Broadcast News

Centred around the cut-throat environment of an American newsroom at a time when the focus of the bosses was switching from strong journalistic values to those more ratings-based, we are provided with this premiss. William Hurt ("Grunick") is certainly the more handsome man for the anchorman's chair, but he has nothing like the knowledge or gravitas of colleague and rival "Altman" (Albert Brooks) with his superior, borderline condescending on-screen style. Executive producer "Jane" (Holly Hunter) is charged with trying to keep things on an even keel, whilst unsure which, if either, of the two men she wants to date. At times there atmosphere here is electric, with quickly paced activity, acerbic wit and a wonderfully portrayed dog-eat-dog me...

"Broadcast News" is desperately overlong and it stubbornly insists upon indulging in irrelevant mini-prologues of the three main characters at the beginning which has absolutely no bearing on them as adults, but other than this the film does successfully provide a fascinating insight into the pressurised and competitive world of television journalism and it must be applauded for highlighting the unfortunate trend of elevating news anchors to celebrity status and they are out to sell news to the public as if it were nothing more than another product. This is an alarming turn of events when the image of the news anchor supersedes the importance of global events simply because they are capable of bringing in substantial viewing audiences for a...