Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Journalism in the Movies

There's a lot to be said about Hollywood's ability to teach, instruct and inspire. Yup, I think we can learn volumes about journalism from watching some of the industry's top 'reporter' movies. Whether it's how to chase a story, or what not to do when reporting, journalism films can be a helpful—and sometimes hilarious—guide.

For Gordon's May Term, I taught Journalism in the Movies with our film professor, Toddy Burton. Here's a list of some of the films we watched (I bolded some of our favorites). If you haven't seen them, pick up your notebook (and popcorn) and take a look:

"Citizen Kane" Classic classic classic Wells (1941);
"His Girl Friday" The fun and the terrible aspects of old school journalism (1940);
"Sweet Smell of Success" Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis go dark in NYC (1957);
"Ace in the Hole" Kirk Douglass gets prophetic (1951);
"Deadline - USA" Bogart is a perfect editor in a perfectly bad film (1952);
"Network"  Faye Dunaway is evil and beyond 'Mad as Hell' (1976);
"All the President's Men" Redford/Hoffman make tenacious reporting look cool (1976);
"Broadcast News" Reporters IN the stories?? (1987);
"The Paper" Print lives . . . and makes you stressed! (1994);
"Shattered Glass" What young reporters should NEVER do (2003);
"Good Night and Good Luck" George Clooney's tribute to Edward R. Murrow (2005);
"State of Play" Russell Crowe's calloused but noble reporter (2009).