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 Entertainment | October 2005 
George Clooney Takes on Joe McCarthy in New Movie
 Arthur Spiegelman - Reuters
| | Director and actor George Clooney smiles before receiving the Osella Prize for Best Screenplay at the Cinema Palace in Venice September 10, 2005 for his latest movie 'Good night, good luck'. The film, which opens on Friday, chronicles the 1954 television showdown between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow. (Reuters/Alessia Pierdomenico) |
History has not been kind to Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Since his death from alcoholism in 1957, he has grown into a symbol of government run amok - the witch-hunter feeding on rumor and innuendo, a hero for some but a reckless villain for many others.
A new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," which opens on Friday, about McCarthy's 1954 television showdown with CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, pointedly does nothing to improve the Wisconsin senator's reputation, but it just might make him a star and maybe, even, a person to be reckoned with at Oscar time.
The film's director, actor George Clooney, half-jokingly suggests that he may organize a campaign to get McCarthy nominated for best supporting actor since all the scenes of him in the movie come from actual videotapes made when he held sway in Congress in the early 1950s, hunting communists and "traitors" and fueling Cold War paranoia.
The film, an examination of the limits of democracy and even plain human decency in a time of political stress, is certain to win kudos and award nominations for its star, David Strathairn, who plays newsman Edward R. Murrow in a feat closer to channeling a ghost than acting.
The 90-minute, black and white film tells of Murrow's decision to expose McCarthy's misuse of power in a now classic 1954 "See it Now" program in which he used the senator's own words to paint a portrait of a bullying demagogue at work.
Many credit that program as the start of McCarthy's fall from grace.
"We decided to use McCarthy, the way Murrow did. If we used an actor, people would say he was too oafish or too large. It was better to let him do it in his own words and it was much cheaper," Clooney said in a recent interview with Reuters.
Now he said, only partly in jest, he was considering taking an ad in the Hollywood trade papers that shows a picture of McCarthy and that catch-phrase used in all Oscar campaigns: "For your consideration."
Reviews Needed
"All we need is a quote from Time magazine saying, 'McCarthy is riveting.' It would be fantastic. If we can get away with it, we'll do it," Clooney said.
He joked that he tried to launch such a campaign to get Matt Damon named "Sexiest Man Alive," but the ad was rejected by the Hollywood Reporter on the grounds that it was clearly a spoof.
Jokes or half-jokes aside, the film has a darker subtext for it argues that Murrow and television paid a huge price for taking on McCarthy, a price it is paying even today.
For Clooney, the story of television news is of a battle between a network's desire to make money by entertaining viewers and effort to meet its less-profitable obligation to inform the public of important news.
"My father was a television anchorman and Murrow was one of his heroes. And I have always had a fascination with that moment in history because it was one of two times that broadcast journalism had an immediate effect. The other time was when Walter Cronkite went to Vietnam," Clooney said, referring to the effect Cronkite's reporting had on eroding support at home for the war.
Clooney said he started pulling out the old speeches of the McCarthy era and felt they resonated today when many feel civil liberties have been curtailed by the Bush administration's declared war on terror and the USA Patriot Act which strengthens law enforcement's powers.
"I thought it was interesting to hear (politicians) using fear to erode civil liberties .... Power unchallenged and unquestioned will always corrupt. You will find that happens in times of fear and that some in the press take passes at exposing it," he added.
Murrow was one the nation's most revered newsman when he took on McCarthy. He had become a trusted figure for his reporting from Britain during World War Two, but even he was not safe from McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist sympathizer.
And less than a year after its program on McCarthy, "See It Now's" sponsor dropped the show and it lost its regular weekly berth. It lasted until 1957 as a series of specials.
But no one had troubles with Murrow's other CBS program, a celebrity interview show called "Person to Person" in which he famously asked the then secretly gay pianist Liberace when he would marry and was told when the right girl came around.
As far as David Strathairn is concerned, the idea of getting McCarthy nominated for his performance is not so far-fetched. "He has the biggest part in the movie. we wouldn't be here without him." |
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