Whether blasted in a blessedly air-conditioned megaplex, or projected on a roof-deck after dark, movies make a summer. The forthcoming July/August issue of our magazine features reviews of the recent The Bang Bang Club, a fictional portrayal of the real group of war photographers working in South Africa in the nineties, and the documentary Page One: Inside The New York Times. And on CJR.org this summer, we will debut a series on some classic journalism-themed movies throughout the decades. Each Friday, starting this week, we’ll highlight a different movie and reflect on how it represents our great profession.
So help us make a list: What are your favorite movies about reporting, editing, broadcasting, and publishing? And why?
How about "Absence of Malice"?
#1 Posted by Lauren Kirchner, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 01:08 PM
Billy Wilder's 'Ace in the Hole' is a cynical and often-ignored classic of the genre. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043338/
#2 Posted by Adam Glenn, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 03:20 PM
"Deadline USA" (1952). Humphrey Bogart, Kim Hunter, Ethel Barrymore. Bogart looks endlessly romantic as the crusading editor who functions like a reporter and never seems to sit down or take his trenchcoat off, even indoors. But boy, does it have the right values!
#3 Posted by bob meyers, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 03:42 PM
Shattered Glass is one of my favorites.
#4 Posted by Justin, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 03:54 PM
The lesson taught in the "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" is one that should be taught in every J school.
#5 Posted by Dale Singer, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 03:58 PM
Samuel Fuller's "Park Row" (1952) is a great low-budget film about New York newspaper wars in the 1880s. I hasn't been available on video or DVD for ages, but I happily discovered it came out on DVD last month: http://www.amazon.com/Park-Row-Gene-Evans/dp/B004X63RWK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308772273&sr=8-1
#6 Posted by Mark Athitakis, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 04:05 PM
Gotta go with Billy Wilder.
'Ace in the Hole' for reflection; 'The Front Page' for laughs...
#7 Posted by Scott Filipski, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 04:10 PM
It's bad, and not nearly as highfalutin as some of these other choices, but you cannot beat The Paper. This also doubles as a great "New York in summer" movie.
#8 Posted by Christopher Rosen, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 04:20 PM
"Spider-Man", for J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson.
And to counter the print bias, "Broadcast News". Even more relevant today.
#9 Posted by Marc Ryan, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 04:31 PM
The documentary 'Journey's with George' is a great watch. It follows journalists as they cover then Gov. George W. Bush during his 2000 Presidential campaign. You can smile about 'W' for more than an hour but do look out for the serious issues such as reporting from the bubble, pack journalism, punditry, and a reporter becoming part of the story.
#10 Posted by Franz Strasser, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 04:37 PM
These are all fine choices. "Absence of Malice" is a very clever and insightful film that should be screened in all journalism school ethics classes; with "Ace in the Hole" Billy Wilder gave Kirk Douglas some wonderful lines; and Bogart looks great in a bow tie in "Deadline USA," with Ethel Barrymore as a prototype Katharine Graham. But I am surprised that no one, so far, has mentioned "All the President's Men," the picture that made untold numbers of journalism students want to be crusading investigative reporters. What one remembers most of this movie is not Redford and Hoffman as Woodward and Bernstein, but the senior editors, as played by Martin Balsam, Jack Warden and, especially, Jason Robards as Ben Bradlee, for which Robards won the first of his Academy Awards. (The second came the following year, when he played Dashiell Hammett.)
#11 Posted by Lyndon Grove, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 05:10 PM
"Never Been Kissed." Whatever, pretend it's an ethics lesson.
#12 Posted by Kase Wickman, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 05:11 PM
Deadline USA hands down.
#13 Posted by Dan Gainor, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 05:29 PM
Between the Lines. Almost Famous. All the Presidents Men. Superman. Under Fire. Year of Living Dangerously. Killing Fields. Strip Tease. Citizen Kane. The Insider. All the Truman Capote Movies. State of Play. Salvador. Devil Wears Prada. How to Lose Friends and Alienate People. His Girl Friday. Shattered Glass. A River Runs Through It (Brad Pitt is a journalist). The Mean Season. Absence of Malice. I Love Trouble. Broadcast News. The Big Carnival. The Pelican Brief. China Syndrome.
#14 Posted by Stephen Fried, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 06:44 PM
"Good Night and Good Luck" and "Sweet Smell of Success"
The superior BBC version of "State of Play." It's available on DVD - Bill Nighy as Cameron Foster is the editor every journalist wishes they could work for at least once).
#15 Posted by Gary Warner, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 06:56 PM
"Nothing Sacred," the 1937 screwball comedy about the young woman who discovers she's not going to die of radium poisoning after all and the reporter who figures out how to overcome his disappointment at the news. Starring Carole Lombard and Fredric March, written by Ben Hecht, Ring Lardner Jr., and Budd Schulberg. If that weren't enough it has one of my favorite move lines of all time: "The hand of God, reaching down into the mire, couldn't elevate one of them to the depths of degradation!" Talking about newspaper men, of course, but don't worry: no one escapes the mire and everyone is funny.
#16 Posted by Andie Tucher, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 08:44 PM
The Parallax View, Street Smart, Meet John Doe, The Killing Fields, Ace in the Hole, Citizen Kane, His Girl Friday, All the President's Men, but oh, let me repeat myself, definitely The Parallax View.
