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Broadcast News (1987)


Broadcast News (1987)



7/10

Starring
William Hurt
Albert Brooks
Holly Hunter


Directed by James L. Brooks


The movie is nice and tender. Broadcast News explores everything that needs to be done to get the news out for us, the viewers, to see. You’ll like the challenges they face and how many people hide behind their work and their drive.

What I liked about the movie is how it plays so close to reality and doesn’t try to spin out something that can only be done through cinematic magic. It shows the weird and lonely struggle to get a break, while the crafty and morally inept get ahead. In the movie, nice guys don’t get the girls in the end, and crafty guys don’t get their hearts crushed. Nice guys lose the girls, and crafty guys go far, win awards, and get even prettier girls. Meanwhile, the lady trying to get a grip on her life will, by the end, still be trying to get a grip—but, like in this movie, we see a glimmer of hope for her at the end of the tunnel.

The writing of this movie must have taken a lot of research to pull off. The acting will also have you on the ropes in appreciation because it’s clear that not everyone could have pulled off what we see on screen.


The plot starts with the introduction of the three people the movie focuses on, but everything seems to revolve around Jane (Holly Hunter). Jane is a very unhappy woman whose entire life revolves around her work. She’s excellent at what she does and is always ready to pull a diamond from a rock when things are tight and everyone says it’s impossible. We see her sometimes take time out to cry about how sad her life is and how much she wishes for more. What I liked here is that she acts out these feelings without us ever really hearing her address them in words.

Her seemingly best friend—and probably only friend—is Aaron (Albert Brooks). She adores him as a friend, and he seems to be the one person who gives her life the anchor it needs. Aaron is a full-time reporter nerd. He knows everything he needs to know about a story before he tackles it and is ready to go as far as needed to get it right. Aaron dreams of one day becoming a news anchor, but he lacks the charisma to reach such heights. Then there’s Tom (William Hurt), the man who becomes an anchor later in the movie and the one person we discover is willing to do anything to get ahead.

Written, produced, and directed by James L. Brooks, this movie was a critical and commercial success, earning numerous Academy Award nominations and other movie award nominations. It didn’t win an Academy Award, but it won other awards for its work.

It’s quite a long film, but it’s fun to watch.



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