Good Night and Good Luck
I really wanted to be able to give this a good review. Many of you know I am not a big Clooney fan- as a cinematic personality I feel he is pretty much all hair. But I was rooting for him on this one, becuase on a knee jerk level I agree with him. McCarthyism and the black list happen to be serious interests of mine. Granted, I'm not involved in any historical reinactments of the McCarthy hearings or anything like that, but I do have a deep and abiding constitutional interest in the time period. However, I am becoming increasingly dissatisfied in the "liberal intellectual elite" complaining how there is no longer any public discourse and then refusing to actively engage in the debate beyond screaming "YOU SUCK!" Not very intellectual at all.
The fact that we are revisiting these issues in our political debate (I use the term "debate" rather loosely here) should be a big, flashing neon sign that we have yet to resolve this issue in our culture. If the issue is NOT resolved, then it behooves us to actually examine that which we find distateful. If it IS resolved, there is absolutely nothing gained by even bringing up the subject to begin with. Now, allow me to be specific in regard to my structural and philosophical gripes with this picture and then I will pick away at its artistry.
I know this will make me unpopular. Good.
It is my artistic philosophy that all great works begin with a question. Not with an answer. "Good Night and Good Luck" is all answer. The answer is Senator Joe McCarthy was a mad jackass who was way out of line and he deserves to be burned in effigy throughout the annals of American history from here to eternity. This provides no real conflict or urgency. If the path is clear and there is no questioning or doubt then what can we learn from this exercise? (I know those of you that have seen it will question me about the suicide of Don Hollinbeck -please excuse the phonetic spelling- but I will cover that in the artistic phase of this review) If we do not present McCarthy's viewpoint we can scarcely walk away from this picture with any idea how to proceed with our daily lives. What the hell do you want me to DO with this information?
McCarthy and the black lists have actually been done to death. We've examined the dilemma of whether to name names or not with an interesting and emotional dialogue of sorts between estranged friends Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan. A few of us (very few for the first in this list) have seen two seperate vilifications of Roy Cohn in HBO's "Citizen Cohn" and portrayed by Al Pacino in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America". We've seen the tragedy of the black list with Robert DeNiro in "Guilty by Suspicion", but I have yet to see anyone honestly, and without malice, explore Joseph McCarthy. It is just assumed that he was a crazy ass and therefor we don't need to even begin to look at the reasons for his positions. We assume there are no reasons. We are very comfortable believing that he was a power mad wacko and so we do not have to examine ourselves. We do not have to answer for our own supplication and willingness to hand over our freedoms and civil rights to some guy who is such a true believer that he can paint us into a corner with "either you are with us or against us." What this picture misses is the fact that WE create and hand over power to Joseph McCarthy (Dick Cheney, W, Karl Rove...) and we will do it again and again and again, unless we have the courage to drop our assumptions about his positions and his actions and actually ask the question, "was he right?".
In order for a work of art to have any real value it should challenge us to see the world in a new way. Yes, this applies to comedy, too. Sometimes even more so! No more preaching to the choir. That should be off the table. Challenge yourself, damn it! Have the guts to ask yourself what you truly believe and then be brave enough to admit when you are wrong. Breathe a sigh of relief when you are right. This is called growth. If there is no growth, there is no art, perhaps a little craft, but no art.
Now for the craft.
The script is poorly structured with bad pacing and absolutely no character development. I can't really complain too much about the actors because there was, literally, nothing to see. Clooney quipped on The Daily Show (yeah Jon Stewart!) that people were asking who that guy playing Joe McCarthy was, as if this blurring between historical fiction and real history was a compliment to the picture. It was, in my humble opinion, just the opposite. It points out just how bland the characters that populated the screen really were. Textually this was merely a chronology of events with little to no illumination of the people who took part in those events.
Now, for the suicide. See, even if you knew nothing about these people and the chain of events in their lives you would know from his first moment on screen that Don was going to kill himself. This moment is supposed to provide us with a moment of doubt. This moment lasts through a musical interlude and an on air obituary. Then it is back to business as usual. Hardly a blip in the text. To put it in perspective, that's maybe a page of script. If a person's life and is worth a page of written text in a script of (roughly) 120 pages, that does not make for a dramatic dilemma.
My problem with this film is that it brings nothing new to the table. I did not learn anything new. I did not make any new connections between that time period and our current woes. I did not walk away being wowed by its' artistic bravery or its rock solid craft. It left me completely empty. I would be impressed if this film project challenged its participants to question their own political positions and by doing so challenged its audience. That would be brave. That would be revolutionary. Instead, it was just more of the same bullshit of smartypants liberals pointing at conservatives and saying "take that!" just before that big ass conservative comes over and sits on the little weasel. Truly, if you want intelligent discussion in this country, you have to start by asking a question and actually waiting for the answer and listening to it instead of just waiting for your turn to scream.
The fact that we are revisiting these issues in our political debate (I use the term "debate" rather loosely here) should be a big, flashing neon sign that we have yet to resolve this issue in our culture. If the issue is NOT resolved, then it behooves us to actually examine that which we find distateful. If it IS resolved, there is absolutely nothing gained by even bringing up the subject to begin with. Now, allow me to be specific in regard to my structural and philosophical gripes with this picture and then I will pick away at its artistry.
