There is no denying that the latest film from George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck, is a vanity project — those films that usually get made only for the star power of its creator and have been around since D.W. Griffith made the bloated Intolerance in 1916.  Some of these films have been hailed as the greatest films of all time — see Citizen Kane.  Others go directly to DVD never to be seen again (except for those loyal fans that, if given the chance, would watch their star read War and Peace while on the toilet).

Good Night, and Good Luck is definitely in the heralded category.  It is co-written and directed by George Clooney (Confessions of a Dangerous Mind) who is precisely a star that can exercise his pull but does so with integrity and, in this case, to make a movie that deserves to be on all of the year’s top ten lists and a contender for an Academy Award.  The film, shot entirely in black and white, tells the story of the 1952 sword fight of words between the infant CBS News and Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was on a diligent and misguided one-man crusade against communism in America.  More particularly, the film is both an homage to legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow and a tutorial on why freedom of the press helps make the United States one of the greatest nations the world has ever known or how we, the people, can nip power-mongers before they get too powerful.

Where Kevin Spacey’s love letter to crooner Bobby Darin, Beyond the Sea (2004), was a vanity project that didn’t quite make the grade, Clooney uses his head as well as his heart in giving up the starring role and handing it to the excellent David Strathairn (A League of Their Own, L.A. Confidential), who gives a pitch-perfect performance as Ed Murrow that captures the arrogance, courage, and insecurity of a man who practically wrote the textbook on broadcast journalism.  Clooney smartly relegates himself to an understated supporting role — but a key one in this morality tale — CBS News honcho Fred Friendly who himself created what would give face to the “Tiffany Network,” the CBS Nightly News.

Clooney captures the look, feel, and sound of an era where cigarette smoke filled rooms and everyone wore suits and ties to work.  All of the action takes place indoors and, for the most part, in the studios and offices of CBS New York.  The claustrophobic effect adds to the thematic storyline of a Congressman’s attempt to squeeze communists out of every nook and cranny of his choosing.  Clooney himself comes from a TV news pedigree and even tried it himself, only to find his calling elsewhere, but he did make this film as a reverence to his Dad, Nick Clooney, who had a long career as a TV anchor and host in Cincinnati.  Whatever the reason, Clooney has created a tightly-weaved snapshot of one moment in the history of our country that needs to be revisited and accomplishes this feat in both an entertaining and relevant manner.

The supporting cast is no less stellar, with names like Patricia Clarkson, Robert Downey, Jr., Frank Langella, Jeff Daniels, and Ray Wise filling out the roster of almost-forgotten CBS staffers.  But the best supporting performance has to go to Sen. McCarthy himself, who only appears via actual news clips from the time.  Ed Murrow perpetuated the downfall, but only McCarthy could unmask himself and show the nation his true colors, all in stark blacks and whites.  Good Night, and Good Luck will rightly be screened in many a future journalism class, but it should also be a film every American should see because it helps remind us that the virtues that make our country great should never be taken for granted.

High ratings to Good Night, and Good Luck, now playing in select theaters.

Rich Burlingham