Broadcast News (film)
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| Broadcast News | |
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| Directed by | James L. Brooks |
| Produced by | James L. Brooks |
| Written by | James L. Brooks |
| Starring | William Hurt Albert Brooks Holly Hunter Robert Prosky Joan Cusack |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | December 16, 1987 |
| Running time | 133 min |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Broadcast News is a 1987 romantic comedy about a brilliant yet prickly reporter (Albert Brooks), his charming but admittedly far less seasoned rival (William Hurt), and their virtuoso producer (Holly Hunter), who has daily emotional breakdowns. It also stars Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles and Joan Cusack, with an uncredited cameo by Jack Nicholson.
The movie was written, produced and directed by James L. Brooks.
The events depicted in the movie closely parallel and satirize the 1984 mass layoffs ("downsizing") that occurred at CBS News. Longtime CBS Evening News producer Susan Zirinsky was a technical advisor on the film.
The three main characters convey a three dimensional depth by alternating between professional and unprofessional behavior, as each is driven to achieve, yet is betrayed into petty scheming to satisfy longings for the approval of others.
Hunter's character, the most talented of the three, lacks inter-personal skills and tries to conceal how important it is for her to be found sexually attractive by a handsome man whose work and ethics appall her.
Brooks plays a gifted writer and wit. Ambitious for both love and on-camera exposure, he can't resist trying to withhold from others satisfactions he can't have.
Hurt's character, denied self-respect due to intellectual limitations of which he is all too aware, has few qualms about using his other assets to finagle what he can't earn.
Although each is afflicted with deep fissures of the soul not of their own making, these characters elicit respect, if not affection, because they genuinely struggle with their demons. But as often as not they lose, have been losing all their lives, and can summon little grace in the losing until, rather unconvincingly, an epilogue reunites them.
Because the plot's conflicts are occasioned by the lead trio's flaws rather than by malice, there is despair in their interactions tinged with bitterness. None of them believes in happiness, yet none of them can willingly resign himself to failure. Each plays the other's villain, then hero, then villain again.
The "upbeat" moral of this movie -- all you've got is your integrity -- is not nearly as interesting as its morbid truth -- you do not have to be mean to be mean. Albert Brooks earns his shot at Iago here. Holly Hunter is auditioning to play Dagny Taggert. And William Hurt reprises Robert Redford's Hubbell from The Way We Were -- right down to the blond brain.
The film contains hilarious bits of business that are a send-up of TV journalism's egos on the one hand, and a tribute to the immediacy with which the medium can infuse news events on the other. Joan Cusack is featured in one remarkable scene that will strike anyone who works in television, or has faced a hopeless deadline on any job as not all that over-the-top.
The movie was nominated for Academy Awards in the categories of Best Actor in a Leading Role (William Hurt), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Albert Brooks), Best Actress in a Leading Role (Holly Hunter), Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.
This film is number 68 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies".
[edit] External links
| Films Directed by James L. Brooks |
| Terms of Endearment | Broadcast News | I'll Do Anything | As Good as It Gets | Spanglish |
