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Total Votes: 6

Summary and User Comments:

A campy day in the life of a newspaper managing editor involving family crises, wide-ranging activities and personal issues. As one reviewer says, "Highly implausible." However, if you are an aficionado of the work of Jack Webb, William Conrad and/or "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet's" David Nelson, this film is for you.

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Total Votes: 2

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Set in Karachi, Pakistan, this film conveys not only the chaos of the city, but the chaos encircling a wife desperate to find her husband. Mariane Pearl, wife of the late Daniel Pearl, is played by Angelina Jolie, as she struggles to locate the people responsible for kidnapping her husband. With a mixture of English and Arabic (with no subtitles) viewers can truly sense the struggles of a journalist and his family during wartime. This film shows how good journalists risk everything to tell the truth, especially in the context of a seemingly unending war, in which the lines between allies and enemies are blurred. Note: There is frequent use of the "F" word. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 18

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Based on the Woodward/Bernstein book about Nixon administration attempts to control information about covert activities, the film won four 1976 Academy Awards. DVD includes special features of who was Deep Throat. Some profanity. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 7

Summary and User Comments:

When intense, super-smart producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) falls for pretty boy anchor Tom Grunick (William Hurt), she seems to be overlooking his emphasis on entertainment over news values and even ethics – things that have always mattered to her. Add to that dilemma talented – and ethical – newsman Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), who really cares for Craig, and the result is a romantic comedy. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 7

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Called a “timeless masterwork” and rated #1 in the American Film Institute’s 1998 list of Best American Movies, Citizen Kane explores the rise and fall of an influential publishing tycoon, loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. Disc two chronicles the battle over the film between Hearst and creator Orson Welles. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 6

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Crusading New York editor Ed Hutcheson (Humphrey Bogart) is about to lose his paper when owners want to sell it to a rival. But a big story breaks, and he fights to get the news out at the same time he tries to win back his estranged wife (Kim Hunter).

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Total Votes: 1

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An insubordinate city desk reporter is sent to London as a foreign correspondent where he gets involved with an international peace movement and also falls in love.

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Total Votes: 9

Summary and User Comments:

The black and white images add to the impact of this look at the man many consider the father of broadcast news. Edward R. Murrow, played convincingly by David Strathairn, took on U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. The movie captures the ethical issues Murrow and his team faced and the stresses that put on their lives. It’s an authentic view of the times, right down to the 1950s television equipment and Murrow’s ever-present cigarette. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 3

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Based on the play The Front Page, this movie is an example of Hawks's rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue in what one reviewer calls "the fastest-moving comedies ever filmed." The tyrannical editor becomes likable as the movie progresses. Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy, the film presents the stereotypical newsroom at its funniest.

Comment on His Girl Friday

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Total Votes: 2

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Two competing news reporters, one seasoned and one green, ultimately join forces to uncover a company’s cancer-causing secrets. Although the two start out competitive, they end up cooperating to try to get the story. Not very realistic -- the reporter played by Julia Roberts shows up in high heels to cover a train wreck. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 2

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During the first Gulf War, CNN was the only U.S.-based television news network to have journalists reporting from Kuwait and Iraq every day. This film tells how the only embedded journalists reporting from Baghdad battled to be there when U.S. forces began dropping bombs.

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Total Votes: 3

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A TV network exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor’s ravings and revelations about the media for its own profit. A film raises classic ethical questions as well as lasting phrases and one-liners -- like the famous directive to open the windows and yell outside, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Biting satire by Paddy Chayefsky, this film won four Academy Awards. Rated R.

Comment on Network

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Total Votes: 2

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A journalist drives to El Salvador to cover the events of the 1980, including an assassination and military dictatorship. He has to deal with being used by all sides in the conflict. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 13

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Stephen Glass presents a side of journalism our students don’t often consider: What happens when you don’t play by the rules? This true story follows his fall from grace as an editor of “The New Republic” magazine. Glass, in his apparent effort to please everyone from his editors to his peers to his high school journalism teacher, gets caught fabricating stories, and the movie follows the slow, steady unraveling of his deception. A “60 Minutes” interview with the real Glass at the end of the DVD adds to discussion possibilities. Rated PG-13.

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Total Votes: 1

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This is the story of J.J. (Burt Lancaster), a world-famous columnist who makes those in government and the entertainment industry panic when he "covers" their comings and goings. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 2

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While doing a routine story on alternative power sources, a reporter witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant and has to face attempts to keep the incident secret. Nominated for four Oscars with Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 3

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It's a remake of a version that’s even older (1931), but “The Front Page” with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathhau is a sometimes-amusing but less-than-authentic look at a Chicago newsroom in the 1920s. Hildy (Lemmon) is the reporter who can dig the dirt and crank out the front-page stories, but he decides to chuck it all, get married and move to Philadelphia. Not quite yet, says his editor (Matthau) because there’s a big story right now – a walk to the gallows for a cop killer. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 5

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True story of a scientist and tobacco company executive who comes under fire for talking with “60 Minutes” after signing a confidentiality agreement with his employer. The piece was eventually shelved because of corporate pressures. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 5

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Working with a Cambodian reporter and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (played by Sam Waterston) covers the events of the Khmer Rouge massacre in Cambodia during Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" ethnic cleansing. The movie won three Oscars. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 8

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Although this tale of a rough and tumble New York City tabloid may lack a little realism, it makes up for that with lots of heart and a good deal of emphasis of the importance of getting the story. Workaholic assistant managing editor Harry Hackett (Michael Keaton) comes up against his deadline, lack of a solid source and the views of his man-hating boss (Glenn Close) — and he almost loses his very pregnant wife and former reporter (Marissa Tomei) in the process. Rated R.

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Total Votes: 3

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An Australian journalist covers the Indonesian civil war of 1965 while having an affair with a diplomat. Stars Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver. Rated PG.

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Total Votes: 2

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Although this story of a journalist's rise to fame tells of the struggles of a beginning reporter, it is clouded by the romantic escapades of its two main characters. It conveys the accelerated journey of a young journalist who works her way up the proverbial food chain to become a top network reporter. Rated PG.

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