Synopsis: The film is about the renowned CBS News anchor Edward R. Murrow's legendary on-air confrontations with red-baiting Sen. Joseph McCarthy that helped bring down the infamous politician in the mid-1950s.

Cast:
David Strathairn .... Edward R. Murrow
Patricia Clarkson .... Shirley Wershba
George Clooney .... Fred Friendly
Robert Downey, Jr .... Joe Wershba
Frank Langella .... William Paley
Ray Wise .... Don Hollenbeck
Jeff Daniels .... Sig Mickleson
Tate Donovan .... Jesse Zousmer
Matt Ross .... Eddie Scott
Reed Diamond .... John Aaron
Robert John Burke .... Charlie Mack
Alex Borstein .... Natalie
Rose Abdoo .... Millie Lerner
Glenn Morshower .... Col. Anderson
Don Creech .... Col. Jenkins
Tom McCarthy .... Palmer Williams
Grant Heslov .... Don Hewitt

Favorite Quotes:
• Murrow: "How much are the ads?"
Mickelson: "3,000."
Murrow: "I'll split it with Fred. He just won't have any Christmas presents for his kids this year."
Mickelson: "He's a Jew."
Murrow: "Well, don't tell Fred that. He loves Christmas."

• "Funny thing, Freddie, every time you light a cigarette for me, I know you're lying." - Edward R. Murrow

• Murrow: "You're going to get audited this year."
Friendly: "Not me. You. I told them I didn't want to do this story."
Murrow: "Well, you always were yellow."
Friendly: "Better than red."

• "Oh, if none of us had ever read a dangerous book or had a friend who was different or never joined a club that advocated changed, we'd all be just the kind of people McCarthy wants. We're going to go with this story, because the terror is right here in this room." - Edward R. Murrow

• "I'm a little busy bringing down the network tonight, Bill." - Edward R. Murrow

• "We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof, and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men--not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular." -Edward R. Murrow

• [waiting for the phones to ring] "Nothing?" [pause] "Maybe nobody watched." - Edward R. Murrow

• Murrow: "Did you know that Shirley and Joe are married?"
Friendly: "Yeah."
Murrow: "Did everybody know?"

• "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it is merely wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful." - Edward R. Murrow (Full Speech)

Notes:
• Good Night, and Good Luck was written by George Clooney and Grant Heslov, and Clooney directed the picture. It was his second time working behind the camera, having previously directed Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.
• The film was shot in black and white to match the classic See It Now broadcasts, and no actor plays McCarthy. He plays himself through archival footage.
• When filming began, George Clooney reportedly gave David and the rest of the cast bycicles with their names on the back. He also offered to put up his house to ensure that the film would be made.
• David previously worked with co-star Robert Downey Jr. in Home For the Holidays, and Tate Donovan and Reed Diamond in Memphis Belle. He also previously worked with Reed Diamond in the TV movie O Pioneers!.
• See the official DVD Press Release. Also, a set report with mention of David's performance: Variety
• For his stirring and critically-acclaimed performance as Edward R. Murrow, David received the following award nominations (winnings indicated in bold):

• Venice Film Festival's Coppa Volpi Award for Best Actor
• Gotham Award for Best Actor
• Gotham Award for Best Acting Ensemble
• National Board of Reviews Award for Best Actor
• Satellite Award for Best Actor
• Satellite Award for Best Acting Ensemble
• Womens Film Critics' Circle Award for Best Actor
• Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Actor
• Los Angeles Film Critics Award for Best Acting Ensemble
• Chicago Film Critics' Award for Best Actor
• Golden Globe Award for Best Actor
• Online Film Critics Award for Best Actor
• Movies For Grownups Award for "Breakaway Accomplishment"
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor
• Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Acting Ensemble
• Calvin Award for Best Actor
• Independent Spirit Award for Best Actor
• Academy Award (Oscar) for Best Actor

Production:
(Excerpts from Press Release. Download its entirety at Warner Independent Pictures)
• David Strathairn is the exceptional actor that plays Murrow and he also sees the film as an opportunity to both examine the man and learn about a specific time in American history, "Edward R. Murrow was a true American hero, a legend in his own time, although there are not as many people around who really remember him. So, from that point of view, it's really informative, the facts are in there and the history is in there too. It's compelling."

• Clooney's deep connection can be felt by the other actors too and Strathairn contests that there is nothing Clooney doesn't know about the subject and makes this good analogy, "he's really the Edward R. Murrow of this production and Grant is the Fred Friendly. These guys have put together a world and a group of people and an amazing crew where everybody's on the same page. You feel like there's this momentum of energy and that we're making something special."

