Good Night, and Good Luck
2005 film by George Clooney
Good Night, and Good Luck (stylized as good night, and good luck.) is a 2005 historical drama film directed by George Clooney from a screenplay he wrote with Grant Heslov, who also produced. It stars David Strathairn, Patricia Clarkson, Clooney, Jeff Daniels, Robert Downey Jr. and Frank Langella, and portrays the conflict between veteran journalist Edward R. Murrow (Strathairn) and U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin, especially concerning the anti-communist Senator's actions regarding the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations.
Although released in black and white, it was filmed on color film stock, but on a grayscale set, and was color-corrected to black and white during post-production. It focuses on the theme of media responsibility, and also addresses what occurs when U.S. journalism offers voices of dissent from government policy. The movie takes its title (which ends with a period or full stop) from the line with which Murrow used to sign off his broadcasts.
The film was a box office success and received critical acclaim for Clooney's direction, the writing, cinematography, production design and performances (particularly Strathairn's). It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Strathairn.
Plot
On October 25, 1958, at a gathering entitled 'A Salute to Edward R Murrow', Ed Murrow delivers a speech where he mentions Senator McCarthy among others. The film then reverts to October 14, 1953, in the CBS Studios, with on-screen titles explaining that McCarthy has claimed that there are over 200 Communists in the US government.
“Good Night, and Good Luck” enters the record as 2005 film by George Clooney. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Good, Night and Luck can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q319061. VIAF identifies the subject as 316752225. 5 of 7 selected statements include explicit references; 6 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2005, 1958 and 1953.
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This entry incorporates text from “Good Night, and Good Luck” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.