Summary:
A behind the scenes look at the lives of two male television reporters and one female producer, all of whom are incredibly driven.
My Thoughts:
There are some films that relate to your life so closely that you gravitate towards them simply for that reason. As my fulltime job is working at a news studio for a morning show, it should be no surprise that I found a lot of humor in the way this film approached the newsroom, particularly, how it approached the working relationships in the newsroom. There are some scenes that are practically perfect representations of what it’s actually like to be in the control room, and other scene that are so absurdly humorous that they perfectly illustrate what it feels like to be in a control room while the deadline races towards you at a breakneck pace, but what really makes this film stand out are the totally believable and likeable characters, and the still-relevant way this film criticizes modern broadcast news.
“I think we have the kind of friendship where if I were the devil, you’d be the only one I would tell.”
All three of our leads are incredibly charismatic, and they simply disappear into their roles. William Hurt (“Dark City”) plays Tom Grunick, a handsome reporter whom isn’t incredibly smart or hardworking, but he keeps getting attention because of his looks; Albert Brooks (“Drive”) plays Aaron Altman, a smart, hardworking reporter who doesn’t come across well when speaking to others; and Holly Hunter (“Raising Arizona”) plays Jane Craig, an incredibly driven producer who demands things be done her way, and immediately. Jack Nicholson (“The Passenger”) also makes an appearance as Bill Rorish, the lead anchor from New York.
Our characters are all so strongly written that they become what I’ve come to think of as ‘Dynamically Static’, that is to say that they are so intense in their personalities that even when they do change, it’s so subtle that you really have to be watching for it. I feel like the way this film approaches character changes is incredibly realistic, and it makes it even better that the bookending scenes of this film are years removed from the bulk of the story and the characters are still, relatively, the same (the opening scene takes place when all three of the leads are children, and the final scene takes place seven years after the main events). I do believe people are capable of change, but I also believe that some people don’t change; and the characters in this film seem, at times, almost incapable of change, and that dynamic can be just as interesting as a character whom completely changes over the course of the film. I think one of the most insightful scenes in this film comes near the end when Jane hops in the back of a cab and starts spouting directions at the driver (as she does throughout the film), then, because what happened affected her greatly, she pauses, and says “Take whatever way you want”; the camera lingers for a moment longer and she chimes in one last time that the way she wants to take is quicker. That little character interaction gives us so much insight into her character; it’s as if Jane herself knows she’s capable of change, but she’s so dead set in her ways that to changes her ways would compromise her integrity.
Another thing this film does incredibly well is give you a peak behind the curtain at what politics go into deciding what goes on the air; what the American public will watch vs what is actually news; and also the kinds of things reporters do and don’t do in order to make their stories more reputable. In my opinion, one of the most memorable and insightful scenes comes when Jane is giving a lecture about how modern news organizations are failing the American public when they provide fun stories instead of important ones. She goes on to illustrate this point by saying that none of the major news networks covered the signing of a major atomic deal, but all three of those networks showed a domino pattern being tipped over. Even as Jane speaks about the atomic deal, bored patrons in the auditorium get up and begin to leave, but as soon as she plays the domino video, the audience begins to cheer and applaud. James L. Brooks (director of “Terms of Endearment”) is clearly poking fun at the attention span of the American public, and he does it in a way that is hilarious and eye opening.
While this film starts out as a satire on broadcast news, it eventually wades into romantic comedy territory, and during some of these scenes we have some more melodramatic moments, though, for the most part, I actually think this movie skirts around many of the tropes and clichés of normal romantic comedies, and this movie is so well written, wonderfully acted, and so infectiously good-natured that it’s hard not to fall in love with it overall.
Verdict:
Save “Network”, “Broadcast News” is probably the best satire on the American media stream I’ve ever seen. It’s frequently hilarious, the characters are incredibly likable and believable, and the overall experience is so heartwarming that I’d be happy to revisit this world again and again. This film was nominated for seven Oscars including Best Picture, Writing, and nominations for all three leads, though it took home none, loosing out on most of them to “The Last Emperor”, which, I will admit, is a better film overall.
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