Classic 80s Movie: “Broadcast News”
Today’s Classic 80s Movie guest post comes from Jeffrey Field.
Title: Broadcast News
Year: 1987
Writer-Director: James L. Brooks.
Lead Actors: Holly Hunter, William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Joan Cusack and Jack Nicholson.
Plot Summary: Self-described basket-case network news producer Jane Craig falls for new reporter Tom Grunick, a pretty boy who represents the trend towards empty “moments”-driven news that she despises. Aaron Altman, a talented but plain correspondent, is Jane’s best friend and the unrequited love of his life. Sparks fly between the three as the network prepares for big changes, and both the news and Jane must decide between style and substance.
Why I Think This Is A Classic 80s Movie: First of all, this is a whip-smart romantic comedy for adults — the type that Hollywood isn’t making much these days — but they were around and occasionally thrived in the 80s. Some of the best of the bunch are TOOTSIE, BULL DURHAM, MOONSTRUCK and WORKING GIRL.
It lacks a true high concept and some of the other elements we usually associate with 80s movies. There’s no thumping soundtrack, no montages, no sassy teenagers and not even a classic antagonist, but it’s definitely a film of its era and in some cases, ahead of its time.
Brooks based the film, in part on his television news experience, and Jane is loosely modeled after Susan Zirinsky, a longtime CBS News producer who was an associate producer on the film. Jane, a complex, well-drawn character, is the center of a romantic triangle, but the romance doesn’t define her. She’s defined by her job and how damn good she is at it. The 80s were a decade where women made great strides in the workforce while struggling to find time for family and a social life, and Jane personifies this struggle.
It’s also a product of its era in that it still holds onto the sliver of hope that standards and sacred cows of journalism can still be saved. In our much more cynical modern world, with polarized cable news channels and network newscasts that feature Miley Cyrus twerking and viral YouTube videos, it’s almost quaint to see the characters argue whether the issue of date rape is “real” news.
My Favorite Moment In The Movie: My favorite scene comes on a night that Tom takes Jane to the White House Correspondent’s Dinner, also known as Nerd Prom. Aaron gets his first chance to anchor the news while most of the staff is at the gala, a gig he hopes can give him some much-needed job security. His night on the anchor desk is an absolute disaster as a cascade of nervous flop sweat flows down his face.
The scene that follows is a masterpiece. Jane leaves her date to go see how Aaron’s night went. He tells her about the flop sweat, but instead of staying to commiserate with him, Jane tells Aaron she’s going back to her date.
Aaron rips into her for being with Tom, the living embodiment of everything they see that’s wrong with their industry. It’s a back-and-forth exchange with one amazing line after another, including a moment where Aaron suggests Tom (while being a very nice guy) might actually be the devil. He said this devil won’t cause actual harm, but will gradually lower everyone’s standards and push for flash over substance and “he’ll get all the great women.”
The exchange builds and builds until Aaron releases the long-overdue admission that silences Jane. It’s….
My Favorite Dialogue In the Movie:
AARON: “If things had gone well for me tonight, I probably wouldn’t be saying any of this. I grant you everything, but give me this. He personifies everything that you’ve been fighting against. And I’m in love with you. How do you like that? I buried the lead.”
Key Things You Should Look For When Watching This Movie: In addition to great dialogue, the film does a couple of interesting things. First, it has fantastic character introductions, giving us a look at all three of the main characters as children, with the same quirks and insecurities that they bring to the story later in life. Young Jane, in particular, is very funny as she corrects her father for using the word “obsessive” to describe her behavior, pointing out that if she was truly obsessive, by definition, she wouldn’t have stopped to correct him.
I would also encourage you to watch for the way the film captures the details of a working newsroom, thanks in part to the experiences of Zirinsky and James L. Brooks. As someone who has spent his career in the television news business and seen most films get it all wrong, this is the one that comes closest to getting it right, including the famous sequence where they’re rushing a tape to playback seconds before it’s supposed to air. TV news doesn’t use tape anymore, but I’ve seen plenty of those last-second sprints in the past, and even today, some video still doesn’t get into the system until the very last moment.
The other unusual thing to watch for is that the movie eschews the traditional happy ending of a romantic comedy, giving us instead a main story that ends with the characters going in separate directions, only to reunite years later for a coda that suggests they’ve been happier without each other. It’s hard to imagine a studio in today’s heavily focus-grouped era releasing a movie with this type of ending. James L. Brooks may only have been able to get away with it because this was his follow-up to his Oscar-winning TERMS OF ENDEARMENT.
Thanks, Jeffrey! To show our gratitude for your guest post, here’s a dash of creative juju for you. Whoosh!
Tomorrow: Another Classic 80s Movie!
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