Tonight I saw what has to be the best movie I’ve seen all year (even besting Crash). Good Night, and Good Luck was written and directed by George Clooney and stars David Strathairn as Edward R. Murrow, the CBS journalist who’s editorial show helped turn public opinion against Wisconson senator Joseph Mcarthy and his witch-hunt of suspected communists or communist sympahtizers during the 1950′s. This film, is as much a commentary on the present state of politics and media in the United States as it is anything else. The film beigns with a speach Murrow gives in the late 50′s where he prophecies the doom of televison as a medium. His chilling words are prophetic when he speaks about televsion becoming nothing more than wires and lights meant to entertain and lull the already comfortable and rich into further complacency. I was reminded of a speech I’d heard Noam Chomsky give in the Distorted Morality, when he mentioned that professional sports are a huge drain on the brains of Americans. Most of us pay far more attention to how certian sports teams are doing than we do to foriegn policy, among other issues which actually matter to the future of our society and the good of the world. Now while I will continue to watch the Broncos play on Sunday’s I think I’ve all but renounced SportsCenter, and will certianly be trimming down my television watching to the bare minimum. I need to read more, and watch less TV. If Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam didn’t convince me of that, Good Night, and Good Luck sealed the deal.
Good Night, and Good Luck.
Great movie. D and I saw it a couple of weeks ago. Not a great “date” movie but it was worth the steep art-house price of $10.50.
Much love, KT
P.S. Watching the Broncos play IS brain drain.
Hey Charlie,
The sports thing is something that is a REAL drain. Especially someone like me who tends toward WAY too much enthusiasm and emotional investment. I see it also in the way city governments play up big the “responsibility” of giving local economies a “shot in the arm” by investing obscene amounts of money in new stadiums, while things such as education and healthcare teeter on the precipe of collapse. But entertainment rules the roost, and the “dollars to be had” inpires activity which seems to outpace equal enthusiasm for education, health, etc. And it seems that each time, the promises are “the resulting economic benefit will be a win for ALL sectors of the economy”, and each time, those “other” sectors such as education and health , etc. continue to struggle.
Anyway, I see all this and I see my own personal investment in sports and I also am moving toward “more reading”, less SportsCenter, and less UK basketball, Tennessee Titans, Cincinnati Reds (even though it has been much easier since the latter two of those three suck of late)
I noticed today that my listing for your feed had been broken, and I just navigated to the root of http://www.chuckp3.com and re-addressed the Atom feed. Glad to have you back on the radar, and a good post here. Thanks.
Dale
BTW, nice job on the Ekklesia site!