• Strathairn remembers how the initial script read-through was quite daunting because of the presence of many of the real-life characters. It was at this point that he began to feel the importance of accuracy, "Milo Radulovich was there, Fred Friendly's two sons and one of his wives was there, there was the real Joe and Shirley Wershba, everybody had come in for the table read, which is almost unheard of in film production." He continues, "To listen to them speak and see all the photographs; look at the documentation of See It Now (Murrow's news show) is a huge challenge to access but deserves the attempt."

Of course, playing such a towering, important figure as Murrow would be a daunting task for any actor. Clooney even considered himself for the role at one stage. Yet, according to Heslov, he and Clooney knew it was no contest once they had met Strathairn, "We knew he was a great actor but you still can't tell, particularly when it's playing somebody as iconic as Murrow. However, the second he was in front of the camera, and started doing some of those huge speeches, he was transformed. I've been with a lot of actors and I'd never seen anybody as transformed to the point where I'd look up and forget that it wasn't Murrow. It was uncanny but he's brilliant."

Clooney concurs, as an established actor himself, he felt it was vital to get the right look. Also, he didn't just want an impersonator but someone who captures the essence of the character, "the one thing you knew about Murrow is that he always felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. David is the kind of actor that always feels like he has the weight of the world on his shoulders, so the minute that we realized how much he could look like him, just by looking at old pictures and the gravitas and sadness he can carry, he was the perfect guy to cast. We got on the set and started rehearsing and it seemed fine. He had long hair and a beard, but then he shaved and he slicked his hair back and started talking. We all just sat there with our mouths open."

CRITICAL PRAISE & COMMENTARY:
• "Clooney is the star name (as legendary producer Fred Friendly) in a fine ensemble cast featuring the previously unsung David Strathairn as Murrow, a career-defining role guaranteed to put him in the running for major awards." -Ray Bennett, Hollywood Reporter

• "David Strathairn is superb as Edward R Murrow, the straight-backed, chain-smoking host and brains behind the show, while McCarthy stars in copious newsreel footage. Smoke and jazz hang in the air." -Dave Calhoun, Time Out

• "In Good Night, David Strathairn renders Murrow as a reluctant hero, and a twitchy, dark one at that. His Murrow, with the fatalism of Eeyore, is a journalist who reflexively expects the worst, but responds by doing his best, steeling those around him even as McCarthy's gun sights are trained on his forehead." -David Carr, The New York Times

• "An actor portrays Mr. Murrow, a formidable task. I had no idea how George was going to pull that one off. His first choice was the respected actor David Strathairn, whom we have seen in fine films, including A League of Their Own, in which he played the owner of the women's pro baseball team. He is excellent in the role." -Nick Clooney, The Cincinnati Post

• "The film's title is the trademark signoff of pioneering broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, searingly portrayed by David Strathairn as he systematically scrutinizes the methods of McCarthy's quest to "out" communists and their sympathizers." -Frances D'Emilio, Yahoo! News

• "Broadcaster Murrow, intensely portrayed by Strathairn, denounces McCarthy's persecution using the Wisconsin senator's own words. He eventually pays the price through a string of events that are as much a historical reconstruction as an unpitying assessment of the power of the media... Strathairn, whose portrayal is moving and uncanny, despite the director's claim that they had not aimed for an impersonation." -Clara Ferreira-Marques, Yahoo! News

• "The great American character actor David Strathairn is the star; as the saturnine Murrow, gaunt, sombre and chain-smoking, he is a riveting presence." -David Gritten, Telegraph.co.uk

• "For all the excellence of the supporting cast, including Clooney as Murrow's producer, and Frank Langella as CBS boss, this is Strathairn's show. He brings gravitas and pathos aplenty to his role as one of the heros of US journalism." -The Guardian

• "David Strathairn's smartly stylized Murrow is admirably ascetic--and so, for the most part, is the movie." -J. Hoberman, Village Voice

• "Murrow is played by the superb David Strathairn (L.A. Confidential, Limbo), and the story focuses on Murrow's attempts to bring down Sen. Joseph McCarthy. The most encouraging news of all: It was selected as the opening-night film at the New York Film Festival, which is usually a harbinger of Oscar nominations to come (recent New York Film Festival openers have included About Schmidt, All About My Mother and Mystic River). -Christopher Kelly, Star-Telegram

• "...Murrow (played in an Oscar-worthy tour de force by David Strathairn)... Strathairn--who has been turning in consistently fine performances all the way back to Return of the Secaucus 7 (1980)--captures Murrow flawlessly." -Lou Lumenick, The New York Post

• "David Strathairn's memorable, understated performance as Murrow has to be an early Oscar tip... Edward R Murrow is a different animal altogether. Suave, honourable, and impeccably turned out, with a touch of the Bogart about him, Murrow is a man whose steady, reassuring voice is the man himself." -Lee Marshall, Screen Daily

• "In a career performance, David Strathairn conveys such gravity, principle and conscience portraying Murrow, you'll believe he's the newsman whether you're familiar with him or not. But for the record, Strathairn's on-air demeanor and speech are dead-on." -Jack Matthews, The New York Daily News