I know this will make me unpopular. Good.
It is my artistic philosophy that all great works begin with a question. Not with an answer. "Good Night and Good Luck" is all answer. The answer is Senator Joe McCarthy was a mad jackass who was way out of line and he deserves to be burned in effigy throughout the annals of American history from here to eternity. This provides no real conflict or urgency. If the path is clear and there is no questioning or doubt then what can we learn from this exercise? (I know those of you that have seen it will question me about the suicide of Don Hollinbeck -please excuse the phonetic spelling- but I will cover that in the artistic phase of this review) If we do not present McCarthy's viewpoint we can scarcely walk away from this picture with any idea how to proceed with our daily lives. What the hell do you want me to DO with this information?
McCarthy and the black lists have actually been done to death. We've examined the dilemma of whether to name names or not with an interesting and emotional dialogue of sorts between estranged friends Arthur Miller and Elia Kazan. A few of us (very few for the first in this list) have seen two seperate vilifications of Roy Cohn in HBO's "Citizen Cohn" and portrayed by Al Pacino in Tony Kushner's "Angels in America". We've seen the tragedy of the black list with Robert DeNiro in "Guilty by Suspicion", but I have yet to see anyone honestly, and without malice, explore Joseph McCarthy. It is just assumed that he was a crazy ass and therefor we don't need to even begin to look at the reasons for his positions. We assume there are no reasons. We are very comfortable believing that he was a power mad wacko and so we do not have to examine ourselves. We do not have to answer for our own supplication and willingness to hand over our freedoms and civil rights to some guy who is such a true believer that he can paint us into a corner with "either you are with us or against us." What this picture misses is the fact that WE create and hand over power to Joseph McCarthy (Dick Cheney, W, Karl Rove...) and we will do it again and again and again, unless we have the courage to drop our assumptions about his positions and his actions and actually ask the question, "was he right?".
In order for a work of art to have any real value it should challenge us to see the world in a new way. Yes, this applies to comedy, too. Sometimes even more so! No more preaching to the choir. That should be off the table. Challenge yourself, damn it! Have the guts to ask yourself what you truly believe and then be brave enough to admit when you are wrong. Breathe a sigh of relief when you are right. This is called growth. If there is no growth, there is no art, perhaps a little craft, but no art.
Now for the craft.
The script is poorly structured with bad pacing and absolutely no character development. I can't really complain too much about the actors because there was, literally, nothing to see. Clooney quipped on The Daily Show (yeah Jon Stewart!) that people were asking who that guy playing Joe McCarthy was, as if this blurring between historical fiction and real history was a compliment to the picture. It was, in my humble opinion, just the opposite. It points out just how bland the characters that populated the screen really were. Textually this was merely a chronology of events with little to no illumination of the people who took part in those events.
Now, for the suicide. See, even if you knew nothing about these people and the chain of events in their lives you would know from his first moment on screen that Don was going to kill himself. This moment is supposed to provide us with a moment of doubt. This moment lasts through a musical interlude and an on air obituary. Then it is back to business as usual. Hardly a blip in the text. To put it in perspective, that's maybe a page of script. If a person's life and is worth a page of written text in a script of (roughly) 120 pages, that does not make for a dramatic dilemma.
My problem with this film is that it brings nothing new to the table. I did not learn anything new. I did not make any new connections between that time period and our current woes. I did not walk away being wowed by its' artistic bravery or its rock solid craft. It left me completely empty. I would be impressed if this film project challenged its participants to question their own political positions and by doing so challenged its audience. That would be brave. That would be revolutionary. Instead, it was just more of the same bullshit of smartypants liberals pointing at conservatives and saying "take that!" just before that big ass conservative comes over and sits on the little weasel. Truly, if you want intelligent discussion in this country, you have to start by asking a question and actually waiting for the answer and listening to it instead of just waiting for your turn to scream.
posted by Bree O'Connor at 2:36 AM
2 Comments:
Here's the question: How could this be happening again? Are you not perceptive enough to see the McCarthy is in the White HOuse now? Our civil rights are being trambled upn? THe Patriot Act is simply McCarthyism by a different name.
Are you not perceptive enough to see that I clearly said I agree with Clooney's politics? That I wanted to like this movie but had some serious artistic reservations with it's approach! I want to answer that same question- how could this be happening again? But if you want an answer, you have to look at the whole picture with a fresh set of eyes. What the fuck was up McCarthy's butt? Why was he blind to reality and why did we, the American people, allow him to get so powerful? Why are we doing it again? This is what bothers me. You just read that I panned the film but you did not open up to understand why and what I was asking for as an artist and as a passionate free citizen. Of course I understand the White House has fallen into the hands of a new McCarthyism. That is precisely why I think it is so important that we struggle to truly understand our collective past, and not just the fellows we like. Don't you understand that? And don't you understand that it is pretty chicken shit to drop a really ignorant acusation anonymously and run? You have something to say- stand up and say it and be responsible for it.
This kind of thick headedness makes me want to scream.
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