I saw Broadcast News with a buddy as part of a double-feature with Wall Street at the Jefferson Square Theater back in '87.
I've not watched ace provocateur Oliver Stone's Wall Street again since then, but have re-screened James L. Brooks' dramedy numerous times.
Those who know the film will recall that it ends with a mass firing of newsroom personnel from the Washington, D.C., office of a major television network.
Holly Hunter's high-strung / neurotic / perfectionist producer Jane Craig -- just the kind of person news organizations love, BTW -- is retained, as is her pal and confidante, high-utility reporter Aaron Altman (the always brilliant Albert Brooks). Promoted out of the D.C. office to a major slot in London is the pretty and dim Tom Grunick, a small-market sports reporter who finds himself batting 1.000 in the big leagues with the help of the previously mentioned Craig.
How these three cross paths and clash is the substance of this picture, which asks us to pull for the standard-bearers even though they have glaring personal blindspots.
Broadcast News is biting and brilliant and offers more than a little insight into the turbulent '80s, when style was winning over substance -- from Reagan's White House on down. Though Craig is swept up in the flash flood of superficiality, Altman tosses her a line of truth with which she saves herself and her integrity.
She confronts Grunick about his faking tears for a cutaway in an interview, saying he crossed the line of professional ethics. He responds, not ineffectively or untruthfully, "They keep moving that line though, don't they?"
Touche'.
And, sadly, here we are 40 years later. The line is not just moving, it's faded away.
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