Good Night, and Good Luck. Page #5

Synopsis: In the early 1950's, the threat of Communism created an air of paranoia in the United States and exploiting those fears was Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin. However, CBS reporter Edward R. Murrow and his producer Fred W. Friendly decided to take a stand and challenge McCarthy and expose him for the fear monger he was. However, their actions took a great personal toll on both men, but they stood by their convictions and helped to bring down one of the most controversial senators in American history.
Director(s): George Clooney
Production: Warner Independent Pictures
  Nominated for 6 Oscars. Another 38 wins & 121 nominations.
 
IMDB:
7.5
Metacritic:
80
Rotten Tomatoes:
93%
PG
Year:
2005
93 min
$31,500,000
Website
3,616 Views


...who reminds her husband

to take off his wedding ring...

...before he goes to the office.

- Ava Gardner.

Excuse me, Mr. Friendly. Mr. Murrow,

Mr. Paley's on the line for you.

- Maybe he wants to reimburse us

for those ads. - You'd like that!

- I would like that!

- This is Ed.

There's a Knickerbocker game tonight.

I've got front row seats.

Are you interested?

I'm busy bringing down

the network tonight, Bill.

Is that tonight?

We're covered, Bill.

All right.

- I'm with you today, Ed, and I'm

with you tomorrow. - Thanks, Bill.

Do you know the timing

on the first piece?

Can we hold all the calls, please?

Hold the calls till after the show.

Thank you.

- You fellas, awake down there?

- Okay.

- Just... what are we? 20?

- 30 seconds, Ed.

And pan, camera one.

Because a report on Senator McCarthy

is by definition controversial...

...we want to say exactly

what we mean to say...

...and request your permission

to read from a script...

...whatever remarks Murrow

and Friendly may make.

If the Senator feels that we have done

violence to his words or pictures...

...and desires to answer himself...

...an opportunity will be afforded him

on this program.

Our working thesis tonight

is this quotation:

..."If this fight

against Communism..."

"...has made a fight between

America's two great political parties..."

"...the American people know that one

of these parties will be destroyed..."

"...and the Republic cannot endure

very long as a one-party system."

We applaud that statement...

...and we think

Senator McCarthy ought to.

He said it

The American people realize

that this cannot be made a fight...

...between America's

two great political parties.

If this fight against Communism...

...is made a fight against America's

two great political parties...

...the American people know that one

of those parties will be destroyed...

...and the Republic can't endure

very long as a one-party system.

On one thing the Senator

has been consistent.

Often operating as a one-man

committee, he has traveled far...

...interviewed many,

terrorized some...

...accused civilian

and military leaders...

...of the past administration

of a great conspiracy...

...to turn over the country

to Communism.

I was extremely shocked when I heard

that Secretary Stevens...

...told 2 Army officers that they had

to take part in the cover up...

...of those who promoted

and coddled Communists.

As I read his statement, I...

...thought of that quotation,

"On what meat..."

"...doth this our Caesar feed?".

The questions is:

...did the Civil Liberties Union

supply you with an attorney?

- They did supply an attorney.

- The answer is yes?

The answer is yes.

Do you think this book

did considerable harm?

Its publication...

...by an expression of the views

contained in it?

The sale of that book

was so abysmally small...

...it was so unsuccessful,

that the question of its influence...

You can go back

to the publisher...

...you'll see it was one of the most

unsuccessful books he ever put out.

He's still sorry about it,

just as I am.

Well, I think that's a compliment

to American intelligence.

I'll say that.

The Reed Harris hearing demonstrates

one of the Senator's techniques.

Twice he said...

..."The American Civil Liberties Union

was listed as a subversive front."

The Attorney General's list does not

and never has listed...

...the ACLU as subversive,

nor does the FBI...

...or any other

federal government agency.

And the American Civil Liberties Union

holds in its files...

...letters of commendation

from President Truman...

...President Eisenhower,

and General MacArthur.

Earlier, the Senator asked, "Upon what

meat does this our Caesar feed?".

Had he looked three lines earlier

in Shakespeare's "Caesar"...

...he would have found this line,

which is not altogether inappropriate.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not

in our stars, but in ourselves."

No one familiar with the history

of this country...

...can deny that Congressional

committees are useful.

It is necessary to investigate

before legislating...

...but the line between investigating

and persecuting is a very fine one...

...and the junior Senator from Wisconsin

has stepped over it repeatedly.

We must not confuse dissent

with disloyalty.

We must remember always

that accusation is not proof...

...and that conviction depends

upon evidence and due process of law.

We will not walk in fear,

one of another.

We will not be driven by fear

into an age of unreason...

...if we dig deep

in our history and doctrine...

...and remember that we are not

descended from fearful men...

...not from men who feared to write,

to associate, to speak...

...and to defend the causes

that were for the moment unpopular.

This is no time for men who oppose

Senator McCarthy's methods...

...to keep silent,

or for those who approve.

We can deny our heritage

and our history...

...but we cannot escape

responsibility for the results.

We proclaim ourselves,

indeed as we are...

...the defenders of freedom wherever

it continues to exist in the world...

...but we cannot defend freedom abroad

by deserting it at home.

The actions of the junior Senator

from Wisconsin...

...have caused alarm and dismay

amongst our allies abroad...

...and given considerable comfort

to our enemies.

And whose fault is that?

Not really his.

He didn't create

this situation of fear...

...he merely exploited it,

and rather successfully.

Cassius was right.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not

in our stars, but in ourselves."

Good night, and good luck.

And we're out.

Nothing?

Maybe nobody watched.

- We got nothing.

- I don't know. - Nothing.

