396 - Broadcast News, United States, 1987. Dir. James L. Brooks.

Wednesday, January 31, 2018

396 - Broadcast News, United States, 1987.  Dir. James L. Brooks.

James L. Brooks began his career as a copywriter for CBS News.  Then he became a news writer.  While there, he moonlighted writing scripts for documentaries.

Eventually he was laid off from his job when CBS News downsized.

He co-created The Mary Tyler Moore show in 1970, about a woman who worked in the news room of a local television news station in Minneapolis.

He co-created Lou Grant in 1977, about a man who worked as the city editor of a local newspaper in Los Angeles.

James L. Brooks likes the news.

So when his first film Terms of Endearment (1983) became a smashing critical and popular success, he turned to the news for his follow-up.

And he wrote about life in the newsroom, about people who live for the high-pressure world of meeting tough deadlines on time with excellence, their quest for love along the way, and what happens to them when they are laid off due to downsizing.

He spent a year doing research and hanging out with news people in newsrooms, and he spent a year writing the script.

He brought his trademark sense of reality to the project, and newspeople ever since have thanked him.  So have film fans.

Both Albert Brooks and Holly Hunter trained in drama at Carnegie Mellon.  William Hurt trained at Juilliard.

Broadcast News is a film for adults.  About real-world issues and real-life circumstances.  It is dramatic, comedic, nuanced, and honest.

It takes unexpected turns and ends unexpectedly.

It captures a time that no longer exists.

And it is filled with plenty of love.

It is a film worth watching.