"This is a good-looking, powerfully acted, deeply felt and deeply committed film about issues of political exigency and press freedom that are, as your car mirrors say, closer than they appear." Shawn Levy OREGONIAN "The bottom line on Good Night, and Good Luck? See it. Now." Roger Moore ORLANDO SENTINEL "I love this movie so much I wanted to go up and hug the screen when it was over." Nell Minow MOVIE MOM AT YAHOO! MOVIES "A fantastically compact little film, with barely an extraneous moment." Eric D Snider ERICDSNIDER.COM "Masterfully crafted, wonderfully acted, and an undeniably cutting commentary on fear in the 50s that resonates even louder today." John Venable SUPERCALA.COM

"Strathairn, known for supporting rather than leading roles, is excellent. As Murrow he is dignified, intelligent and quietly determined." Kirsten Heysen INSIDE ENTERTAINMENT S.A "The biggest little movie of the year -- and one of the best ever about the news media." Jack Mathews NEW YORK DAILY NEWS "By far the smartest American film released in 2005." Lou Lumenick NEW YORK POST "George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck is a masterful character study that is also a taut thriller." Louis B Hobson JAM! MOVIES "Co-writer and Director George Clooney, who plays Murrow's producer partner Fred Friendly, presents the situation with a definition and refreshing candour." Stan James THE ADVERTISER REVIEW

