The recent New York Times review of State of Play (the new Russell Crowe flick) made me all nostalgic, since, after all, the film is practically a dinosaur--not only is it about the newspaper industry, its main character, Cal Affrey, actually takes notes--with a pen and paper! It's adorable how they try to be hip and relevant by having Rachel McAdams play a political blogger (who is, naturally, barely biting her tongue at Crowe's antique, pavement hitting methods). But by the ending reel--which is a prolonged and loving depiction of a story actually going to press (on real paper and everything!) it's clear that all that hogwash about technology is just that: though ostensibly State of Play is about the unravelling of a huge political cover-up, it's really about the mysterious power of committing the truth on the fallible but somehow forever printed page.
What results is a subtle and somewhat wasted pat on the head to all the political bloggers and online news sites alike--while that instant gratification thing is all fine and good, it seems to say, there are some things that needs to go through the industry ringer and emerge on the other side as a printed, legitimate piece of investigative journalism. This leads to the weirdest meta moment of all, when the clever viewer realizes a film about the fake newspaper industry is being made as the very future of the real industry (including the paper this review appears in) is in question.
Best of all about this review is the form: the reviewer frames the entire review on the age old perimeters of portrayals of journalists on film: snappy banter, the lone man on the trail, the cub reporter, the high stakes cover up, the series of unconnected events--and, of course, the glorious nature of investigation and discovery that makes this kind of narrative so satisfying.
Now, I'd bet a dollar fifty that most our cultural idea of the 'newspaper business' comes in large part from the movies (with television, radio and the comic book coming up from behind). That had me thinking back to all the best portrayals of that frenetic-paced, much mythologized profession on the silver screen. And more importantly, it got me wondering--how is that the very medium seems to be the very antithesis of what the newspapers promise (film and television = immediate, mass communication, newspapers= slower, personal consumption) ends up providing some of the touching and nostalgic tributes?
Citizen Kane (1941)
Not only one of the best newspaper flicks of all time but...oh, well, you all know the rest. Yada yada yada, Citizen Kane is the greatest movie, blah blah fishcakes. But in all seriousness, it's also probably the only onscreen depiction of the birth of yellow journalism (which ignores legitimate news stories in favor of outrageous headlines that sell papers), as well as a damn fine portrait of the machinations behind great power and wealth.
By now, it's no secret that Citizen Kane is in large part based on the life of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. Welles pretty much lifted wholesale chunks of Hearst's life, mostly because he is a Bad News Bear. He probably also thought it would be funny to poke the sleeping badger pit (now I'm picturing that visual and...yeah. Pretty much the best thing ever). It wasn't even subtle: the supposed telegram Hearst sent regarding the Spanish-American War, "You furnish the pictures, I'll furnish the war" showed up in Kane as, "you provide the prose poems. I'll provide the war." Obvious? Perhaps. Hilarious? Without doubt.
You know what they say: every time someone is offended, Orson Welles gets a glass of port and a director's cut.
The Inside Scoop: When friends asked how Kane's last words would be so well known when he died alone, Orson Welles reportedly was silent for a long beat saying, "Don't you ever tell anyone of this."
Superman: The Movie (1978)
Clark Kent by day, Superman by night...well, not exactly, because rescuing those in need doesn't exactly come with fixed hours. Either way, Clark's gotta make a living, and he does as a reporter for the Daily Planet. What I especially love about the newsroom of the Daily Planet is that it's a screaming stereotype, crossing off every genre staple in the book --the pushy, loudmouth boss, the cynical but beautiful female lead reporter, the green and hopelessly obtuse kid, and the eternal fixation on grabbing that next big lead. But don't you love it? It's comfy as an old shoe.
The Inside Scoop: Ever the Bad News Bear, Marlon Brando refused to memorize most of his lines in advance. Let me remind you: he was paid $3.7 million and worked for just 12 days of shooting. When he places the infant Kal-El into the escape pod in the film's beginning, he was reading his lines from the diaper of the baby. Oh, Brando! You little scamp. We just can't take you anywhere!
His Girl Friday (1940)
Walter Burns, a fast-talking newspaper editor (Cary Grant) tries at all costs to keep Hildy, his estranged reporter wife (Rosalind Russell) from remarrying, all in the middle of covering the hottest story of the year. Notorious for the whip-fire dialogue and impossible, aching cleverness, this film makes a near perfect snapshot of everything we hold dear about that long gone Golden Age of journalism, when newspaper could really break a story and the business really seemed life or death. On one level, it's just a simple 'gal gets story, guy gets gal' tale, but, with Hildy forced to choose between a quiet, traditional life with her fiancee in the country and a hectic but fulfilling city existence, it's more a take on the modern woman's dilemma on the homestead vs. the hot lead, the family vs. the career.
The Inside Scoop: In the play the film is based on, The Front Page, the whole 'husband wins back errant wife' plot was entirely absent--Hildy had been a man. When director Howard Hawks heard his secretary reading the lines for auditions, he liked the dynamic so much he rewrote the entire part.
All the President's Men (1976)
Any list of newspaper movies that left this one off the list would probably be immediately disqualified. A celluloid chronicle of the Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporting of Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) that uncovered the Watergate scandal and was the driving investigative force that brought down the Nixon administration. The first time I saw it, I was amazed at not only how watchable it was, but how subtly thrilling: knowing that this event bomb blasted American politics, this film always sends me straight back to the history books to refresh my memory. From all accounts, the film set was marked by a remarkable attention to detail, right down to reproducing out of print phonebooks. I guess this did not extend to the accuracy of casting:
Real life Woodward and Bernstein.
Hollywood Woodward and Bernstein.
Yeah. Because an alarmingly large percentage of investigative journalists look like Robert freakin' Redford. Guys, I do not appreciate this deception; I almost totally believed you. For realsies.
The Inside Scoop: Both Redford and Hoffman memorized the other's lines so they could interrupt each other in character. This left a lot of the other actors on set awesomely out in the cold.
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Meet John Doe (1941)
A newspaper woman (played by Barbara Stanwyck) is fired from her job, she creates a fake letter from an unemployed 'John Doe' who threatens to commit suicide to protest the ills of society. The letter causes a city-wide sensation, and her paper takes her back--which means she is forced to find a fake John Doe (Gary Cooper) to keep the story going. It escalates pretty quickly, thanks in large part to one of those great stock B&W villains whose motivations are fuzzy, apart from a moral setting stuck on 'evil.' Sentimental old social finger-wagger that redeems itself from the clunker bin with a convincing display of the fickle nature of celebrity and the luscious presence of Stanwyck.
The Inside Scoop: Gary Cooper signed onto the project without a script--he had enjoyed working with director Frank Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck. No one with eyes can blame him. I would watch her do anything, and luckily, I have proof: Christmas in Connecticut. Watched that sucker twice, y'all.
Newsies (1992)
Based on the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899, and starring a wee Christian Bale. Who cares if it was any good or not? LOOK AT THOSE LITTLE HATS! Price of admission= repaid in full.
The Inside Scoop: Most of the cast trained for ten weeks in dance and martial arts. I guess that proved useful for some of them later.
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For more on this deeply fascinating topic, try the literary journal the Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture: guaranteed hours of fun.
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