Jeff M
I think this was the first time I really fell in love with a movie! I missed 18 months of high school because of a horrible case of mono at the time this movie came out on video. I was so smitten, I watched it at least once a day for probably a couple weeks. It was as perfect a movie as I had seen up to that point, and the three lead characters felt like part of my family. Hunter gives one of the great screen performances ever, in my opinion, and although the character was written for another actress (Debra Winger), you can't imagine anyone else in the part. The behind the scenes stuff is fascinating and seems authentic, the intelligent dialogue absolutely crackles, and this was the apex of James L. Brooks as a director, even superior to his Oscar winning TERMS OF ENDEARMENT. I still quote lines regularly from this film, and it will forever be etched in my movie-loving soul.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
01/22/24
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Donald A
The perfect mix between an art-house ending and an 80's romance, James L. Brooks' film "Broadcast News" is a true classic to behold. One could give Mr. Brooks an honorary film award simply for the ending, if one knew the backstory and controversy surrounding it. The three main stars, William Hurt, Holly Hunter, and Albert Brooks, contrive their performances into a surreal sort of being, acting out their roles to the utmost extent. Hunter's performance is the best in the picture, and deserves recognition for her hilarious ferocity. This film is brilliant.
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
11/01/23
Full Review
John E
Broadcast News (1987) provided audiences with two impressive accomplishments. The most important being a tight, well written, finely directed, and superbly acted story. The second accomplishment was casting Holly Hunter in a role that would provide her with a break-out performance she was very deserving of.
Jane Craig (Hunter) is a high-strung yet remarkably talented news director. She works closely with Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), a news correspondent whom she respects and trusts because of his knowledge, experience, and integrity. Aaron aspires to advance in his career but is held back because he's not as visually attractive as less qualified news employees and he lacks a confident demeaner. Enter Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a good-looking former sportscaster who is hired by the DC area network where Jane and Aaron work. Tom has been hired as a prime time news anchor based on his viewer appeal, not his experience or knowledge.
Tom is everything that Jane fears and despises for the future of the broadcast news industry. As profits become more important than integrity, the network places more value on style than actual substance and it seeks to elevate the inexperienced who poll better with viewers. Tom admits that he often doesn't understand the topics he's covering, yet he succeeds because he has Jane and Aaron feeding him information and questions through an earpiece. Eventually the three learn to co-exist, but their relationships are complicated when Aaron admits that he has romantic feelings for Jane, while simultaneously Jane is beginning to have a relationship with Tom.
The characters are well defined, and the plot digs deep into that period in young professional's lives when they are out to change the world and spend so much time at work that it muddies their personal lives as well, an experience that most viewers can relate to.
This movie came out shortly after the first 24-hour news network (CNN) began airing. Jane's fear of the future of news seems more real today than when the film was first released. We now have several 24-hour channels that label themselves as news, yet their entire broadcast days are filled with nothing but opinionated commentary and there's not a single real journalist in sight. In just the last few weeks we've learned that one of them (Fox) deliberately fed its viewers information it knew to be false, solely to increase ratings by telling much of its audience what they wanted to hear rather than what was true. This is a much more egregious betrayal of journalistic ethics than the staged tears that Tom serves up in the film when interviewing a victim of rape. A tear that would end his complicated relationship with Jane.
This film, its creators, and performers are all deserving of the many award nominations they received. It barely seems dated (ok, usage of VHS tapes aside!) and provides an extremely well crafted and satisfying ending.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
03/22/23
Full Review
david f
Intense scenes of television newsrooms are alternated with intense scenes of the romantic lives of the protagonists, making for an intense workplace comedy. I found it unique and interesting and I particularly enjoyed the coda where the main characters meet up a few years after the main action of the film. Also makes good use of the Washington D.C. setting-you really feel like you are in the political capital rubbing shoulders with its denizens.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
03/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Ages well even 35 years after release . Amazing performance by Holly Hunter and William Hurt
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/26/23
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William L
Half an hour in, you're settled in and thinking that Broadcast News is going to be terribly conventional - a woman finds professional success but cries at her desk in a sense of personal unfulfilment, while being courted by both an ambitious (and ruthless) career man and a clever, emotionally resonant, and frustrated investigative reporter. Stay tuned to find out which passion she will choose to indulge, or if she will throw down her hair and declare herself a strong, independent woman. Fortunately, James L. Brooks manages to surprise with a story that is much more realistic, passionate, checkered, and entertaining.
The first aspect that stands out is the dialogue, which feels not only authentic but surprisingly witty, particularly whenever Albert Brooks gets to flex his comedy chops. You get a real sense of the frustration and the hopefulness, nailing home actual character development and a sense of legitimate drama that seemed poised at the outset to be destined for cheap pulp, soap opera-style conflicts. Holly Hunter gives such a good combination of professionalism and personal shortcomings, it's really wonderful to see in a decade that was painfully afraid to depict female characters in anything but positions of firm control, the slightest sign of realistic character design opening up accusations of sexism. More representation is great, but lip service alone would be derogatory towards women in film; it's the complex, human roles that really showed the acceptance of female characters in the medium. The ending might be a bit neat and defrays some of the supposed stakes of the main plot, but it's not like you're not happy seeing the epilogue that Brooks delivers.
Probably has to be among my favorite William Hurt performances as well, I'm just so used to seeing him play virtually the same character archetype of a dry, often emotionally pained 30-something (Accidental Tourist, The Big Chill, even Kiss of the Spider Woman) that seeing some passion and happiness in one of his roles is a welcome change. (3.5/5)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
12/13/21
Full Review
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