Themes: Members of the Press, Work Ethics, Love Triangles
Main Cast: William Hurt, Albert Brooks, Holly Hunter, Robert Prosky, Lois Chiles, Joan Cusack, Jack Nicholson
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 132 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Writer/director/producer James L. Brooks scores on all counts with this clear-eyed look at the television news business and the dysfunctional types who work in it. Brooks' intelligent script introduces us to Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), an ambitious producer at the network news division's Washington D.C. branch, who is calm under fire yet has a good cry at her desk every morning over her empty personal life. Jane works well with Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), an excellent reporter who lacks the visual charisma to make him a star. Into their lives comes Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a regional newscaster who admits he can't write news and doesn't understand many of the events he's covering, but has the presence and physical appeal that the increasingly entertainment-oriented network wants for its news programs. Jane is also physically attracted to him, which drives her crazy, because Grunick stands for everything she's fighting against in the news business, while Altman is devastated by her attraction because he secretly yearns for Jane. As Grunick becomes a rising star at the network, and layoffs of the old guard loom, the three leads deal with their feelings for each other, their careers, and their values. Hunter, Hurt, and Brooks are all superb, as is the excellent supporting cast (including an unbilled turn by Jack Nicholson as the network's smarmy national anchor). Brooks' script is funny, poignant, gritty, and brutally honest in its examinations of the television industry and the ways in which professionals interact on and off the job. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
Review
A film as much about the nature of relationships as the world of television journalism, Broadcast News was one of the most timely films of the 1980s. Released during a decade notorious for its emphasis on making money, it provided a gently satiric commentary on people whose lives are driven by their jobs. That said, Broadcast News is far from being a cautionary tale: instead, it is a funny, touching portrait of three people in the midst of an often turbulent love affair with their work and, less occasionally, with each other. As the film's leads, Holly Hunter, William Hurt, and Albert Brooks give some of the most satisfying performances of their careers. Hunter brings poignancy to her tightly-wound, deeply conflicted, and often hilarious career woman, while Brooks is deeply likeable as a brilliant but lovelorn journalist. Hurt, meanwhile, oozes the potent but befuddled charm of a perpetual big man on campus; rather than make Gunric into a dim bulb caricature, he manages to give him an unburdened complexity. And in his brief, unbilled cameo as the network's unctuous national anchor, Jack Nicholson displays the sort of sharklike charm of which only he is capable. As a director, James L. Brooks is at his best here, injecting his film with warmth and insight. His take on relationships is a novel one--unlike many filmmakers, he is brave enough to show his audience that for some people, love is less of a priority in life than one of its unavoidable byproducts. True passion, he says with frank confidence, is as much the province of the newsroom as the bedroom. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, All Movie Guide
Peter Hackes - Paul Moore; Christian Clemenson - Bobby; Robert Katims - Martin Klein; Ed Wheeler - George Wein; Nat Benchley - Commander; Jonathan Benya - Clifford Altman; Joshua Billings - Chyron Operator; Amy Brooks - Elli Merriman; Leo Burmeister - Jane's Dad; John Cusack - Angry Messenger; Frank Doubleday - Mercenary; Marita Geraghty - Date-Rape Woman; Gennie James - Young Jane; Dwayne Markee - Young Aaron; Stephen Mendillo - Gerald Grunick; Stuart Pankin; Kimber Shoop - Young Tom; Martha Smith; Steve Smith - Aaron's Cameraman; Robert Walsh - NATO Spokesman; Jane Welch - Anne Merriman; Marc Shaiman - News Theme Writer; Raoul Rizik - Assistant Director; John Badila - Guest at Ball; Luis Valderrama - Guerilla Leader; Ellen Chenoweth; Maura Moynihan - Makeup Woman; Richard Thomsen - Gen. McGuire; David Long - Donny
Credit
Kristi Zea - Art Director, Kristi Zea - Associate Producer, Ellen Chenoweth - Casting, Penney Finkelman Cox - Co-producer, Molly Maginnis - Costume Designer, Yudi Bennett - First Assistant Director, James L. Brooks - Director, Barbara Marks - Editor, Richard Marks - Editor, David Rawlins - Editor, Polly Platt - Executive Producer, Bill Conti - Composer (Music Score), Michael Gore - Composer (Music Score), David Lester - Production Designer, Charles Rosen - Production Designer, Michael Ballhaus - Cinematographer, James L. Brooks - Producer, Jane Bogart - Set Designer, Thomas D. Causey - Sound/Sound Designer, Jery Hewitt - Stunts, James L. Brooks - Screenwriter
The film revolves around three characters who work in television news. Jane Craig (Hunter) is a talented producer who tries to conceal how important it is for her to be found sexually attractive by a handsome man who epitomizes everything about television news that appalls her. Jane's best friend and frequent collaborator, Aaron Altman (Brooks), is a gifted writer and reporter ambitious for on-camera exposure, who is secretly in love with Jane, and embittered by her rejection of him. Tom Grunick (Hurt), a local news anchorman who was up until recently a sports anchorman, is charismatic and telegenic but denied self-respect due to his intellectual limitations, of which he is all too aware. He is attracted to Jane, although he is also intimidated by her skills and intensity. The emotional triangle formed by these three disparate people and their different career paths form the basis for the film's storyline.
The film contains bits of business that are a send-up of TV journalism's egos on the one hand, and a tribute to the immediacy with which the medium can infuse news events on the other. Many of its detailed observations of public affairs TV are extremely accurate.
The score was by Bill Conti. Emmy Award-winning composers Glen Roven and Marc Shaiman make cameo appearances as a dorky musician team who have composed a theme for the news program in the film.
Broadcast News was given a limited release on December 18, 1987 in seven theaters where it managed to gross USD $197,542 on its opening weekend. It went into wide release on December 25, 1987 in 677 theaters, grossing $5.5 million on its opening weekend. The film went on to make $51.3 million in North America and $16.1 million in the rest of the world for a worldwide total of $67.3 million.[2]
Reviews
The film was very well-received by critics with an 97% rating at Rotten Tomatoes and an 84 metascore at Metacritic. Film critic Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four stars and praised the film for being as "knowledgeable about the TV news-gathering process as any movie ever made, but it also has insights into the more personal matter of how people use high-pressure jobs as a way of avoiding time alone with themselves".[3] In his review for the New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "As the fast-talking Aaron, Albert Brooks comes very close to stealing Broadcast News. Mr. Brooks ... is more or less the conscience of Broadcast News".[4]Jonathan Rosenbaum, in his review for the Chicago Reader, praised Holly Hunter's performance as "something of a revelation: her short, feisty, socially gauche, aggressive-compulsive character may be the most intricately layered portrait of a career woman that contemporary Hollywood has given us".[5] Hal Hinson, in his review for the Washington Post, wrote, "Brooks is excellent at taking us inside the world of television, but not terribly good at analyzing it. He has a facile, too-pat approach to dealing with issues; there's still too much of the sitcom mentality at work".[6] In his review for Time, Richard Corliss praised William Hurt's performance: "Hurt is neat too, never standing safely outside his character, always allowing Tom to find the humor in his too-rapid success, locating a dimness behind his eyes when Tom is asked a tough question -- and for Tom, poor soulless sensation-to-be, all questions are tough ones".[7] The magazine also ranked Broadcast News as one of the best films of the year.[8]
