Good Night, and Good Luck (2005)

Back in the 1950s, when everyone smoked everywhere (even on air), freely hobnobbed socially (before the mass media culled some of that interpersonal touch from us), and listened to really good live jazz... Yeah, that's the ticket. Actually, this is a black-and-white film about the early days of black-and-white TV journalism, when integrity was iconic, and Edward R. Murrow (reincarnated in word and mannerism by David Strathairn) made a pioneering difference in courage and impartiality. He stood for the Constitution and its rights for all above partisan power plays. Don't listen to the right-wing harpies who still maintain "Sen. McCarthy was right! The government and Hollywood were infested with Soviet sympathizers!" (They imply that any amount of paranoia and unsubstantiated character assassination and defamation were and are today justified. They have failed to learn the lessons of history.) The tension and persecution of the McCarthy era is palpable throughout this film. As Strathairn says, "The terror is in this room." To face McCarthy, Strathairn's Murrow walks the line of utter journalistic integrity, demanding impartiality in his team's research and refusing to be compromised by potential character attacks on his team (even as the life of one TV anchor is literally destroyed). Make no mistake: Without Murrow, we would live in a vastly different nation than we do now. Americans self-govern by the rule of law and electing its officials, not by witch hunts and the autocracy of any official who would wrap himself in the flag as an excuse to break the law and try others or ruin their lives without due process or the right to face his accusers in a court of law or trial by a jury of his peers. Five stars.