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1[[quoteright:299:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Goodnight_poster_748.jpg]]
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3''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]].
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5It is a dramatization of the conflict between Senator UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy and broadcaster Creator/EdwardRMurrow 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.
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7The film was nominated for six UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, including Best Picture.
8----
9!!This film provides examples of:
10* 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 [[{{Irony}} after being censured]].
11* AndMissionControlRejoiced: The control room bursts into spontaneous applause after Murrow finishes his daring piece about Milo Radulovich.
12* 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 a known Communist," Paley notes.
13* AsHimself: Senator Joseph [=McCarthy=] was credited as himself.
14* BookEnds: The famous award speech where Murrow [[BitingTheHandHumor lambasts the association members not to waste TV's potential.]]
15* CatchPhrase: The title was Murrow's, both in RealLife and the film. Also counts as a TitleDrop.
16* DaEditor: Paley is a soft-spoken version. At one point he calls up Murrow just before broadcast and invites him to a Knicks game with dry humor, but he tries to pull back Murrow harder after the [=McCarthy=] pieces imperil sponsorship. When he puts "See It Now" in the Sunday death slot, he says he's fighting the affiliates, sponsors, and politicians and is sick of getting a stomachache every time Murrow takes on controversy.
17* DeadpanSnarker: Many of the Creator/{{CBS}} employees. Murrow dryly responds to Paley's invitation to a football game by commenting that he's "a little busy bringing down the network" and when phones start ringing off the hook after the controversial [=McCarthy=] broadcast, Friendly quips that it's [=McCarthy=] himself calling collect.
18* DefiantToTheEnd: After "See It Now" is effectively canceled, Friendly suggests to Murrow that their first program in the new timeslot should be about the downfall of television, and they agree to go down swinging.
19* DeliberatelyMonochrome: The film was shot in color on a greyscale set and then color-corrected in post-production.
20* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The entirety of a Kent cigarette commercial is shown before one of Murrow's "Person to Person" segments.
21* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Joe and Shirley's suspicious furtive behavior resembles Communists trying to avoid the blacklist. [[spoiler: Nah, they're just married when the network has a policy against married partners working there.]]
22* DrivenToSuicide: Don Hollenbeck kills himself by running his gas oven after repeated accusations of being a Communist sympathizer.
23* 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 knew and he claims "I didn't know."[[note]]He's so dry, it's hard to tell if he's joking.[[/note]]
24* EverybodySmokes: Murrow's producer Fred W. Friendly didn't smoke in RealLife, and died at 82. [[Series/SixtyMinutes Andy Rooney]], not present despite working at CBS News in Murrow's era, never smoked and died in 2011 at ''92''. They were the exception, though, with Rooney long outliving most of his '50s colleagues at CBS.
25* TheFifties: This film takes place during the decade, focusing more on the dark effects of the Red Scare rather than picket fences and bobby socks.
26* 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 time slot, which will kill its ratings and allow him to cancel it for ''that'' reason after the hubbub has died down.
27* GenreSavvy: A [=McCarthy=] minion slips Joe some dirt on Murrow's supposed Communist connections in order to threaten them. Joe tells him he needs to watch more spy films because you're not supposed to hand envelopes full of secret information to people in crowded lobbies.
28* GoldenMeanFallacy: When arguing about editorializing with the news director, Murrow says that some stories simply do ''not'' have two equal and valid viewpoints that deserve equal time.
29* HistoricalBeautyUpdate: George Clooney as Fred Friendly. To a lesser extent, David Strathairn as Murrow, though Murrow himself was far from a bad-looking guy.
30* HistoricalDomainCharacter: UsefulNotes/JosephMcCarthy, the infamous Senator and central figure of the Red Scare of TheFifties, is the main historical figure that the plot centers around. The journalists who fought against his allegations of secret communists in the American government and society are the focus of the plot.
31* HistoricalFiguresInArchivalMedia: All scenes involving [=McCarthy=] are actually stock footage of him speaking in the Senate.
32* HistoricalInJoke: The interview with Liberace was an attempt to try to make his TransparentCloset CampGay personality just CampStraight. No one, least of all Murrow, was fooled. There's a reason he hated those "Person to Person" segments.
33* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Murrow and co. (and by extension, the filmmakers) are very careful in their attacks on [=McCarthy=], using footage of the man and his own words to demonstrate just how ridiculous he is.
34* IntrepidReporter: Murrow.
35* KarmaHoudini: When [=McCarthy=] is censured, Murrow and Friendly point out that he still gets to keep his Senate seat.
36** It is [[SubvertedTrope subverted]], however, if one knows what happened to [=McCarthy=] afterwards. While he did keep his seat, he never got the public attention and support he initially had, and his fellow Senators avoided him like the plague [[TheFriendNoOneLikes (even fellow Republicans)]]. This, plus the [[TheAlcoholic exacerbation of his drinking problem]], led to his health declining and eventually his death in 1957.
37* KickTheDog: O'Brien's pro-[=McCarthy=] column is not kind to Don Hollenbeck throughout the film, but what's truly jarring is that he doubles down after Hollenbeck commits suicide.
38* MoodWhiplash: The triumphal news that [=McCarthy=] is himself being investigated by the Senate is cut off when Friendly receives news that Don Hollenbeck has committed suicide.
39* OhCrap:
40** A double-whammy after the broadcast calling out Senator [=McCarthy=]. As the segment ends, everyone waits with bated breath for the inevitable flood of phone calls over the controversial piece. When nothing happens, a palpable tension falls over the room and everyone grows increasingly concerned by the complete lack of reaction. Then they remember they disconnected all the phones in the room just before they went on air.
41--->'''Simon:''' Should I turn the phones back on, Mr. Williams?\
42'''Williams:''' [''with an OhCrap expression''] Yes, [[ThisIsGoingToSuck I think now would be a good time for that.]]
43** Joe and Shirley share this expression when they're called in to speak with the director together, as they assume he's found out they're married and they're about to be fired for it. [[spoiler:Turns out EverybodyKnewAlready and he's only confronting them now because he has to lay some people off; if one of them quits voluntarily, it will save somebody else's job.]]
44* OnlyInItForTheMoney: It's clear that Morrow utterly despises the "Person-to-Person" segments he is forced to do to as part of his contract. He doesn't even bother to learn his lines. His reasoning for it as "It pays the bills."
45* OpenSecret: Everyone in the office knows about Joe and Shirley's SecretRelationship anyway, they just don't mention it. [[spoiler:Eventually, they're effectively fired when the studio begins layoffs-they're told that, if one of them quits, they'll save a few jobs. They do so.]]
46* PoesLaw: Some audiences complained that [[YourCostumeNeedsWork "the actor playing Joseph McCarthy"]] was "too over-the-top". The film used actual archived footage of the real [=McCarthy=].
47* PyrrhicVictory: Murrow and Friendly were vindicated, but at the cost of network support.
48* 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; [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Wershba he had the stronger resume and became one of the founders of]] ''Series/SixtyMinutes''.
49* RealityIsUnrealistic: If you were to ask anyone to name a part of the movie they didn't like, chances are they'd mention 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.]]
50* ReassignedToAntarctica: Murrow's punishment by Paley was to have his show lengthened and put in a weekly (instead of daily) format in a deadly time slot. It quickly died.
51* RedScare: Senator Joseph [=McCarthy=] himself, one of the greatest symbols [[WitchHunt of all the worst]] [[WithUsOrAgainstUs parts of this era]], is the GreaterScopeVillain of this film.
52* {{Retraux}}: Filmed in black and white to enhance the period feeling. And because the only usable footage of [=McCarthy=] is in black-and-white.
53* SecretRelationship: Joe and Shirley Wershba can't reveal their marriage or they will be fired.
54* ShownTheirWork: George Clooney grew up on his father's television news set, so the news scenes are precisely accurate, down to the crewman under the news desk tugging at Murrow's pant leg to let him know the camera was on.
55* SpeakIllOfTheDead: Conservative columnist O'Brien's reaction to Hollenbeck's suicide is to write another column calling him a pinko.
56* 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. Once they find out EverybodyKnewAlready, they immediately pull out their rings and put them back on.

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