• "From the first minute he's onscreen, David Strathairn is Edward R. Murrow. From the lean physique and dark features to his taciturn air, imperturbable disposition and implacable directness of address, the habitually understated actor entirely inhabits the biggest screen role of his career. In a piece not intended as a psychological study, Strathairn quietly suggests the ways in which Murrow's challenge of McCarthy tested the depth of his character's nerve, resolve and self-certainty. It's a tour de force performance of great subtlety in a deliberately narrow range... Strathairn is first among equals in the exemplary ensemble..." -Todd McCarthy, Variety

• "After being frustratingly underused in the past (A League of Their Own, The Firm), Strathairn here steps smoothly into the lead role. Slight, with a penetrating gaze and an ever-present cigarette in hand, he is the spitting image of Murrow. But audiences will be most convinced by Strathairn's replication of the news anchor's authoritative on-camera demeanor and wry sense of humor in private. (Invited by Paley to attend a Knicks game at Madison Square Garden, Murrow, fully aware of the explosiveness of the See It Now broadcasts on McArthy, replies, 'Sorry, Bill, I'll be busy tearing down the network.') ...an avalanche of plaudits will almost certainly be forthcoming for Strathairn..." -John A. Moreno, L.A. Independent

• "The in-competition list opened well with George Clooney's Good Night, And Good Luck and David Strathairn's riveting recreation of the legendary newsman and broadcaster Edward R. Murrow..." -Roderick Conway Morris, International Herald Tribune

• "Strathairn (Passion Fish, Limbo) is one of those actors who can't seem to turn in a bad performance. If the film catches on, look for his name come Oscar time." -Paige Newman, MSNBC

• "Strathairn, conveying the moral weight of his words as authoratively as Murrow did, is flat-out superb." -PEOPLE

• "The gifted David Strathairn, who we just don't see enough of, plays Murrow." -Mary F. Pols, Contra-Costa Times

• "Strathairn delivers a searing performance as Murrow, wrestling with loyalty to his viewers, his country and himself." -Pravada.ru

• "I probably won't get into the merits of Good Night, And Good Luck until it shows at the New York Film Festival in late September (Warner Independent is opening it on October 7), but it's a thoughtful, respectable film with first-rate acting and an honorable theme and a terrific performance by David Strathairn as legendary newsman Edward R. Murrow." -Ken Ridge, Hollywood Elsewhere

• "The bristling wit and purpose behind this tale of broadcast legend Edward R. Murrow (a sly, brilliant David Strathairn) make this an electrifying movie event that only sounds like a box-office suicide mission." -Rolling Stone

• "The film's bedrock is Strathairn's performance, a masterpiece of calibrated dignity and self-doubt so potent that the absence of glimpses into the iconic journalist's private life becomes unimportant. Clooney's film, confined to a small series of indoor locales (the CBS studio sets, a bar, a convention hall), has a claustrophobia that heightens the story's climate of repressive fear and intimidation, and the tight shots of Strathairn's rigid, somewhat-lined visage, his eyes trembling with both conviction and fear, similarly seem to be squeezing the man to the breaking point. Moving little within Clooney's frame and allowing his piercing glance to occasionally falter in moments of introspective repose, Strathairn plays Murrow as not simply a person but as a force, a presence, of righteous indignation in a world of comforting lies and half-truths. And thus when the hustle and bustle of the newsroom is juxtaposed with a measured pull-back shot of Murrow working at a typewriter in an empty room, his face and hands moving with the efficient rata-tat-tat of a man focused on the work at hand, both director and actor get at the essence of the character's calm, quiet assurance and clarity amidst the era's political hysteria." -Nick Schager, Slant Magazine

• "At the center of the storm is Murrow, standing firm against the push for compromise. It's a bitch--not to mention a bore--to play a noble monument. Strathairn dodges that pitfall by making Murrow fallible, funny and human... A spark of rage burns in Murrow, and Strathairn shows us the flame. Best known for his work in the films of his Williams College friend John Sayles (check out Passion Fish right now if you haven't seen it), Strathairn comes into his own with this career role, to which he brings three decades of acting expertise. It's a performance of ferocity and feeling that you won't soon forget." -Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

• "Set to smooth 1950s jazz tracks, Clooney's second shot as a director features a first-rate performance by David Strathairn as Murrow, recognized by his forever-lit cigarette--even on camera--and his signoff, 'good night, and good luck.'" -The Standard

• "David Strathairn (who plays Murrow) is excellent. And I'd like to allay any fears you might have about him being able to summon Murrow's authoritative voice. He nails it and then some. ...Strathairn is never less than enthralling. ...Strathairn, at least, seems positioned to pick up some Oscar heat..." -Jeffrey Wells, Hollywood Elsewhere

