Backgrounder: George Clooney

By Elizabeth Tsai

George Clooney
George Clooney as Fred Friendly in Good Night, and Good Luck. Photo: © Warner Independent Pictures.

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Lecture: George Clooney

Since his days as the hunky Dr. Doug Ross on the popular NBC drama, ER, George Clooney has played a suave thief (Ocean’s Eleven, Ocean’s Twelve), a lucky-starred escapee from a chain gang (O Brother, Where Art Thou?), a soldier (Three Kings), a bank robber (Out of Sight), and a Caped Crusader (Batman).

In Good Night, and Good Luck, one of his latest projects, he plays a crusading reporter’s staunch ally. Clooney is CBS producer Fred Friendly, the man behind Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn), whose example inspired a generation of reporters and who remains an icon of broadcast journalism at its tough-minded best. In his book about the press, The Powers That Be, David Halberstam called Murrow “one of those rare legendary figures who was as good as his myth.”

The film, which Clooney directed and co-wrote with Grant Heslov, highlights Murrow’s dogged investigation of Senator Joseph McCarthy’s witch-hunt for communist infiltrators in the United States government, the military, and Hollywood. The movie centers on the case of Lieutenant Milo Radulovich, a U.S. Air Force reservist, who was discharged because of suspected communist associations and therefore was seen as a security risk. Murrow, the host of the CBS show See It Now, used the situation as an opportunity to expose the groundless nature of McCarthy’s allegations, based on mere hearsay.

"It is certainly the responsibility [of people] to constantly question power," said Clooney, "no matter who’s in power."

The son of a television newscaster and talk show host in Cincinnati, Clooney is passionate about journalism. He grew up seeing Murrow as the gold standard for courageous, principled journalism. “Murrow was always the high water mark for broadcast journalists,” he said, in an interview with writer Rebecca Murray of About.com. It was a mark, said Clooney, which “no one could ever reach again.” However, that doesn’t mean that great reporting is dead, said Clooney, in an interview with reporter Ethan Aames of Cinema Confidential. There still are many good journalists, he noted. “It is certainly the responsibility [of people] to constantly question power, no matter who’s in power,” he said.

Good Night, and Good Luck won the FIPRESCI Prize, the Golden Osella for best screenplay, the Pasinetti Award for best film, and special mention for the Human Rights Film Network Award at the 2005 Venice Film Festival. It was also nominated for the Screen International Award at the European Film Awards and the Best Ensemble Cast at the Gotham Awards.

Elizabeth Tsai is a senior at NYU, majoring in print journalism.

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