George Clooney, Robert Downey Jr., and David Strathairn stars as real-life newsmen in poignant drama based on fact
RECENT ACQUISITIONS: GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK. (George Clooney, 2005)
MoMA Film, Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53rd St. between Fifth & Sixth Aves.
Saturday, July 20, 5:00
Tickets: $12, in person only, may be applied to museum admission within thirty days, same-day screenings free with museum admission, available at Film and Media Desk beginning at 9:30 am
212-708-9400
www.moma.org
www.warnerbros.com
Shot in sharp black-and-white that makes the characters virtually jump off the screen, George Clooney’s Good Night, and Good Luck., which opened the 2005 New York Film Festival, is a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the early days of television journalism at CBS News. David Strathairn is outstanding as Edward R. Murrow, a dedicated reporter who took on Joseph McCarthy’s communist witch hunt in the mid-1950s. As the junior senator continued bringing innocent people down, Murrow challenged him on live TV, walking a fine line between fact and opinion, between staying neutral and injecting personal beliefs into the story. Mixing in plenty of original footage, Clooney captures the mood of the era which was primarily fear while also questioning the importance of television as a form of serious journalism, both things that are extremely relevant in today’s mass-media-driven political culture. Clooney, who cowrote and directed the film, plays legendary CBS producer Fred Friendly in a cast that also features Robert Downey Jr. (Joe Wershba), Patricia Clarkson (Shirley Wershba), Ray Wise (Don Hollenbeck), Frank Langella (William Paley), Jeff Daniels (Sig Mickelson), cowriter Grant Heslov (Don Hewitt), and Dianne Reeves as a jazz singer who often links scenes. Sports fans, take note: Among the executive producers of this low-budget triumph is Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. Nominated for six Oscars and winner of none, Good Night, and Good Luck. is screening July 20 at 5:00 as part of the MoMA series “A View from the Vaults: Warner Bros. Today,” consisting of thirty-one films from the last twenty years of movies coming out of the famed studio, including the Harry Potter series as well as such wide-ranging fare as Spike Jonze’s Where the Wild Things Are, Ted Braun’s Darfur Now, Peter Weir’s Fearless, Gregory Hoblit’s Fracture, and Zack Snyder’s Watchmen.