Good Night, and Good Luck and Capote view journalism as an intricate mix of principles, bravado, and negotiation. Working in a minefield, their star journalists are victims of their vocations. Good Night, and Good Luck, set in the early 50s, celebrates Edward R. Murrow’s bravery, eloquence, and sense of justice in challenging Joseph McCarthy at the height of his power—a kind of heroism that evokes John Wayne’s in a western like Rio Bravo (a movie I cherish, though its view of good and evil is similarly unshaded). Good Night, and Good Luck—named for Murrow’s sign-off line—also explores how internal politics at CBS were shaped by the network’s relations with its sponsors. The victimization of Murrow can be seen in his early death from lung cancer—his chain smoking, like James Agee’s and Albert Camus’, was somehow connected in the public mind with his moral seriousness—and in the way his weekly show, See It Now, was bumped to a Sunday-afternoon slot after he challenged McCarthy. The whole story’s seen from the vantage point of a 1958 tribute to Murrow, at which he spoke almost as warily about the future of television as Dwight Eisenhower did about the future of the military-industrial complex during his farewell speech as president three years later.
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Among the things I learned from the film is the story of Milo Radulovich, who was booted out of the air force without a trial in 1953 because he refused to denounce his father, a Serbian immigrant, and sister for their alleged communist activities. Murrow picked up the story from the Detroit News, and five weeks later the air force cleared Radulovich of all charges. Emboldened, Murrow attacked McCarthy more directly on his show a few months later.
Yet his story too is overly simplified. A title flashes on the screen at the film’s end: “In Cold Blood made Truman Capote the most famous writer in America. He never finished another book.” The first sentence is debatable, the second simply wrong. In 1980 he published Music for Chameleons, a collection of nonfiction pieces clearly conceived and organized as a book.
Directed by George Clooney
Written by Clooney and Grant Heslov
With David Straithairn, Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., Patricia Clarkson, Frank Langella, Ray Wise, Heslov, Jeff Daniels, and Dianne Reeves
Capote ★★★ (A must see)
Directed by Bennett Miller
Written by Dan Futterman
With Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Clifton Collins Jr., Chris Cooper, Bruce Greenwood, Bob Balaban, Mark Pellegrino, and Amy Ryan
