A few about foreign correspondents:
**Foreign Correspondent ** – the classic pre-WWII Hitchcock thriller, with an average-Joe American newsman (Joel McCrae) sniffing out a [Nazi] diplomatic assassination conspiracy in Europe. At the end, he’s alerting the American public to the danger posed by Germany and eliciting identification with embattled Londoners. Granted, it’s more about the espionage plot than the journalism trappings, and you won’t learn much about journalism by watching it, but it’s a classic.
The Killing Fields – a New York Times foreign correspondent Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterson) manages to get out of Cambodia as Pol Pot overruns Phnom Pehn dials his country back to zero, but his buddy Dith Pran (Dr. Haing S. Ngor) is left behind to the death and “reeducation” camps… at least for a few years. Devastating.
Salvador – an American freelance[?] print journalist (James Woods) observes a civil war (and human rights train wreck) following the 1980 rise of a military dictatorship in El Salvador. Written & dir. by Oliver Stone.
Back at the office:
Between the Lines ('77) – the embattled staffers of a Boston alternative weekly paper try to fend off a corporate takeover. Good, young cast enliven this little-seen film, which to its credit strove for a realistic ambiance.
Network – the rise and fall of the ratings of the “Evening News – With Howard Beale” – at the 4th-ranked and 4th-rate “whorehouse network,” UBS, after a new executive producer (Fay Dunaway) shakes things up in the old boys’ club. Classic.
**The Mean Season ** – crime thriller set in mid-80’s Miami, with a serial killer cultivating a special relationship of sorts with a Miami Herald journalist (Kurt Russell), who is quite aware of the ethical complications of the arrangement. Too bad the gritty journalism nevertheless gets grounded down by the perfunctory workings of the crime-thriller plot mechanics.
**Switching Channels ** – remake of the Ben Hecht screwball “The Front Page,” updated from a tabloid to a local TV news production staff; with Kathleen Turner and Christopher Reeve gamely doing their best with some gamey material.
Adaptation – another Charley Kauffman-penned postmodern comedy, which is grounded loosely on an old-fashioned kernel of truth, with freelance writer Susan Orlean (Meryl Streep) on the orchid-thief beat, for The New Yorker.
And two movies touching upon dubious forms of journalism, both featuring Andie McDowall:
**Groundhog Day ** – local TV news crew does the same silly human-interest story, ad infinitum.
Michael – tabloid writers interview a guy (John Travolta) who’s said to be an angel. (I’ve never actually stuck with this one to see how it ends, so no review – but let’s just say it hasn’t exactly taken wing for me.)
