Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Good Night and Good Luck
Not much time to blog until tonight, as it's a travel day today, but here's a quick one.
As you know, I'm not a big go-out-to-the-movies guy. I'm a DVD guy. But this fall, there's one movie I will definitely be going out to see: Good Night and Good Luck, a film about Edward R. Murrow's battle with Joe McCarthy. The movie opens in a few locations this week and nationwide on October 14. It's co-written and directed by George Clooney, who also stars as Murrow's producer, Fred Friendly. (David Strathairn, one of the great chameleon-like actors we've got, plays Murrow.) The official film website is here; excerpts from a Premiere magazine article about the film are here.
Murrow's a particular hero of mine, and one of the most important (and interesting) characters in the history of media. Sent to Europe in the late 30s by CBS to arrange talk and cultural programs, he realized that he had to report on what was happening there as World War II approached, and in the process was instrumental in creating modern broadcast journalism. Bob Edwards, formerly of NPR, recently wrote a biography of him. The definitive bio is by A. N. Sperber. The Murrow Boys by Stanley Cloud tells the story of the news operation Murrow built, and of the people who made their reputations in it: Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Bill Shirer, and others.
So go to the library already. I'm outta here.
Not much time to blog until tonight, as it's a travel day today, but here's a quick one.
As you know, I'm not a big go-out-to-the-movies guy. I'm a DVD guy. But this fall, there's one movie I will definitely be going out to see: Good Night and Good Luck, a film about Edward R. Murrow's battle with Joe McCarthy. The movie opens in a few locations this week and nationwide on October 14. It's co-written and directed by George Clooney, who also stars as Murrow's producer, Fred Friendly. (David Strathairn, one of the great chameleon-like actors we've got, plays Murrow.) The official film website is here; excerpts from a Premiere magazine article about the film are here.
Murrow's a particular hero of mine, and one of the most important (and interesting) characters in the history of media. Sent to Europe in the late 30s by CBS to arrange talk and cultural programs, he realized that he had to report on what was happening there as World War II approached, and in the process was instrumental in creating modern broadcast journalism. Bob Edwards, formerly of NPR, recently wrote a biography of him. The definitive bio is by A. N. Sperber. The Murrow Boys by Stanley Cloud tells the story of the news operation Murrow built, and of the people who made their reputations in it: Walter Cronkite, Eric Sevareid, Charles Collingwood, Bill Shirer, and others.
So go to the library already. I'm outta here.