The Central Players Fred Friendly co-produced See It Now alongside Edward R. Murrow. Their partnership started in a series of records covering news stories from the war front, "I Can Hear It Now", which they adapted into a radio show, "Hear It Now", the basis for what would be network televisions first news magazine show, "See It Now". Friendly went on to become the president of the CBS News Division in 1964, and resigned two years later after disagreeing with the network’s decision to air an "I Love Lucy" rerun instead of broadcasting live coverage of the Senate’s hearings on America’s involvement in Vietnam.
Don Hewitt directed "See It Now" which first aired in 1951. He has spent his entire career at CBS. In addition to producing and directing the first ever televised presidential debate in 1960, he produced and directed the inaugural year of the "CBS Evening News" with Walter Cronkite in 1963, and created "60 Minutes" which premiered in 1968. CBS notes that between September 1968 and 2003, there have been over three thousand original stories on "60 Minutes", nearly every one of which has had to meet with Hewitt’s approval.
Sig Mickelson, head of the CBS Network News and Public Affairs division, helped develop the format of "Hear It Now" with Fred Friendly in anticipation of growing into "See It Now". Abandoning the reliance on newsreel companies, Mickelson was instrumental in building an in-house department of camera crews to document footage.
William S Paley ran the CBS radio and television networks for more than half a century. He served as president of the network until 1946, when he became chairman of the CBS Board. Paley established the radio network’s first programming department in the late 1940’s, and went on to promote the development of the news division which gave birth to "See It Now" in 1951. Paley retained his chairmanship of CBS until his death in 1990. His primary donation in 1976 helped create what is now the Museum of Television and Radio in New York City.
Joe Wershba started his career in radio before moving into television journalism. A producer on "See It Now", he captured the Milo J. Radulovich footage and was part of the team that broadcast the brave shows challenging Senator Joseph McCarthy. Wershba continued to work at CBS and became one of the original producers of "60 Minutes" alongside Don Hewitt. Upon retiring, Wershba had worked on film documentaries in the United States and Asia, and contributed to Walter Cronkite’s memoirs. He is the recipient of the highly-prized Silurian award for lifetime excellence in journalism, and has been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in addition to receiving two Emmy awards.
Shirley Wershba helped develop one of the first radio shows devoted to womens issues, "Dimensions of a Woman’s World". Married to Joseph Wershba, the two had to keep their marriage secret due to network rules. In 1965, her focus returned to television and she contributed to "CBS News", "ABC Evening News" with Peter Jennings and as producer-writer on the "Morning News" for CBS. In 1975, she was one of the three original producers of the MacNeil/Lehrer Report on PBS and also produced for "60 Minutes". In 1983, she was nominated for an Emmy for producing Diane Sawyer’s "Morning News" interview with Richard Nixon.
Joseph McCarthy, a Senator in the post-WWII era, devoted much time to exposing subversives (communists or their sympathizers), a mission sparked when he claimed to have a list of such subversives working in the State Department. For this, or any of his accusations, McCarthy failed to ever provide hard evidence. In early 1954, McCarthy’s hearings of accused subversives were broadcast, the first ever televised hearings. See It Now reported on these hearings and the misuse and abuse of legislative power on the part of the Senator. The program allowed a rebuttal from the junior senator whose appearance on See It Now exposed McCarthy’s tyrannical, one-sided motivations, leading to his being censured by the Senate.
Milo Radulovich, born in the United States to immigrant parents, was a World War II veteran working as a meteorologist and an Air Force reservist with top-secret clearance. In 1953, Radulovich was served with discharge papers having been deemed a security risk, because his father and sister were supposedly communist sympathizers. Stripped of his commission after losing his first court case, Murrow read about Radulovich’s experiences and found his the ideal story to expose Senator McCarthy and his witch-hunt. See It Now aired Radulovich’s story on October 20, 1953, and one month later he was reinstated to the military. After a career as a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, Radulovich retired and now lives in Lodi, California. Edward R Murrow - Jounalist & Legend Edward R Murrow did not merely influence the development of broadcast journalism, he helped invent the form. His shortwave radio broadcasts from Europe in the days leading up to World War II brought a new immediacy to coverage of foreign news, his live reports from the war’s frontlines made his distinctive voice universally recognizable, and his television documentaries set the standard for illustrating social and political issues by putting a human face on them. He helped shape television journalism during its infancy with his passion for the truth and his tireless efforts to advance democratic ideals, not the east of which he is frequently associated with in the mind of the public: free speech.
Murrow was born Egbert Roscoe Murrow in Polecat Creek in Guilford County, North Carolina on April 25, 1908. He grew up in a Quaker abolitionist household, one which provided him with a conscience which would later fuel his fearless pursuit of the truth. He graduated from Washington State College in 1930 with a degree in speech and moved to New York City to work for the National Student Federation. He then served as assistant director of the Institute of International Education from 1932 to 1935, during which time he married Janet Huntington Brewster. They had one son.
In 1935, Murrow began his career at CBS as director of talks and education. Two years later, he became the director of their European Bureau in London, where he assembled a group of reporters, including William Shirer, Charles Collingwood, Eric Sevaried, Bill Shael, and Howard K. Smith, whose reports of the war from the front lines made them popular back in the states.
After the war, Murrow returned to the United States as CBS Vice President and Director of Public Affairs but resigned to return to radio broadcasting. With Fred Friendly, Murrow produced the series "Hear It Now" from 1950 to 1951, serving as the show’s host, as well. The popularity of the show brought Murrow back to television; the team adapted their program for TV, calling it "See It Now". The show opened with the first live simultaneous transmission from both the East Coast and the West Coast. Murrow’s program on Milo Radulovich, which ultimately led up to the legendary telecast focusing on Senator Joseph R McCarthy in 1954, is considered by many as not only marking the turning point in the Senator’s campaign against communist sympathizers, but a turning point in the history of television, as well. During the same time period, Murrow hosted "Person To Person", which featured informal chats with celebrities such as Marilyn Monroe and John Steinbeck. While less controversial, the show and its format continue to influence today’s celebrity interviewers. He continued with that program for a year after "See It Now" ended in 1958, the same year Murrow began moderating and producing "Small World", another innovative program which featured discussions among international political figures.
Although Murrow won five Emmys and five Peabody Awards for his work over the years, he continued to demand more from himself and his colleagues, as demonstrated by a speech given at the Radio and Television News Directors Association convention in 1958. “This just might do nobody any good,” the speech began grimly, and in it, Murrow described the untenable position of the journalist broadcasting on instruments whose development had been shaped by, and would continue to grow as, an impossible combination of news, show business and advertising. Murrow only mentioned his employer a few times in his speech, but it was clear that he included CBS in his criticism of the networks and the effect their unchecked competition for ratings had on news programs.
He left CBS in 1961 when he was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to head the U.S. Information Agency, a post he remained at until 1964. Murrow died of lung cancer in New York on April 27, 1965. What They had To Say "We realized that whomever we got to play McCarthy, no matter how good they were, nobody was going to believe it," says co-writer Grant Heslov. "They were going to think that the guy was over-acting, so we decided to use the real footage. In regard to Murrow's speeches, here was all this great writing so why not use it?"
"David is the kind of actor that always feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, so the minute that we realized how much he could look like him, just by looking at old pictures and the gravitas and sadness he can carry, he was the perfect guy to cast," says George Clooney. "We got on the set and started rehearsing and it seemed fine. He had long hair and a beard, but then he shaved and he slicked his hair back and started talking. We all just sat there with our mouths open."
"Edward R Murrow was a true American hero, a legend in his own time, although there are not as many people around who really remember him," says the man who plays Murrow, David Strathairn. "So, from that point of view, it’s really informative, the facts are in there and the history is in there too. It’s compelling."
"We asked Joe and Shirley Wershba every day, Where are we wrong? What are we missing in this?", co-writer and the films director George Clooney recalls. "That was what was important to us because we had to treat these questions in many ways the same way that Murrow treated things, which was that we had to double source our material."
"He’s just a great guy," Robert Downey Jnr says after meeting Joe Wershba. "He really only had one note for me and just said, 'We were really aggressive. Don't forget that, kid, we really loved what we were doing.'"
"Everything comes back and history sometimes does repeat itself if we allow it. I think it's good to remind everyone, on both sides of the aisle that we've been through this already and we should learn from that," Jeff Daniels says. "America wants to be nothing but safe, we also want our art and our culture to be safe. We want everything to be safe. This story speaks volumes to me." Cast & Crew Bytes "GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK" stars .......
National Board of Review and the National Society of Film Critics Award winner Patricia Clarkson ["The Green Mile", "Welcome to Collinwood", "The Station Agent" and "Pieces of April"]; GOLDEN GLOBE Award winner George Clooney ["The Perfect Storm", "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Three Kings", "Ocean’s Eleven" and "Ocean’s Twelve"]; OBIE Award winner Jeff Daniels ["The Hours", "Dumb & Dumber", "Bloodwork" and "For The Love Of Winn-Dixie"]; BAFTA Award winner Robert Downey Jr ["Chaplin", "Air America", "The Singing Detective" and "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"]; OBIE Award winner Frank Langella ["Diary of a Mad Housewife", "The Twelve Chairs", "Lolita" and "Dave"]; Robert John Burke ["The Chosen", "Wanted Dead Or Alive", "Lambada" and "Tombstone"]; Reed Diamond ["Memphis Belle", "Assassins" and "Spider-man 2"]; Tate Donovan ["Space Camp", "Memphis Belle", "Love Potion No. 9" and "Hercules"]; Tom McCarthy [TV'S "The Practice", "Ally McBeal", "Spin City" and directed the film" "The Station Agent"] and David Strathairn ["Silkwood", "The Firm", "The River Wild" and "LA Confidential"] as Edward R Murrow.
"GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK" was .......
directed by National Board of Review Special Achievement in Film award winner George Clooney ["Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"]; screenplay by Grant Heslov ["Waiting for Woody"] and George Clooney; costume design by Louise Frogley ["Chariots of Fire", "Traffic", "U.S. Marshals", "Man on Fire" and "Skeleton key"]; production design by EMMY award winner James D Bissell ["E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", "The Falcon and the Snowman", "Cats & Dogs" and "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"]; edited by Academy Award winner Stephen Mirrione ["Confessions of a Dangerous Mind", "Ocean's Eleven", "Ocean's Twelve", "Traffic" and "21 Grams"]; cinematography by Robert Elswit ["The River Wild", "Runaway Jury", "Boogie Nights" and "Punch Drunk Love"]; produced by Grant Heslov ["Intolerable Cruelty"] and executive produced by Palme d'Or winner Steven Soderbergh ["Sex, Lies and Videotape", "Traffic", "The Limey" and "Erin Brockovich"]. What It's All About The year is 1953, television is still in its infancy and the esteemed broadcast journalist, Edward R Murrow, anchors the popular television news documentary show, "See it Now", on CBS. It is the era when a Junior Senator from Wiscon by the name of Joseph McCarthy, embarked on a personal crusade, a witch-hunt, to weed out communists in the United States of America. One such person was U.S. Air Force reservist named Lieutenant Milo Radulovich, who was kicked out of the U.S. Air Force for being a security risk. Declared guilty without a trial, he had been asked to denounce his father and sister to stay on, but he refused. All charges against him have been kept sealed. Radulovich has protested his innocence but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears. When "See It Now" producer Fred Friendly gets a visit from the Air Force regarding Radulovich, the news team decides to investigate the story further. It will lead to a head to head confrontation with the powerful Senator. Murrow refuses to back down. The station throws its weight behind the news team. It's a huge gamble taking on the might of the government but now there's no turning back. The more they dig, the dirtier it gets. The Verdict "Shades of the 1950's era! It's all come back to haunt us with a new form of McCarthyism only this time it John Howard Philip Ruddock and Senator Robert Hill calling the tune, branding anyone who speaks out against the tide of new social order un-Australian and an enemy of the state. And they said it could never happen again? Well they were wrong. "Good Night, And Good Luck" is a well crafted, beautifully shot film. All the cast including Clooney, Downey Jnr and Frank Langella are superb but it is David Strathairn who holds center-stage and he holds it extremely well. In light of the current political climate in Australia, "Good Night, And Good Luck" will serve as a timely warning even for the most politically unsavvy person. Highly recommended. * * * Stars" The Cast

