History revisionists like Ann Coulter can bite me: Sen. Joseph McCarthy's communist witch hunts of the 1950s were a black
mark on America's public record. That isn't to say communism wasn't necessarily a threat, and it isn't to say there might not have been communists in America with dastardly intentions. But it is to say that McCarthy's campaign of terror was executed with an astonishing degree of inaccuracy and vindictiveness, and that it should not have become as all-encompassing as it did. One of the men credited with commencing McCarthy's downfall is Edward R. Murrow, a CBS newsman whose weekly "See It Now" program showed the public what McCarthy was doing and let them see why it wasn't right. "Good Night, and Good Luck" is a fantastically compact little film that calmly details the reporter's dogged (and ultimately successful) attempt to bring the man down. "Good Night" is in black-and-white, both in its color scheme and its worldview. (McCarthy = bad; Murrow = good.) It has a prologue set in 1958, when Murrow (played with exquisite understatement by David Strathairn) is being honored by his colleagues at a banquet. He takes the stage, accepts the award, and blasts his industry for being complacent and soft, for seeking to "entertain, amuse and insulate" rather than inform and educate. His colleagues look down at their dinner plates uncomfortably.
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