony Classics, etc all of which are owned by major studios.
[...] I finally got out to see Good Night, and Good Luck in Concord. It was just as great as I had hoped. George Clooney co-wrote and directed this film which truly transported me to the 1950’s. The mix of new black and white film with the old news footage was spectacular. This was especially effective since anyone playing McCarthy would have come off over the top, insane, and poorly done. The senator was not believable in real life, how could any actor accomplish such a feat? [...]
So what makes an independent studio? I always thought it was independence; not being owned by a major.
Top 25 Media Groups:
“Among AOL/Time Warner’s vast holdings are HBO and Cinemax, Court TV, TBS Superstation, Turner Network Television, Cartoon Network, Turner Classic Movies, CNN, Warner Bros. Pictures, New Line Cinema and sports teams the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Hawks, and the Atlanta Thrashers.”
It’s media consolidation man.
Yeah, but Warner Indpendent, like Fox Searchlight pictures, takes small budget films without all the strings of a blockbuster attached, allows it to be greenlit and does some distribution.
These are are not mainstream movies. They aren’t required to pass some litmus test of poularity. Find me a film from Sundance that doesn’t end up at one of the “independednt” pictures studios.