Last night I finally watched the film "Good Night and Good Luck" directed by George Clooney. The film is about Edward R. Murrow, (as well as many others at CBS) taking on McCarthy's sadist views on removing "communists" from our nation and proving that the news can acheive more than we usually expect of it. For people of my generation, the film reminds us of history we never lived through, but should be aware of in a way that is more intimate than the short description in our highschool history books.
The film was excellent, a big hoorah for Clooney. The film reminds us all of the importance of defending individual rights, and protecting reporters' and news agencies' rights to publish and report on issues not always positive toward the current administration, so they may do the job they were meant to do--show us what in the hell is going on around the world and not simply repeat goverment propaganda.
"We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men--not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular."
--Edward R. Murrow.
4 comments:
Nice one, ella. I'm intending to go to the cinema to see this next Tuesday. If I disagree with your view of the film being "excellent" I'll visit again and get the debate going!
haha, sounds good! I'm betting you'll like it.
I grew up with the children of the victims of McCarthyism. They were called "red diaper babies." They led the movement against the war in Vietnam. Their parents were openly in Communist Party USA and the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party, and never backed down.
The movie was great. With only two films, this and an equally impressive 'Confessions of a Dangerous Mind', Clooney has emerged as one of the most innovative contemporary film auteurs.
However, if stylistically it's a masterpiece, its politics are a bit one-sided. The film covers two famous victims of McCartyism: Annie Lee Moss and Radulovich. It was somewhat disappointing that Clooney failed to mention that Radulovich was never actually targeted by McCarthy, while Moss actually was a real-life Communist...
But then again, the film isn't really about that. It's about the courage to stand up for one's beliefs, whether those beliefs are wrong-headed or not...
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