History Film / GoodNightAndGoodLuck

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Murrow's boss Bill Paley asks why Murrow didn't correct [=McCarthy=] when he said Alger Hiss was convicted of treason. "You didn't want to be seen defending Hiss," Paley notes.

%% * DeadpanSnarker: Apparently, a number of them worked for Creator/{{CBS}}.

* WeddingRingRemoval: Joe and Shirley have recently married in spite of [=CBS=]'s prohibition on married couples in the office. Shirley jokes that she's probably the only wife who reminds her husband to take ''off'' his ring before going to work.

* TheAlcoholic: Senator [=McCarthy=] [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is introduced at a speaking event, guzzling down a drink before he starts speaking]]. TruthInTelevision, as [=McCarthy=] was a notorious drinker, and it's clear in much of the footage that he's likely drunk or hung over. He died from cirrhosis of the liver in fact, three years after being censured.

''Good Night, and Good Luck'' is a 2005 [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]] film directed by Creator/GeorgeClooney and written by Clooney and Grant Heslov. It stars Clooney, Creator/DavidStrathairn, Creator/JeffDaniels, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Creator/PatriciaClarkson, Creator/FrankLangella, and [[AsHimself Senator Joseph McCarthy]].

* StockFootage: All scenes involving [=McCarthy=] are actually him speaking in the Senate. As noted above, many people weren't aware of this.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: If you were to ask anyone to name a part of the movie they didn't like, chances are they'd mentioning the guy playing Senator [=McCarthy=] and his over the top acting. [[FailedASpotCheck No one played McCarthy in the film; all footage of him is archival.]]

* RedScare: Senator Joseph [=McCarty=] himself, one of the greatest symbols [[WitchHunt of all the worst]] [[WithUsOrAgainstUs parts of this era]], is the GreaterScopeVillain of this film.

* RealityIsUnrealistic[=/=]YourCostumeNeedsWork: Some of the film's detractors complained that the actor playing [[AsHimself Senator McCarthy]] hammed the role up too much, when the movie used ''actual film'' of him.

* TheFifties: Focusing more on the dark effects of the Red Scare rather than picket fences and bobby socks.

* HistoricalDomainCharacter: Guess.

* DeadpanSnarker: Apparently, a number of them worked for Creator/{{CBS}}.

* HistoricalHeroUpgrade: {{Averted}}, though the film was accused of this. Murrow and the studio didn't stand up for the Air Force officer accused of treason and go against [=McCarthy=] out of the goodness of their hearts-they needed an angle, and no one else seemed to be covering the treason case. In addition, Murrow's AuthorTract on television about fiction being one of the downfalls of the modern age in the opening wasn't treated as uplifting, or moving, or the message of the film.

* QuittingToGetMarried: Gender-flipped and retroactively applied. Joe and Shirley Wershba are HappilyMarried despite Creator/{{CBS}} company policy prohibiting married coworkers. Their marriage is an OpenSecret in the office, but near the end of the film their boss is told to lay off two employees, and gives them the opportunity to have one or both of them quit to save somebody else's job. Joe takes the offer.

It is a dramatization of the conflict between Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy and broadcaster Edward R. Murrow during the height of TheFifties RedScare in the United States. Notably, no actor actually portrays [=McCarthy=], instead relying entirely on archival footage, giving it an edge of historical accuracy. The themes of the movie focus on the responsibility of television, not just the news, to go beyond just entertainment, and inform and voice dissent.

%%* RedScare

* RedScare

* AndMissionControlRejoiced: The control room bursts into spontaneous applause after Murrow finishes his daring piece about Milo Radulovich.

''Good Night, and Good Luck'' is a 2005 [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]] film directed by Creator/GeorgeClooney and written by Clooney and Grant Heslov. It stars Clooney, David Strathairn, Creator/JeffDaniels, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Creator/PatriciaClarkson, Creator/FrankLangella, and [[AsHimself Senator Joseph McCarthy]].

* TheAlcoholic: Senator [=McCarthy=] [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is introduced at a speaking event, guzzling down a drink before he starts speaking]]. TruthInTelevision, as [=McCarthy=] was a notorious drinker, and it's clear in much of the footage that he's likely drunk or hung over.

''Good Night, and Good Luck'' is a 2005 [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]] film directed by Creator/GeorgeClooney and written by Clooney and Grant Heslov. It stars Clooney, David Strathairn, Creator/JeffDaniels, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Creator/PatriciaClarkson, Frank Langella, and [[AsHimself Senator Joseph McCarthy]].

The film was nominated for six {{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture.

''Good Night, and Good Luck'' is a 2005 [[DeliberatelyMonochrome black and white]] film directed by Creator/GeorgeClooney and written by Clooney and Grant Heslov. It stars Clooney, David Strathairn, Jeff Daniels, Creator/RobertDowneyJr, Creator/PatriciaClarkson, Frank Langella, and [[AsHimself Senator Joseph McCarthy]].

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Joe and Shirley's marriage. The director tells them that everybody knows about it [[spoiler:when asking them to resign ahead of planned layoffs.]] Except for Murrow, apparently, when Fred says everyone new and he claims "I didn't know."[[note]]He's so dry, it's hard to tell if he's joking.[[/note]]

* FridayNightDeathSlot: [[invoked]] Paley won't cancel "See It Now" outright, probably because it would (accurately) be seen as a response to Murrow's reporting on [=McCarthy=]. Instead, he moves the show to a weekly format and puts it in an hour-long Sunday afternoon timeslot, which will kill its ratings and allow him to cancel it for ''that'' reason after the hubbub has died down.

* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: George Clooney as Fred Friendly. To a lesser extent, David Straitharn as Murrow, though Murrow himself was far from a bad looking guy.

* ShownTheirWork: George Clooney grew up in his father's television news set, so the news scenes are precisely accurate, down to the crewman under the newsdesk tugging at Murrow's pant leg to let him know the camera was on.

* FridayNightDeathSlot: Paley won't cancel "See It Now" outright, probably because it would (accurately) be seen as a response to Murrow's reporting on [=McCarthy=]. Instead, he moves the show to a weekly format and puts it in an hour-long Sunday afternoon timeslot, which will kill its ratings and allow him to cancel it for ''that'' reason after the hubbub has died down.

* EveryoneCanSeeIt: Joe and Shirley's marriage. The director tells them that everybody knows about it [[spoiler:when asking them to resign ahead of planned layoffs.]]

* SpeakIllOfTheDead: O'Brien's reaction to Hollenbeck's suicide is to write another column calling him a pinko.

* WeddingRingRemoval: Two of the characters are married to each other, but remove their wedding rings every morning before work, because the TV station where they work doesn't allow married couples.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Joe and Shirley's suspicious furtive behavior resembles Communists trying to avoid the blacklist. [[spoiler: Nah, they're just married when the network as a policy against married partners working there.]]

* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The entirety of a Kent commercial is shown before one of Murrow's "Person to Person" segments.

* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Don Hollenbeck kills himself by running his gas oven after repeated accusations of being a Communist sympathizer]].

* TheFifties