The 1950s are said to have been some of the most prosperous times in American history. It is completely reasonable if one looks at our current economic state, the “50s” was a more lucrative time for Americans however our safety was not as secure. “The Red Scare,” a time that everyone knows as a time when a war with Russia was likely and security measures were as serious, if not more, than today’s antiterrorist initiatives. Through Good Night and Good Luck audiences are able to view today’s issues through past events, and the music involved in the film plays a prevalent part in how the story is told. Dianne Reeves sings most of the songs in the film and has a decidedly soothing and “50s” style voice that contributes to the form of the scenes that her songs take place in. The film starts off with “TV is the Thing This Year” and continues throughout the movie with “I’ve Got My Eyes on You” as well as “How High the Moon.” Each of these songs has some sort of significance in the film that assists in fashioning the mood behind the scene and a feel of the real 1950s.
Good Night and Good Luck starts of with Edward Murrow (Strathairn) giving a speech in front of, who the audience finds out to be, his friends and colleagues. Then the audience is hurled back to the early 1950s where Edward Murrow begins his assault on Joseph McCarthy. This first scene has Natalie (Borstein) and Millie (Abdoo), two secretaries for CBS, walking into the news studio with the song “TV is the Thing This Year” (Reeves) blasting in the background, while information regarding the search for communists is being presented. While the film is all in black and white this open scene with the upbeat music to compliment it give the feel of prosperity, which proves to be s...
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...ughout the film Good Night and Good Luck, music is a defining quality in how the movie progresses in the fight against communism, and McCarthy, and helps in the development of characters as well as the emotion that the audience is meant to feel. With the country’s safety being put into question America needed an advocate against unnecessary accusations and Murrow was that advocate. These three songs presented give an acceptable representation of the growth of media, the fear of having not only an enemies “eyes” on you but having friends “eyes” on you as well, the instability that the country has faced over the years and of 1950s America.
Works Cited
Good Night and Good Luck, Dir. George Clooney. Perf. David Strathairn, George Clooney, and Patricia Clarkson. Warner Bros. Pictures, 2005. Film.
Dianne Reeves. Good Night, And Good Luck Album. Warner Bros, 2005. CD.
The film, “Murrow vs. McCarthy” had introduced the development of news media and at the same time, in-depth telling the social political, economic and cultural changes in United States during the cold war. After World War II, the shadow of the war have not disappeared, the cold war atmosphere shrouded in the American’s minds. The United States was not only afraid of Soviet attack, but that dissidents will penetrate into the government to overthrow the current rule.
The movie exhibited the time in which it was made. The fifties were a time of glamour, prosperity, and entertainment; people coveted the highest standard of living. The movie presented these similarities in the grandeur of the wardrobe and jewelry that the characters wore. Smoking and drinking was a customary practice in the fifties and in the movie. Men were not the only ones drinking, for women indulged in these habits
McCarthy, J. (1950, February 09). Speech at wheeling, west virginia. Retrieved December 02, 2013 from http://teachamericanhistory.files.wordpress.com/2009/06/mccarthy_wheeling_speech.pdf
The film elects to use a soundtrack comprised of only popular music from the 1970s. Frith writes, “The sociologist of contemporary popular music is faced with a body of songs, records, stars and styles which exists because of a series of decisions, made by both producers and consumers, about what is a successful sound” (Frith, 134). I reference this quote because it is important to note that this film was released in 1993. The people who are responsible for choosing the soundtrack have the luxury of knowing what music is able to ...
Howard, John Tasker. Our American Music. 1946. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1954. 666. Print.
Interview footage of her colleagues, fellow musicians, and friends such as Annie Ross, Buck Clayton, Mal Waldron, and Harry “Sweets” Edison look back on their years of friendship and experiences with the woman they affectionately call “Lady”. Their anecdotes, fond memories, and descriptive way of describing Holiday’s unique talent and style, show the Lady that they knew and loved. The film also makes interesting use of photographs and orignal recordings of Holiday, along with movie footage of different eras. With the use of these devices, we get a feel for what Holiday’s music meant for the audience it reached. The black and white footage from the thirties of groups of people merrily swing dancing, paired with a bumptious, and swingin’ number Billie Holiday performed with Count Basie called “Swing Me Count”, makes one wonder what it might have been like to actually be there. To wildly swing dance to the live vocals of Billie Holiday must have been an amazing experience, as this film demonstrates.
To the persistent individual, though, there is a body of music in existence that merits regard. It is powerful music written by the youth of America, youngsters who did have a stake in the Vietnam War. There can be little question about the origins of the power which American protest music conveyed: those who wrote such music lived each day with the real knowledge that they were losing friends in, and could possibly be forced themselves to go to, Vietnam. One such group, Creedence Clearwater Revival, made its contribution to this genre near the end of the Vietnam War.