(David On His Role:)
• [regarding doing Day One and this film] "I had sleepless nights after playing that role--and I know I will after this one, too." -David Strathairn, 2005

• "I started by trying to figure out what cigarettes he used to smoke. It was a process of listening, listening, watching, listening, reading, more and more." -David Strathairn, 2005

• "Ed Murrow said that it would be a bad day for television if those who have the most money control the marketplace of ideas. He said that in 1950. It's coming to pass." -David Strathairn, 2005

• "There is always something ticking with Murrow. He was described as a prince of doom, a man carrying a crown of thorns. I tried to show what was going on in his head." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [on director and co-star George Clooney] "He paid a lot of dues to get where he is, and now there are a lot of doors open to him. The one he has chosen to walk through throws down a gauntlet. He has the good luck, the charm and the guts to do what he wants, and this film is what he chose to do." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [on smoking in the film] "It was difficult. But then you sign off and say you've got to do this. We found that we could use pipe tobacco as opposed to actual cigarettes, and it was a lot more crew-friendly aromatically, and it didn't burn as harshly as regular tobacco. The prop guys must have rolled 3,000 or 4,000 cigarettes in the five or six weeks we shot the movie." -David Strathairn, 2005

• "Murrow was the first live on-the-spot guy, on the top of the buildings with the bombs coming. He set that precedent for all the guys who are in the field now. I wanted to achieve at least an indication of who this man was, with his signature cigarette and gesture, and at least a little bit of the cadence of his voice." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [comparing director George Clooney to John Sayles] "They have completely different energy. One similarity is they create a world of atmosphere that has an integrity to it that allows you as an actor to enter into it and feel completely supported and surrounded by everything you need to be in that particular world." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [on Murrow in the 21st century] "I think a place would be carved out for a man of his intellect and his professionalness and his humanness and his sense of high standards of journalism. He might not carry as much weight as he did in the 1950s, when there were only three networks. But he'd be looked up to and respected as much today as he was then." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [attracted to Murrow because of his:] "...deep sense of the common man. He was born to the job that he did." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [on the artistic merit of good quality films] "We don't get good movies because we don't ask for them." -David Strathairn, 2005

• [regarding favorite roles] "Right now, Murrow ranks pretty high up there... But Murrow was the most challenging and, at the moment, I don't know if I'd call it my favorite, but it's one that continues to obsess me." -David Strathairn, 2006

(George Clooney On David:)
• [on his performance] "He's dead-on beautiful." -George Clooney, co-star (Fred Friendly) & director/co-writer

• [on the film's success] "I think we're going to do okay. I think it's going to require some attention but I think David can get that attention, he's awfully good in this film." -George Clooney, co-star (Fred Friendly) & director/co-writer

• "This movie doesn't work unless David Strathairn is in the film; when he's looking at the camera and he's about to go against McCarthy and it's silent, you get this sense of him as a warrior." -George Clooney, co-star (Fred Friendly) & director/co-writer

(Grant Heslov On David:)
• "Several years ago, George (Clooney) had written a TV movie about Murrow, but it never went anywhere. Then, about 3½ years ago, he thought it would be a good time to readdress that topic, and we just went from there. We knew that he'd direct and I'd produce and that we'd both write the script. We didn't make deals or anything. It was a labor of love. For the role of Edward R. Murrow, we didn't think of anyone but David Strathairn." -Grant Heslov, writer/producer

(Patricia Clarkson On David:)
• "Oh, David Strathairn is glorious, and he's impeccable." -Patricia Clarkson, co-star (Shirley Wershba)

(Joe Wershba & Milo Radulovich On David:)
• "I'll tell you how unbelievable it was. When I first saw Strathairn, I saw him from the back of his head and I said, 'My God, it's Murrow's head.' And the minute he opened his mouth and looked towards us, it was Murrow all over again. He didn't try to imitate Murrow. He exuded Murrow." -Joe Wershba

• "What I said to David when I met him was, 'I now believe in resurrection.' Murrow died a long time ago and yet there he was on the screen. If David doesn't get an Oscar, I'll never watch another Oscar program in my life. He is incredibly skilled. He's not an imitation; he is Murrow." -Milo Radulovich

Note: To read/view a lot more quotes from David, the cast/crew, as well as critical reviews, see this site's Press Room and Media sections.

Related Links:
http:// Official USA Site
http:// Good Night, and Good Luck Fanlisting
http:// WIP - Good Night, and Good Luck
http:// Official German Site
http:// Official Italian Site
http:// Official Spanish Site
http:// Clooney Files - Good Night, and Good Luck
http:// Participant Productions - Good Night, and Good Luck
http:// Radio Days - Edward R. Murrow
http:// American Masters - Edward R. Murrow (PBS)
http:// Edward R. Murrow by Joe Wershba