- Take a pot shot but be warned.

 There is no questioning of the integrity of the filmmakers in producing Good Night, and Good Luck – about journalistic professionalism amidst dubious political manoeuvres, and the reporting of that – it’s one from the heart. Set during the infancy of television circa 1950s, the CBS news team, led by Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn), investigate Senator Joseph McCarthy’s claims of a person’s communist affiliations before it is proven.

This movie begins and continues strongly, making its case through a naturalistic style and technique and an effective ensemble cast, until towards the end when it dawns on you that this cinematic theatre is merely here to make a persuasive statement. For a movie which condemns propaganda, Good Night, and Good Luck, through repeating the point, is in itself so obviously mannered and one-sided, that it loses any authenticity and balance which is engaging at the beginning. This is not story telling per se; it is making a statement by using an historical episode. So it appears like a quasi-documentary, a retro-contemporary protest against U.S. scare mongering, a rehash of Fahrenheit 9/11 sensibilities. But its most powerful point is making journalists responsible, and use of technique is brilliant, filmed in vivid black and white, and seamlessly inserting real footage of McCarthy.