Good Night, and Good Luck. (Magna Pacific) (2004)

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General		Extras
Category	Drama	Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio Audio Commentary-George Clooney (Director/Actor/Screenwriter) & Grant Heslov Featurette-Cast & Crew (15:28) Trailer-Vera Drake; P.S.; Motorcycle Diaries; Oyster Farmer
Rating
Year Of Production	2004
Running Time	89:00 (Case: 99)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (83:58)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	George Clooney
Studio Distributor	Magna Home Entertainment	Starring	Jeff Daniels David Strathairn Alex Borstein Rose Abdoo Peter Martin Christoph Luty Jeff Hamilton Matt Catingub Tate Donovan
Case	Amaray-Transparent
RPI	?	Music	Cole Porter

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	None	Smoking	Yes, and plenty of it! Those were the days.
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Good Night, And Good Luck. is set during US senator McCarthy's Communist witch-hunts of the mid-1950s. Although its appearance and setting are purposefully dated, the film combines solid storytelling and impressive production values to convey a theme that could easily be applied to today's political climate.

    Journalist and television personality Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn) and his CBS news team have been following McCarthy's witch-hunt antics, waiting for the right opportunity or angle to exploit in order to expose his farcical scare-mongering. Up until this point the media, if not the entire country, has been in a frenzy over Communist bogeymen, 99 per cent of which turned out to be completely fictional. In order to keep their jobs, workers were being forced to sign loyalty agreements denouncing Communism, or risk losing everything in a process of public shaming.

    The opportunity to strike at McCarthy (albeit in an indirect manner) finally presents itself to the CBS news team in the form of an underdeveloped story about a sacked Air Force pilot from Detroit, Milo Radulovich. It was alleged his father had Communist ties, and when the son refused to denounce his dad, he was cut loose without trial or exposition of evidence. Coverage of the story represented a great risk to the news team, because up until this point they had been topical and balanced in their coverage concerning all stories. Add to this the risk of seriously upsetting network sponsors who just happen to have major military contracts, and you have a potentially volatile situation.

    The method of retaliation from McCarthy's twisted camp is not unexpected. Murrow is directly accused, on air, on his own program, of being on the Soviet payroll, and of sponsoring covert trips to Moscow. Rather than lay down and succumb to pressures from network heads, corporate sponsors and Government officials, Murrow and his team set wheels in motion that will ultimately expose McCarthy's dubious investigative methods to the entire nation.

    Director, co-screenwriter and co-star George Clooney has assembled an admirable ensemble cast. Jeff Daniels and Robert Downey, Jr are superb as part of Murrow's CBS news team. The tense, dramatic newsroom scenes are punctuated by small respites of cool jazz, sung beautifully by Dianne Reeves.

    Good Night, And Good Luck draws parallels with today's climate that are impossible to ignore. It is a potent reminder of how it is possible for unchecked, narrow-minded, overzealous leaders to exploit public fear and use it to erode basic civil liberties. The themes found in this film can very easily be applied to the modern threat of terrorism, or the treatment of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay who have been held for many years without charge.

    This film is superb discussion material, highly thought-provoking and undoubtedly essential viewing. This should be required viewing for all high-school students.

Video

    This is a solid PAL video transfer, captured with a beautifully textured black and white process.

    The transfer has been framed in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, 16x9 enhanced, and is tight to the frame. This is close to the film's theatrical exhibition, and it would appear the matte has been opened a little from 1.85:1.

    This is about as sharp as one could expect from a standard definition transfer. The image has a nice depth to it, while textures such as cloth and skin (67:25) are plain to see. Some very mild film grain can be seen at times, but that is the extent of the film artefacts in the transfer as far as I can see.

    The MPEG video compression is highly variable, averaging 6.9Mb/s. Compression noise can be seen on expanses of a single shaded area, such as the background wall at 10:00. Mosquito noise is visible around titles and such.

    There are no subtitle streams provided.

    This disc is dual layered (DVD9 formatted), with the layer transition placed toward the end of the film, at 83:58. The pause is perfectly placed in a silent fade to black before the final credits begin to roll.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks accompanying this film on DVD, all of which are English. The default soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) and a Dolby Digital 2.0 (224Kb/s) equivalent can be selected from the setup menu or on the fly. The third soundtrack is an audio commentary from the filmmakers. Good Night, And Good Luck was screened theatrically with dts audio.

    The English dialogue moves fast sometimes, particularly from Robert Downey, Jr. but is always distinct and easy to discern in the mix. It is stated in the commentary that no ADR looping was required, so the existing audio was perfectly sufficient. Audio sync is perfect.

    The Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack has no detectable rear or subwoofer activity. In fact, my subwoofer received no signal and remained powered off for the entire feature. For all intents and purposes, this is a 3.0 soundtrack, with the soundstage spread evenly across the front left, right and centre speakers evenly. While switching between the surround and stereo soundtrack options, I could find little to no discernable difference in these soundtracks. The addition of a centre channel adds a little more balance to the Dolby 5.1 default soundtrack, so I would be content to stick with the default.

    I found these soundtracks a little quiet overall, as I was forced to extend my output volume beyond my normal listening level.

    The jazz interludes are beautifully sung by Dianne Reeves, with all arrangements by saxophonist Matt Catingub. The music provides a relaxing respite to the often tense studio scenes.

    As I mentioned above, there is no LFE signal present as my subwoofer powered down for the duration of the feature. Surely a little dedicated bass could have been applied to cover the jazzy interludes?

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The main menu page is animated with some scenes from the film. All pages are 16x9 enhanced and include audio clips from the musical moments in the film.

Audio Commentary- George Clooney (Director/Actor/Screenwriter) and Grant Heslov (Producer/Screenwriter)

    These two chaps obviously get along very well, as they discuss their collaboration and share anecdotes from the production. Some of the lengths they went to to achieve a sense of realism and historical consistency is astounding. I was pleased to hear them joke about during the commentary, suggesting they had all actresses in the film bring them coffee between takes to maintain realism. This is a very worthwhile listen and certainly above average in terms of entertainment value.

Featurette- Cast & Crew (15:28)

    This brief Making Of includes interviews with Clooney, Heslov and families and relatives of the CBS employees, such as Casey Murrow, son of Ed Murrow and the real Milo Radulovich. This featurette is presented in 1.33:1, full frame.

Trailers (4)

    Trailers are included for the films Vera Drake, P.S., P.S., Motorcycle Diaries and Oyster Farmer.

    Being a Warner release overseas, this film has been released on both HD DVD and Blu-ray in the US. Along with the standard edition, their additional features include English, French and Spanish subtitles and a Theatrical Trailer. They miss out on the 2.0 soundtrack.

    There's not a lot to separate the SD versions, however if you're HD DVD capable you don't need me to tell you which version to buy!

    Good Night, And Good Luck is a highly rewarding experience. Besides being superbly made, it represents great entertainment and is challenging and thought-provoking - as good cinema should be.

    The video transfer is good.

    The audio transfer is average.

    The extras are enlightening.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall