In Contention

Tag: Good Night and Good Luck

  • TELLURIDE: Clooney takes center stage

    George Clooney has been tapped this year for one of Telluride’s three big tributes, and it’s certainly the biggest of the trio. Whether it’s press and patrons schmoozing with the star at yesterday’s Patron Brunch, whispers around town (“Did you hear George Clooney is here?” “I really hope ‘The Ides of March’ is a TBA.”) or the ecstatic response to Alexander Payne’s “The Descendants,” this mountain burgh has been taken by Clooney fever.

    It’s a curious thing to see happen here at a festival that is so smooth and cool and not at all phased by celebrity. Clooney changes all those rules, though. And most of it has to be owed to his trooper disposition and charming charisma. He’s always “on,” and just about everyone wants to just throw back a few with the guy. Men want to be him, women want to…well, you get my drift.

    I tend to stay away from the tributes and spend that time taking in a film at Telluride. But since the actor is set to be feted later this evening, I thought I’d at least dedicate some space to his still in-progress career and the highlights that have brought him to this point.

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  • R.I.P. Don Hewitt

    CBS is reporting that “60 Minutes” creator and cornerstone of CBS News Don Hewitt has died after being diagnosed with a small, contained tumor earlier in the year.  He was 86.  The news comes one month and two days after Hewitt’s long-time colleague, Walter Cronkite, passed away at 92.

    Hewitt spear-headed the most successful television news show of all time in “60 Minutes,” and has been portrayed in film by Grant Heslov (George Clooney’s “Good Night, and Good Luck.”) and Philip Baker Hall (Michael Mann’s “The Insider.”)  Hewitt came under fire, as dramatized by Mann’s film, when he caved into corporate interests by refusing to air a segment in which former tobacco executive Jeffrey Wigand blew the whistle on malfeasance practices at the Brown & Williamson tobacco company.  But that, however damaging, is certainly not his legacy.

    Hewitt was one of the titans who ushered in an age of televised news content, but his passing, along with Cronkite’s, continues to sound the bell of a forgotten or, at least, diminished period of high respect for the profession.

  • REVIEW: “Good Night, and Good Luck.” (***1/2)

    Good Night, and Good Luck.I see many films each year. I write about most of them. But rarely do I feel the need to rush home and pour my thoughts and perspective into a column immediately.

    Such was the case with “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

    The subject of Edward R. Murrow and his valiant stand against McCarthy Era politics is an obvious obsession for director George Clooney. Newsman father Nick Clooney brought the star up in a lefty household that held men like Murrow in the highest regard – men who invented journalism in its modern existence, found its pulse of potential and utilized its merits for a greater, noble good.

    When Murrow (portrayed to perfection by David Strathairn) is first revealed in the film, it is a backstage moment before giving what would be seen as an indicting speech in acceptance of commendation at a 1958 Radio and Television News Directors Association convention. He takes a few final puffs from his signature cigarette. A plume of smoke steadily escapes his nostrils. The image recalls a dragon blowing smoke before breathing furious fire.

    That’s precisely what Murrow was about to do.

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