Great film & more Oscars discourse.

I know I am a bit behind the times on this one but I just wanted to pass along how much I enjoyed Good Night and Good Luck. I was able to pick it up on DVD last night and watch it for the first time.

"They took on the government with nothing but the truth," was the tag line for Good Night, and Good Luck. As you all know its George Clooney's second film as director. The movie is certainly small-scale, its shot in black and white, and almost entirely set within the confines of a television studio. The scale of ideas and fighting against corporate news is not however. The film offers its account of the battle between campaigning journalist Ed Murrow (David Strathairn) and red-baiting senator Joe McCarthy (played by himself through the use of old newsreels). Strathairn does a fantastic job as Murrow and one of the better acting performances I saw of 2005 films.

While we are on the subject of Clooney I also wanted to post this comment that Spike Lee had about Clooney's Academy Awards acceptance speech that I find to be right on. Clooney upon accepting the award for best supporting actor took the chance to compliment Hollywood on its liberal values and progressive thinking. He cited Hattie McDaniel's win as Best Supporting Actress in 1939 as evidence.

But Spike Lee questions whether or not that role was really such a great example here via Contact Music:

"To use that as an example of how progressive Hollywood is is ridiculous. Hattie McDaniel played Mammy in Gone With the Wind. That film was basically saying that the wrong side won the Civil War and that black people should still be enslaved. C'mon! I like George a lot. I'm not hating on him. But I don't think he really thought it out. How many years was it between Hattie McDaniel and Halle Berry (winning an acting Oscar)? Sixty-some-odd? C'mon!"

Update: Here is a bit more about Race and the Oscars thanks to No Frontin' for the heads up here. Getting A Clue-ney: Race & The Oscars by Robert A. George of Ragged Thots.