James L. Brooks’ romantic comedy is amazingly prophetic in its views of where the world of journalism and broadcast news programs were headed even back in the Reagan 80s. It poses the question, “Since when has news been entertainment?” and then answers that it has always been about entertainment. This bit of a reality punch has only grown more true over the years with the rise of cable news and streaming services that aren’t beholden to FCC restrictions the way broadcast programs are.
I have never worked for a television studio nor a news network, but I know people who have, and the consensus is that this is an accurate depiction of the behind-the-scenes of such shows. It’s also an excellent look at the kinds of people it takes to make this happen. It takes a special kind of person to make a successful career in such a high-stress environment, someone who thrives with deadlines always right around the corner. Such a person, given an open deadline, would falter because the drive inside them needs that euphoria that comes from rushing to meet an impending deadline. They’re not procrastinators but are drawn to the feeling of impending success or failure should they miss that deadline. People like that often burn bright for a time and then eventually burn out.
They also generally thrive on being alone, away from commitments in life that distract from their professional one, even if they are not fully aware that that is what they are doing. As this film opens, we see three children, all of them driven in one way or another. Two of them are very smart, and the third tries but doesn’t get the grades. This third individual learns that there is another thing that the world values, even above smarts: good looks. This third individual is Tom Grunick (William Hurt), who grows up to be hired at the Washington, D.C. Bureau of a national TV network despite lacking experience and not being especially bright. Instead, he is photogenic and handsome.
His hiring upsets Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), who is smart, talented, but socially awkward. Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) doesn’t like that Tom was hired despite being unskilled in the work, but her intellectual side is being overruled by her human side, which finds him attractive and desirable. Aaron and Jane have a long-standing relationship that is somewhat flirty but never gets beyond that point. Meanwhile, Jane is pursuing Tom romantically while realizing that he represents what she hates about the shifting functions of the news, becoming more of an entertainment venue than simply reporting. On top of all of this is the news that there may be a significant round of layoffs in the newsroom, and everyone is concerned that they will be out of jobs in the near future.
This is right in James L. Brooks’ wheelhouse. A film tackling social issues but keeping the tone lighthearted without sacrificing its message. Network, a 1976 film about a similar subject, tackles things in a more dark tone than this but is nevertheless hitting the same beats, just in a different way. While both take aim at their targets sharply, the tone of Broadcast News makes it feel less barbed and more accessible to the general audience.
This film was advertised as being about a romantic triangle, and to a degree, it is. But that description is only partially true, as the triangle in the film is merely a part of a much bigger picture. These three people toy with the concept of love, but in their hearts, there is a deeper obsession, one for making television. The love aspect of the story feels more like a cry out for physical intimacy over the actual need for companionship. Jane, who is the most brassy of the three, is also the most vulnerable. On more than one occasion, we see her alone in her room, breaking down in sobs for just a moment before pulling herself together again. She calls up Arthur in the night for brief and to-the-point conversations, but there is a hint of flirtation in those conversations that never really goes anywhere. It’s there to sell us on their traits and who they really are deep down.
Arthur is seen as too much of a team player to ever excel in the cutthroat business of news anchor. He wants the anchor position but gets let down when Tom is chosen instead to air a special report about military tensions in Italy despite his inexperience. Jane is chosen to be his executive producer, feeding him dialogue through an earpiece. Arthur, devastated, stays home but cannot resist calling into the station to give her pertinent information that she can pass on to Tom that makes his report a great success.
Later, though, Arthur gets his own chance to anchor a report when most everyone else is off at a White House Correspondents’ Dinner. This proves disastrous as he cannot avoid sweating profusely on camera, leading to many viewers writing in concerned for his health. Being competent and smart aren’t enough to make it in the world of modern television journalism; gone are the days of yore when people tuned in for the news. Now they just want a pretty face telling them what to feel and believe.
When Broadcast News came out in 1987, this shift was just beginning to happen. Tom represents that shift; a man who manipulates stories to get a response rather than just show what has actually happened. We see this explicitly when he edits an interview with a rape victim to include a shot of him moved to tears, something that he filmed after the fact. This kind of gotcha journalism is now the norm and is only going further down that rabbit hole. There were moments where the Don Henley song Dirty Laundry came to mind, especially the references to the “bubble-headed bleached-blonde, comes on at five. She can tell you ‘bout the plane crash with a gleam in her eye.” It’s an apt description of Tom.
Jack Nicholson makes a glorified cameo appearance in the film as the face of the news network, the Bill O’Reilly type anchor who gets paid millions while the rest of the staff is downsized due to budget cuts. In a bit of acerbic wit, a joke is thrown out about how the downsizing would be unnecessary if he gave up a small portion of his millions in salary. This landed hard then and is even more hard now as workers starve while their CEOs rake in record profits. Nicholson is uncredited here, electing to work for free just to get another chance to work for James L. Brooks, who had directed him recently in Terms of Endearment and would do so again in As Good As It Gets, both films that earned him Oscars for his acting.
While Broadcast News may have a cynical edge to it, it also has a melancholic view on a time that has fallen into the past, a time when television journalism was more about telling the truth and not about sensationalizing a story and vomiting it out to us from the mouth of a model barely qualified to read the teleprompter. That message is given to us through a series of characters that are so well written and performed that we can identify with them even if what drives them doesn’t necessarily drive us. Integrity and honesty clash with profitability in this case, and when that happens, corporations follow the money.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: James L. Brooks
Best Actor: William Hurt
Best Actress: Holly Hunter
Best Supporting Actor: Albert Brooks
Best Original Screenplay: James L. Brooks
Best Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus
Best Film Editing: Richard Marks
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Release Date: December 25, 1987
Running Time: 133 minutes
Rated R
Starring: William Hurt, Albert Brooks, and Holly Hunter
Directed by: James L. Brooks
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