...ty of musicals was down and with the increasing tension and controversies related to war in Vietnam; society faced a period of unrest. That unity, which the American musical had certainly no longer a sign of the times that we are in. Most of all, those values that the American musical celebrated — and that is those values of American life, American philosophy, American belief — what we find is by the mid-1960s all of those beliefs, all of those philosophies, are being challenged, are being upset.
The Fifties were a good time to be a white middle class American These years brought an UN-thought of prosperity and confidence to Americans who barely remembered the Great Depression. Popular music of the early fifties mirrored the life of mainstream America: bland predictable and reassuring. Which didn't seem bad after the depre...
Edward R. Murrow’s profound impact on the field of journalism defines much of what the modern news media industry is today. Edward R. Murrow’s career offers aspiring journalist a detailed set of standards and moral codes in how a journalist should receive and report the news. The development of CBS is largely attributed to Murrow, and derives from his ambitious attitude in utilizing the television and radio to deliver the news. Murrow gained a stellar reputation in the minds of American’s during WWII by placing himself in the heart of the war, and delivering information through radio in his famous This is London broadcasts. His battles with Senator Joseph McCarthy are largely referred to as his most prominent achievement in which Murrow exposed the unfair practices of Senator McCarthy in his wild accusations on those in the American public of being affiliated with communism. At the RTNDA conference Murrow arguably deliver his most famous speech, which included his hopes and fears of the news media industry in years to come. Although much of today’s news media industry would be held in disdain in the mind of Murrow his practices are still referred due and held in high regard by his contemporaries and fellow aspiring journalist. Edward R. Murrow set the standard of American journalism, and had the largest individual impact on the news media industry in history.
McCarthy laments the “swiftness of the tempo of communist victories and American defeats” (McCarthy, 2) in the progression of war. By contrasting the victories of the communists and defeats of the Americans, McCarthy presents the American audience with knowledge of an aggressor challenging traditional American superiority and thus far succeeding, thereby eliciting feelings of shared scorn for the perceived lower-class belligerents, the communists, and generating unified sympathy and nationalism behind their own countrymen. Further juxtaposition is used by McCarthy to express the nature of the internal communist infiltrators in America. He describes the “ones who have been the worst [traitors]” (2) as being “bright young men who are born with silver spoons in their mouths” (2). McCarthy appeals to the everyman in America, instilling feelings of disdain for the elite bourgeoisie who have seemed to leech their nation of resources and then turned on a whim to become communist traitors to their own great nation. Further juxtaposition of this bourgeoisie element to its unexpected downfall to communism
Fellers, Carla. ""What a Wonderful World": The Rhetoric of the Official and the Unofficial in Good Morning, Vietnam." Musical Choices. (November 1, 2005): 235-236. Web. 5 Mar. 2014. .
On October 23rd, 1998 Janet R. Maslin, an American journalist, best known for being a movie a book critic for The New York Times, wrote a review on the film Pleasantville. This film offers juxtaposition between two worlds: the life the characters desire and the life they actually have. David was an unhappy teen living with a promiscuous sister and a divorced mother in a very modern, almost unorganized household. Thus he viewed his life as one lacking structure and stability. David used the sitcom Pleasantville as a way to escape his reality and enter into a word of stability. Pleasantville depicted a life of perfection for him with an idealized image of a pleasurable life. In fact, almost immediately we see the juxtaposition of the current life versus the desired life when the film begins.
In Good Night and Good Luck, director George Clooney follows the conflict between outspoken television journalist Edward R. Murrow and anti-communist Senator Joseph McCarthy during the hard times of the Red Scare. Murrow uses his television show to expose McCarthy’s fallacious arguments, while providing his own opinion on the matter. He begins by defending former Air Force pilot Milo Radulovich as not being the Communist agent McCarthy charges him to be. Due to his radical messages against McCarthy, advertisers begin pulling their advertisements. Thus Good Night and Good Luck was placed at an undesired time slot on Sunday afternoons, and allotted five last episodes. The conflict between Murrow and McCarthy is so deep that due to his outspoken messages against a politician, the program eventually becomes subject to cancellation. Although his arguments are controversial for that time, Murrow shows courage while exposing McCarthy’s fallacious arguments, by displaying how McCarthy is making false accusations towards Radulovich.
Connie’s choice of music, rock music, adamantly exemplifies the misconception of the minority which is then taken advantage of due to the lack of maturity and experience in the American culture. When Connie returned back home after a feud with her mother, she turns on the radio and listen to a record of Bobby King where she calmly relaxes and bathes in the music. Joyce Carol Oates writes, “She sat on the edge of her bed, barefoot, and listened for an hour and a half to a program called XYZ Sunday Jamboree, record after record of hard, fast, shrieking songs, she sang along with, interspersed by exclamations from “Bobby King”….And Connie paid close attention herself, bathed in a glow of slow-pulsed joy that seemed to rise mysteriously out of the music itself and lay languidly about the airless little room, breathed in and breathed out with each gentle rise and fall out of her chest” (p.2-para.5). Thi...