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Wow read this review of Good Night, and Good Luck and then tell me if

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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 06:19 AM
Original message
Wow read this review of Good Night, and Good Luck and then tell me if
Edited on Sun Sep-18-05 06:23 AM by Melodybe
you are going to get off you ass and make this movie huge.

Get the world out, this movie gives us a history lesson that everyone in America needs to hear.

From the review:
The dichotomy between Murrow and McCarthy is emblematic of Good Night, and Good Luck's fixation on contrast, which manifests itself not only in See it Now's ethical condemnation of the House of Un-American Activities Committee's insidious leader, but also in the film's view of an American culture naively willing to take everything at face value. In an exquisite sequence that highlights the disparity between what's seen and what is, Clooney presents an authentic commercial for Kent cigarettes in which the patronizing spokesman compliments the audience's intelligence for not being easily swayed by consumer marketing, and then asks them to buy—hook line and sinker—the company's (thoroughly preposterous) claim about Kent smokes' healthiness. Immediately after this found-artifact advertisement, Murrow's hilarious interview with Liberace finds the queer pianoman discussing his hopes and dreams for marriage (and his interest in Princess Margaret!), a similar instance of deliberate image-manipulation in which messy, unfavorable realities are glossed up with phony facades in an effort to coddle and hoodwink a public still under the false impression that politicians, presidents, and TV personalities are always operating on the level.

Though never overstepping the story's period-specific confines, the film's contemporary allusions are nonetheless there for those who would seek them: McCarthy's uncompromising view of good and evil (and slandering of anyone who opposed his cause, including the ACLU) is meant to recall George W.'s post-9/11 "You're either with us or against us" declaration and the payback-motivated leaking of Valerie Plame's covert CIA status; his dogged refusal to supply evidence against accused communists, instead preferring to try suspects on speculation and hearsay, is intended to evoke the current brouhaha surrounding prisoner rights at Guantanamo; and his justification that "security risks" necessitate the bending of constitutional freedoms is expected to parallel similar rationalizations for the Patriot Act. "We cannot defend freedom abroad if we desert it at home," Murrow states during his historic nightly news attack on McCarthy's slash-and-burn approach to weeding out potential socialist sympathizers, a famous proclamation that—along with Murrow's similar belief that "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty"—is meant to reverberate as a censure of the current administration's preferred tactics in selling and orchestrating the War on Terror.

Yet more forceful than its digs at the Bushies is Good Night, and Good Luck's eloquent articulation of television news's duty to challenge the powers-that-be, and the erosion of modern broadcasting's adherence to this responsibility in the face of profit-prompted corporate interference and exaltation of infotainment fluff—the latter of which is Murrow's focus during a 1958 honorary ceremony speech that serves as the narrative's frame. As Murrow's employer William Paley, a superbly conflicted Frank Langella elicits both empathy and condemnation, exhibiting loyalty to the news division's demand for independence while simultaneously becoming increasingly concerned for his network's financial health should Murrow alienate one too many lucrative sponsors. In the film's magnificent finale, Paley and Murrow stare each other down over the lengths to which the media are (and should be) truly autonomous truth-seekers, and the brilliance of Clooney's (and co-screenwriter Grant Heslov's) explosively tense presentation of this face-off is that, though the film's sympathies staunchly lie with Murrow, Paley comes across not solely as a money-hungry scoundrel, but as a resolute pragmatist who believes that facts, even in the hands of an esteemed anchorman, are always subject to biased interpretation and manipulation.


Here is the review:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/film/film_review.asp?ID=1798

here is a link to the trailer:

http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/goodnightandgoodluck.html
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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 06:32 AM
Response to Original message
1. kick for the morning crew
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hwmnbn Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 06:40 AM
Response to Original message
2. I just watched the trailer......
WHOA!!! It opens October 7. I'll stand in line in the rain for this one.

I'd be interested to see if it becomes a box office success similar to F9-11. In which case, the good folks in America are actually thinking about these issues.

Thanks for the post. It was the first one I read on this quiet early Sunday morning.
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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 06:43 AM
Response to Reply #2
4. Of course it will, Warner Brothers made it and it has huge stars in it
I'm telling you this movie is going to win Oscars and it is going to make a ton of money.

And if it teachs America the value of real journalism, well that is just a plus.
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DrRang Donating Member (415 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 08:04 AM
Response to Reply #2
7. We saw it as a trailer when we went to . . .
see "The Constant Gardener." Wow!
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patdem Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 06:41 AM
Response to Original message
3. I caught your first post and am currently loading it on Qtime movie
I am on dial up and the buffering on all except Qtime is beyond endurance. I just click on Qtime and keep the sound off till it is fully loaded and I can play it in its entirety without a buffer!

Hint for dial up people. - I even loaded the large one, takes longer but is a bigger picture.

Like many others said on the other post, I am not a movie goer, but I think this is one I will enjoy on the big screen!
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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 07:02 AM
Response to Reply #3
5. kick
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Missy M Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 07:20 AM
Response to Original message
6. I can't wait to see this movie. It is perfect timing for what is going...
on in this country right now. The young people of this country should see this movie, it may give them a wake up call. The thing that makes me so sad is Paley's belief "that facts, even in the hands of an esteemed anchorman, are always subject to biased interpretation and manipulation". If only the news people could give us 'just the facts' and leave out their biased interpretation and manipulation, it would be like heaven. I for one don't give a damn about their interpretation.
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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:23 PM
Response to Reply #6
8. Kick cause we really need to get the word out on this movie
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LeahD Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:34 PM
Response to Original message
9. I'll be in line for this one! Kick! n/t
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cry baby Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:36 PM
Response to Original message
10. I can't wait till this movie comes out!!!!!!!!
It will stir up the rat's nest, won't it!
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RandomKoolzip Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:37 PM
Response to Original message
11. Just keep saying to yourself: "it's only a movie....It's only a movie..."
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Melodybe Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:45 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. It's only a movie that gives us an accurate portrail of McCarthyism
a history lesson that America sorely needs to hear, movies can change the world.

Great art can change the world, it always has.
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RagingInMiami Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Sep-18-05 03:53 PM
Response to Reply #11
13. The sad truth is
That's probably what it's going to take to wake America up.
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