Clooney to bring McCarthy vs. Murrow to the big screen

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

George is underrated as a director. I thought 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind' was brilliant. I can't wait to see this one---and the timing to revisit this episode couldn't be better

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It turns out he had even bigger objectives in mind, one of which is to restore honor to the term "liberal." It infuriates him that it's become a dirty word. "It blows my mind," he says, "because we don't have to put the word 'compassionate' in front of it to say we actually give a s—t about people. I'm going to keep saying 'liberal' as loud as I can and as often as I can."

"Good Night, and Good Luck"—Clooney's second outing as a director, after the unsuccessful but intriguing "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"—homes in on a historic moment that occurred before he was born. Yet it's personal filmmaking at its most heartfelt, revealing as much about Clooney, finally, as it does about the cold war. Murrow, who first became famous for his radio broadcasts from London during World War II and then as the host of CBS's "See It Now," was the role model for Clooney's father, Nick, an anchorman in Cincinnati and Lexington, Ky. The movie is Clooney's tribute to both Murrow and his own role model: his dad.

Clooney has no interest in the conventional contours of the biopic: you'll learn nothing here of Murrow's private life. Modest in scale, the movie is set almost entirely within the CBS studios (you never see the sky, except in an old Alcoa commercial). When Murrow decides to take on McCarthy, whose reckless investigations into alleged communist infiltration of the government spread postwar paranoia across the land, fear seeps into the newsroom. Murrow knows, as does CBS boss William Paley (Frank Langella), that McCarthy will retaliate by questioning his loyalty and smearing his name. He's putting the entire network at risk.

Knowing the outcome doesn't diminish the tension a bit, and Clooney and Grant Heslov's fine-chiseled script resonates with contemporary relevance. "We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home," Murrow said in his 1954 McCarthy broadcast. The senator used fear to undermine traditional American freedoms and equate dissent with disloyalty. Any resemblance to the current administration's exploitation of 9/11 is no accident.
more at:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9555148/site/newsweek /

[Shakespeare]

1. How odd that MSNBC tries to peg this one as a biopic.

It's not, not at all. It's a chronicle of Murrow's battle with McCarthy--think of it as a new Crucible for our Patriot Act-plagued times.

And casting Strathairn as Murrow is an act of absolute perfection; I can't wait to see this.

[ghostsofgiants]

2. Checked out the trailer a few days ago...

Looks great.