#17 Posted by Karen Stabiner, CJR on Wed 22 Jun 2011 at 10:39 PM
Ace in the Hole directed by Billy Wilder and starring Kirk Douglas
State of Play with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck
His Girl Friday by Howard Hawks with Gary Grant, Rosalind Russell
Meet John Doe directed by Frank Capra with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck
#18 Posted by Simon Surowicz, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 09:02 AM
I'd like to hear about All The President's Men.
#19 Posted by Gabe Kahn , CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 09:15 AM
Duck Soup, The Mouse That Roared, Blazing Saddles, and The Jerk. Because it's always a good time to get reacquainted with Groucho Marx, Peter Sellers, Mel Brooks, and Carl Reiner.
#20 Posted by Aaron Elstein, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 09:55 AM
Definitely "Ace in the Hole" starring Kirk Douglas because it's a classic (1951). A more recent film (2007) called "Nothing But The Truth" . . . because it features our very own Floyd Abrams as the judge.
#21 Posted by Terri Thompson, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 10:33 AM
"Mystic Pizza", "Diner", "Waitress", "Alice's Restaurant", and "No Reservations"..
"Professional journalists" need some alternative career training fast.
You want fries with that?
#22 Posted by padikiller, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 11:01 AM
Ace in the Hole is my favorite journalism movie. I kept thinking about it during the rescue of the Chilean miners. Great depiction of a "media frenzy" and it gives you a healthy dose of cynicism while watching coverage of the latest "big story."
The first Christopher Reeves Superman is my favorite evocation of the golden age of newspapers.
#23 Posted by Mike Walker, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 01:01 PM
for a kitschy atomic-era thriller and a look at Fleet Street in the early 60s, try "The Day The Earth Caught Fire" -- the famous final scene shows the typesetters with two mockups of the front page for the following day: one says "Earth Saved" the other says "Earth Doomed"... a classic.
#24 Posted by Steve McGookin, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 01:01 PM
and i just remembered another favorite : "Call Northside 777" - jimmy stewart as a crusading journalist at his best, and "new technology" cracks the case....
#25 Posted by Steve McGookin, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 01:06 PM
My quick list: Citizen Kane, Ace in the Hole, Absence of Malice, Teacher's Pet, The Foreigner, Sweet Smell of Success, Front Page, His Girl Friday,
Broadcast News, Network.
#26 Posted by Howard Weinberg, CJR on Thu 23 Jun 2011 at 01:53 PM
2009 film "Balibo" from Australia, about five Aussie journalists executed in East Timor in 1975, is meant to be very good, indeed. Haven't seen it. But just speaking up for the antipodes. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/balibo/
#27 Posted by Joel Meares, CJR on Fri 24 Jun 2011 at 10:34 AM
My current favorite movie about journalists is "Bill Cunningham New York," a documentary about the NY Times' legendarily idiosyncratic fashion photographer.
Older films worth checking out:
"George Seldes--Tell The Truth And Run"--A documentary portrait of the famed investigative journalist behind In Fact.
"The Lost Honor Of Katharina Blum"--A scathing film from Germany about how the press manages to destroy the life of a simple housemaid.
#28 Posted by Peter Wong, CJR on Tue 28 Jun 2011 at 02:53 PM
What about "Bob Roberts," written, directed and starring Tim Robbins? Fun "mockumentary" with lots of cameos.
#29 Posted by Dan Bender, CJR on Fri 1 Jul 2011 at 02:55 PM
Don't forget "NETWORK" "FLETCH" (And read those novels for summer reads!)
2 small movies (straight to DVD) that journalists might find interesting: "Bordertown" starring J-Lo and "The Hunting Party" with Richard Gere and Terrence Howard. The latter is probably the better of the two, but they deserve nods just b/c stars tried to do something "important" and the market just wasn't there.
Otherwise:
"All The President's Men" (just watch the LONG shot where the camera 'closes in' on Redford), "Good Night and Good Luck", "Meet John Doe", "Ace In The Hole" and "Parallax View" are all great.
#30 Posted by M.T. Elliott, CJR on Tue 5 Jul 2011 at 09:20 PM
Welcome to Sarajevo (for its horror and humor); it has a great cast and a clever mix of actual footage from the war in Bosnia, mixed with dramatised footage. Best of all, it is about real journalists covering a war (in Central, not Eastern Europe, btw) that drove plenty of those who covered it into a funny farm.
#31 Posted by Jeff McIntyre, CJR on Sat 9 Jul 2011 at 04:24 PM
The Green Hornet (the new one) was quite entertaining, and I really enjoyed the editor/publisher role and the fact that manipulation of the press was part of the Hornet's arsenal. (Media *is* a weapon, if used improperly!)
#32 Posted by Rhiannon Coppin, CJR on Fri 15 Jul 2011 at 08:03 PM
In Network, Howard Beale is the front man for the Saudi Royal Family.
Who is the second biggest investor in Fox News?
#33 Posted by Bob Patterson, CJR on Sun 17 Jul 2011 at 06:51 PM
All great choices. The documentary, The Devil Came on Horseback is wonderful, as is the motion picture Blood Diamond - both about the injustices in Africa and journalists urge to make the rest of the world care.
#34 Posted by Jenn, CJR on Tue 19 Jul 2011 at 02:08 PM
'Citizen Kane' is obvious . . . but think Rupert Murdoch, the nearest thing we have today to Hearst. The sensationalism, and the way Hearst became a unifying figure of hatred for liberals in the 1930s.
#35 Posted by Mark Richard, CJR on Tue 19 Jul 2011 at 08:19 PM