Should I turn the phones back on,

Mr. Williams?

Yes. Now would be

a good time for that.

Turn the phones on!

Turn the pho...

Mr. Friendly wants the phones on.

It's the Junior Senator

calling collect.

Don't kid yourself. It's Reed Harris

thanking us for mentioning him.

I don't know whether all of you

have seen what I just saw...

...but I want to associate myself

and this program...

...with what Ed Murrow

has just said...

...and say I have never been

prouder of CBS.

Senator McCarthy said today that he

would demand equal free television...

Stevenson had charged that the Senator

made demagoguery and deceit...

...the national policy...

- Is that Hollenbeck?

- Congratulations!

Great show!

Feel like a Scotch?

I think everybody

could use a Scotch.

- It's 3:
30, early editions are out.

- I'm not worried about that.

Of course not.

Shirley, honey...

...would you go across the street

and get the early editions?

- All of them?

- Just get O'Brian!

- Hey, watch my drink!

- Yeah.

Okay. Here we go.

- At last!

- The Times. - The Times...

- First?

- Good.

- Who wrote it?

- Jack Gould.

Gould...

Edward R. Murrow's television program

on Senator Joseph R. McCarthy...

...was an exciting and provocative

examination of the man and his methods.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes

George Clooney

George Timothy Clooney (born May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer, screenwriter, and businessman. He has received three Golden Globe Awards for his work as an actor and two Academy Awards, one for acting in Syriana (2006) and the other for co-producing Argo (2012). Clooney made his acting debut on television in 1978, and later gained wide recognition in his role as Dr. Doug Ross on the long-running medical drama ER from 1994 to 1999, for which he received two Primetime Emmy Award nominations. While working on ER, he began attracting a variety of leading roles in films, including the superhero film Batman & Robin (1997) and the crime comedy Out of Sight (1998), in which he first worked with director Steven Soderbergh, who would become a long-time collaborator. In 1999, he took the lead role in Three Kings, a well-received war satire set during the Gulf War. In 2001, Clooney's fame widened with the release of his biggest commercial success, the heist comedy remake Ocean's Eleven, the first of what became a trilogy starring Clooney. He made his directorial debut a year later with the biographical spy comedy Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, and has since directed the historical drama Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), the sports comedy Leatherheads (2008), the political drama The Ides of March (2011), and the war film The Monuments Men (2014). Clooney won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for the Middle East thriller Syriana (2005), and subsequently earned Best Actor nominations for the legal thriller Michael Clayton (2007) and the comedy-dramas Up in the Air (2009) and The Descendants (2011). In 2013, he received the Academy Award for Best Picture for producing the political thriller Argo. He is the only person who has been nominated for Academy Awards in six different categories.In 2009, Clooney was included in Time's annual Time 100 as one of the "Most Influential People in the World". He is also noted for his political and economic activism, and has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace since January 31, 2008. His humanitarian work includes his advocacy of finding a resolution for the Darfur conflict, raising funds for the 2010 Haiti earthquake, Armenian Genocide recognition, 2004 tsunami, 9/11 victims, and creating documentaries such as Sand and Sorrow to raise awareness about international crises. Clooney helped fund the March for Our Lives after the Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in 2018. He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. In 2013, Clooney co-founded Casamigos Tequila with Rande Gerber and Michael Meldman. It was sold to Diageo for $700 million in June 2017, with an additional $300 million possible depending on the company's performance over the next ten years. He is married to British human rights lawyer Amal Clooney. more…

All George Clooney scripts | George Clooney Scripts

0 fans

Submitted on August 05, 2018

Discuss this script with the community:

0 Comments

    Translation

    Translate and read this script in other languages:

    Select another language:

    • - Select -
    • 简体中文 (Chinese - Simplified)
    • 繁體中文 (Chinese - Traditional)
    • Español (Spanish)
    • Esperanto (Esperanto)
    • 日本語 (Japanese)
    • Português (Portuguese)
    • Deutsch (German)
    • العربية (Arabic)
    • Français (French)
    • Русский (Russian)
    • ಕನ್ನಡ (Kannada)
    • 한국어 (Korean)
    • עברית (Hebrew)
    • Gaeilge (Irish)
    • Українська (Ukrainian)
    • اردو (Urdu)
    • Magyar (Hungarian)
    • मानक हिन्दी (Hindi)
    • Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Italiano (Italian)
    • தமிழ் (Tamil)
    • Türkçe (Turkish)
    • తెలుగు (Telugu)
    • ภาษาไทย (Thai)
    • Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese)
    • Čeština (Czech)
    • Polski (Polish)
    • Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian)
    • Românește (Romanian)
    • Nederlands (Dutch)
    • Ελληνικά (Greek)
    • Latinum (Latin)
    • Svenska (Swedish)
    • Dansk (Danish)
    • Suomi (Finnish)
    • فارسی (Persian)
    • ייִדיש (Yiddish)
    • հայերեն (Armenian)
    • Norsk (Norwegian)
    • English (English)

    Citation

    Use the citation below to add this screenplay to your bibliography:

    Style:MLAChicagoAPA

    "Good Night, and Good Luck." Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 6 Oct. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/good_night,_and_good_luck._9195>.

    We need you!

    Help us build the largest writers community and scripts collection on the web!

    Watch the movie trailer

    Good Night, and Good Luck.

    The Studio:

    ScreenWriting Tool

    Write your screenplay and focus on the story with many helpful features.


    Quiz

    Are you a screenwriting master?

    »
    What is the purpose of "action lines" in a screenplay?
    A To describe the setting, actions, and characters
    B To provide character dialogue
    C To list the plot points
    D To outline the character arcs