Cinema Lounge, a film discussion group, takes place at 7:00 PM at Barnes and Noble, 555 12th St., NW in Washington, DC (near the Metro Center Metro stop). The group meets informally on the second floor in the open dining area, seated at round dining tables. You do not need to be a member of the Washington DC Film Society to attend.

Cinema Lounge is moderated by Daniel R. Vovak.

Journalism in Movies

On August 10, 2009, the attendees of the Cinema Lounge discussed "Journalism in Movies." I must admit that this column is written from Paris while I am on vacation, dining at an outdoor cafe. Next to me (on a sidewalk) is a journalism stand frequented by many people, proving there are still places in this world where news-on-paper has value.

The Front Page (1931 & 1974) and His Girl Friday (1940) set early standards for movies about journalism. Yet it was not until 1976 when movies in a pre-Internet journalistic era found their new standard with Network (1976) and All the President's Men (1976). Network (1976) is an unforgettable satire, with a mostly-unknown cast but a piercingly strong theme. Ironically, it was a movie that mocked journalism from the inside, though thirty-some years later it seems like a realistic portrayal of the new business of today.

All the President's Men (1976) featured Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman who portrayed actual reporters at The Washington Post whose Democratic political bias ultimately led to attack President Nixon for being aware of a trite breaking-and-entering charge by a handful of men at Democratic National Headquarters at the Watergate Apartments. The reporters painstakingly try to solve the mystery, seemingly unaware that the Republicans could be behind it. Unskilled at solving the mystery on their own, the reporters find an FBI agent ("Deep Throat") to rat out the President, whom he has sworn to serve and protect. (To show my lack of political bias, I would encourage screenwriters to write about the Iran-Contra Affair under President Reagan, as it was far more worthy of a movie topic and journalism in the '80s.)

The Paper (1994) is an excellent movie 90% true to actual journalism, staring Robert Duvall, Glenn Close and Michael Keaton. They work for The Sun, a fictional New York tabloid modeled on the New York Post. The film is probably the best portrayal of life inside the print journalism industry. However, I am certain that no newspaper would have stopped the press so late in the night for such a seemingly small erroneous detail!

Citizen Kane (1941) is the greatest movie of all time because it spoke truth to power. Imagine a modern movie playing honestly with the mostly-secretive lives of Rupert Murdoch or Ted Turner. Such was the case of Orson Welles with William Randolph Hearst in Citizen Kane. Perhaps only today's Michael Moore has such a credible film resume, though his style is with documentary-like movies.

Also brilliant is Deadline USA (1952), with Humphrey Bogart, a fictionalized version of the death of the NY World. Absence of Malice (1981) is about ethics and the consequences of printing damaging information. The Killing Fields (1984) is a true story of photographer Dith Pran and a reporter during the fall of Laos and its aftermath. Broadcast News (1987) is about what is fake in the news business. The Pelican Brief (1993) stars Denzel Washington as a newspaper reporter, mixing children into journalism. The Truman Show (1998) is not really about journalism, but about America's television culture and its invasion into people’s personal space. Shattered Glass (2003) focuses on media ethics and how easy it is to ignore newsroom faults in media. It's based on the true story of Stephen Glass at the New Republic.

Good Night and Good Luck (2005) is the story of Edward R. Murrow and his fight against McCarthyism. Catch the scene when he smokes on air, a sin under the new MPAA rules. The Devil Wears Prada (2006) is an advertisement-driven movie focused about the fashion magazine. A young woman reporter is duped by a veteran journalist (Meryl Streep), who uses the naive reporter to further Streep's agenda and save Streep's job (and reputation within the industry). Lastly, I should note that Superman (1978) and Spiderman use journalists as superheroes. Both movies had many sequels and proved to be highly profitable.