Writing is a lonely profession, and the subject rarely
lends itself to drama. It works if the writer or journalist develops a
relationship with a known lunatic, as is the case in two new high-profile
films, Capote and Good Night, and Good Luck. For
Truman Capote, it was Perry Smith, one of the In
Cold Blood killers; for Edward R. Murrow, it
was Joe McCarthy, the U.S. senator from Wisconsin who saw Commies in his
cereal. Most of us don’t have those opportunities, though. The
public’s perception of reporters is based mainly on The Front Page (1931), the film
that set the standard for all most all reporter clichés. The story
was so durable that it held up for two superior remakes, His Girl Friday (1940) and The Front Page (1974), but it
fell flat when the setting was changed to television in Switching Channels (1988). Probably most modern journalists have been inspired
by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose investigation of Watergate led to
the resignation of Richard Nixon. All the
President’s Men (1976) magnificently
brought this dark but ultimately positive period in modern politics to the
big screen. Director Alan J. Pakula and producer/actor Robert Redford
created a flawless celebration of the freedom of the press with a
combination of painstaking detail and suspenseful storytelling.
Unfortunately, though it is also a reminder of the days when the mainstream
press actually challenged the government.
Stephen Glass was a journalist whose real talent lay
in fiction. Shattered Glass (2003) is a factual account of the New
Republic writer who fabricated many of his
stories. Anyone who doubts the acting ability of Hayden Christensen on the
basis of his flat performances as Anakin Skywalker should see his
flamboyant and emotional grandstanding here. Almost
Famous (2000) would seem like a fantasy if it
hadn’t been loosely based on director Cameron Crowe’s own
experiences as a teenage rock journalist for Rolling
Stone. Crowe perfectly re-creates the sights
and sounds of 1970s rock & roll, but Kate Hudson steals the film as a
melancholy groupie.
Finding Forrester (2000)
may not be the best film about writing, but it is one of the few to delve
into the creative process. Sean Connery portrays a reclusive writer who
becomes a mentor to a teenage African-American writing prodigy (Rob Brown).
Connery seems to take on the mentor role more often than Al Pacino does.
I’d like to see a movie with Connery teaching Pacino to become a
mentor. Actually, I wouldn’t — I’d rather see more movies
featuring writers as heroes.
New releases on DVD on Tuesday (Nov. 22): War of the
Worlds, The Polar
Express, and The
Honeymooners.
This article appears in Nov 10-16, 2005.
