David Strathairn Gives the Performance of His Life in Good Night and Good Luck

There is a group of actors out there who belong to a very special club. Membership in this club means that they have excelled in their profession. They're never out of work and they are highly respected by their peers. You don't know their names and when someone mentions them you say, "Who?" But when you see them in a movie you say, "Hey, that guy." The "Hey, That Guy," club doesn't get a lot of recognition outside Hollywood.

The only stories that they can get written about them usually require some sort of criminal activity. This club has such alums as Joe Pantoliano, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and John C. Reilly. Hoffman is being recognized this year for his work in the film Capote, but another member of the "Hey, That Guy" club also turned in the best performance of his career. His name is David Strathairn and his role of a lifetime is as legendary journalist Edward R. Murrow in "Good Night and Good Luck."

Strathairn has always been an actor that has stood out to me. I first noticed him as the dad in The River Wild. It's not exactly a gem of a movie, but the fact that he was forced to essentially play Meryl Streep's wife and still made it interesting is impressive enough. The man spent the final act of the movie playing opposite a dog. That's got to take talent. More recently people may remember him as the man who got lucky with Carmela Soprano while she and her husband Tony were split up.

Probably his most impressive role to date was in LA Confidential. In that film he was surrounded by a group of actors with a combined total of eight Academy Award nominations between them with four wins. He more than held his own among them. Strathairn played Pierce Patchett, the pimp with employees who looked like movie stars.

A personal favorite of mine has always been the John Sayles film Eight Men Out about the 1919 Chicago White Sox who threw the World Series. Strathairn played the star pitcher Eddie Cicotte responsible for throwing two of the games. 'Shoeless' Joe Jackson might be the icon that history sympathizes with, but Strathairn makes you sympathize with Cicotte most of all, even though there's no logical reason to. You only had to look Strathairn in the eyes to sympathize.

That brings me to Good Night and Good Luck, which is George Clooney's film about Edward R. Murrow and his news team taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy during the communist witch-hunt of the 1950's. The most striking thing about this movie is Strathairn. He commands such a presence that you wonder how anyone could be friends with Murrow.

How could anyone not feel dwarfed by this figure? There is a scene late in the film after so much has happened where your respect for Murrow is at its height and you think, what is this important guy doing hanging out with George Clooney? His performance is so good that you forget that everyone else in the movie is acting too. He is not David Strathairn in this movie. He is Edward R. Murrow.

Even though it seems to be the new trend in Hollywood to portray true-life figures, Strathairn doesn't bother with an imitation. His performance is about timing and rhythm. He doesn't look like Murrow and doesn't sound much like him either, but he got the pattern and presence of him.

It's a treat to see the members of this club receive the credit that they deserve. Even though Paul Giamatti keeps getting robbed he's getting attention for it. Hoffman is getting his well-deserved awards. Chris Cooper won his Academy Award for Adaptation a few years ago. Whether or not Strathairn gets as much attention for Good Night and Good Luck, remains to be seen. He has certainly earned his Oscar nomination for it.