Good Night and Good Luck


The upshot: a bunch of pinko commie whiners and UN-loving lefties play the blame game in the war against Godless communist heathens.

There are, of course, many parallels between the "war" on terror and the "struggle" against international communism, but this movie effectively highlights one area where that parallel breaks down: namely that in the cold war there actually WAS a global communist threat.

Did we overplay it? Sure. Did we become the enemy we sought to fight? Yes. But there WAS a big ol' arsenal pointed at us and an actual philosophical struggle in the industrialized world.

Al Qaeda, on the other hand, doesn't really exist. I mean, it does, in the sense that random gangs of disaffected angry (mostly) men are willing to strap bombs to themselves and kill innocent people under then banner 'Al Qaeda.' But, there is no Kremlin for Al Qaeda, no actual chance that the countries of the world will embrace "islamofascism" instead of modernism in a "domino effect," no great struggle against tanks and guns and planes and nukes.

Just a bunch of assholes with 3 syllables in common.

So, when you watch Joe McCarthy rant and rave and persecute and bully the innocent and his sniveling little toady Roy Cohn whispering in his ear like Grima Wormtongue to King Theodin, we can draw some slight comfort from the fact that at least the Soviet Union really existed and really did try to infiltrate our government (as we did theirs.)

One wonders what Murrow and Fred Friendly would made of our times. Back then, owing to the actual existence of a tangible enemy, Murrow had to qualify his critiques with "I am not a communist, but..."

It seems absurd today to assert "I am not an islamofascist, but..."

It seems apt that this film was released at the same time as "Chicken Little." That's a double bill for you.

It's beautifully shot, wonderfully layered in black and white, all interior.

You don't get to learn much about the characters themselves. It's very focused on the issue at hand. For a more nuanced exploration of how media events impact private lives, see "The Insider."

Three stars, Jason Bob says check it out. Good night, and good luck.