DC ON FILM: "BROADCAST NEWS"

Yesterday brought me Broadcast News, the 1987 James L. Brooks dramedy on life in a network news bureau. As the subject line of this post betrays, "Broadcast News" is set in DC, something hitherto unknown to me.

The newsroom I work in only does television part-time, but I can tell you things have changed. Heck, even if you work at Baskin-Robbins, you can probably tell the same thing. Cell phones weren't in yet — even the bricks everyone carried around in the early days. And everyone used typewriters, just as they did in "All The President's Men" a decade earlier (another "DC on Film" post waiting to happen).

The main argument of the film, if it really has one, is that TV journalism is in danger of being threatened by entertainment values. Brooks makes it clear that established bureau bigs Holly Hunter and Albert Brooks care very much about the integrity of their business profession, so that when slick William Hurt walks in to lower their standards, their outrage is comprehensible to audiences that never attended journalism school. Nevertheless, they have an uneven set of ethical principles: It's not okay to manufacture footage to make a segment more gripping (on this I agree), but it's perfectly fine to broadcast the tape of an execution. Excuse me? Since when has that been the case? This movie is no "Network," so the scene where Brooks and his colleagues laugh off a "moral dilemma" doesn't quite fit. The difference, of course, comes down to "the truth." The execution is real, so it passes the test. The scene where Hurt shoots reaction shots of himself tearing up in an interview is acted, so it fails. (Oops, forgot to add a spoiler alert. In my defense, the movie is almost two decades old.) Being truthful doesn't matter, because the network hands all agree they'd lie to a source for information. All that matters is "the truth."

James L. Brooks doesn't know that much about the news business, or how to satirize it, though it is fun to watch him get a few things right and a few things wrong. But as a movie about people and relationships, it's right on the mark. Everybody in it is good — especially Hunter, in the role that made her career. And you can't beat an unbilled Jack Nicholson as the New York anchor who is the focus of everyone's hopes and fears.

As a DC movie, there's actually not much DC — the best we get of outdoor visuals is a wide pan across George Washington Square above Foggy Bottom. Nor is there much politics — the best we get is a shootout with the Sandinistas, covered by Brooks and Hunter, plus the passing inclusion of the annual correspondents dinner.

The IMDb Goofs page doesn't include any city-related goofs, so let me add at least one. Leaving Dulles Airport near the end, Hunter's character Jane tells the cab driver not to take the Beltway back to DC, because it's busy this time of day. Better to take New York Avenue, she says. Hello?! New York Avenue runs from Northwest DC into Maryland. And it's movies like this that make you think Dulles is just a short drive up the river from Washington. It's not. It's 30 miles outside of town.

A bonus note for my audience in the NW — The denouement has Brooks resigning his position and moving to ... Portland! Now, he doesn't actually say it's Portland, Oregon. But Washington isn't nearly close enough to Maine for them to assume it's the smaller, if nearer, one.

Extra bonus for the NW folks — According to the Willy Week, William Hurt is probably moving to Portland. Oregon, that is.

Update, 11:32 a.m., Tues. — Hmm. The IMDb Filming Locations page says the airport was BWI, not Dulles. Oh well, her traffic directions still don't make any sense. And I'm pretty sure neither airport has the bus-on-stilts peoplemover thing, because there aren't any terminals disconnected from the main building.

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posted by WWB at 8:54 PM |