When it comes to films about historic moments or events, few can really accomplish the goal of being strictly accurate with the real facts such are the cases of films like: Brave Heart or newly Kingdom of Heaven.Nevertheless, Good Night and Good Luck achieves this objective almost completely, with its black and white format the film gains a more credible approach to what television looked like in the 50’s, the set was convincing with details such as the anchorman smoking in the studio and all of the equipment, i.e.: a monitor which had the Westinghouse name on the bottom below the screen. Plus David Strathairn plays the role of Edward R. Murrow in a glorious way; I could even feel Murrow’s passion and conviction for the job he was doing along with Fred Friendly in the show See It Now. It is a shame that certain scenes such as the bar celebration do not have historic consistency; there is no prove that this actually happened.
On the other hand, aspects such as the relationship between Murrow and William Paley seem to be sincere, and as well the suicide of Don Hollenbeck because of falling into the black list of the Red Scare, gives to the film a realistic touch. In the same way, the use of real footage such as Milo Radulovich’s interview or Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s response to Murrow in SeeIt Now or his trial provides the movie a bonus, because you can actually breathe the tension of the McCarthyist situation, you could cut the thick air with a knife; that is why at the end Good Night and Good Luck crosses the borders of filmography to acquire an air of documentary.
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