David Strathairn Robert Downey Jr Patricia Clarkson Ray Wise Frank Langella Jeff Daniels George Clooney Tate Donovan Tom McCarthy Matt Ross Reed Diamond Robert John Burke Grant Heslov Alex Borstein Rose Abdoo Glenn Morshower Don Creech Helen Slayton-Hughes Robert Knepper J D Cullum Simon Helberg Peter Jacobson Dianne Reeves

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Edward R Murrow Joe Wershba Shirley Wershba Don Hollenbeck William Paley Sig Mickelson Fred Friendly Jesse Zousmer Palmer Williams Eddie Scott John Aaron Charlie Mack Don Hewitt Natalie Millie Lerner Colonel Anderson Colonel Jenkins Mary Don Surine Stage Manager CBS Page Jimmy Jazz Singer

The Crew Directed by George Clooney Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov Produced by Grant Heslov Cinematography by Robert Elswit Film Editing by Stephen Mirrione Casting by Ellen Chenoweth Production Design by James D Bissell Art Direction by Christa Munro Set Decoration by Jan Pascale Costume Design by Louise Frogley Run Time 93 minutes Rated PG [AUST] Copyright ©2005 - Warner Independent - All Rights Reserved Copyright Protected © 2005 - Impact Internet Services & The Movie Pages - All Rights Reserved