Movies from the Heart—Broadcast News

Last week we looked at a film set in a newspaper office in New York City in His Girl Friday. But how we get our news has changed since 1940, hasn’t it? Today we get a lot of our news on the internet. When Broadcast News [1987], by James L. Brooks, was made, the internet hadn’t come into most of our lives yet, so while some people got their news from a few newspapers, most people got their news from television—from those nightly newscasts.

Remember those newscasts? Or if you don’t, imagine that time. The anchors on the national nightly news were treated like gods. Each of the three major networks at the time, ABC, CBS and NBC had a news anchor who manned the all- important nightly news. Most people would come home from work and watch it and the anchors became like family, like friends. But they were considered very smart friends, people whose opinions you trusted. Oh, and of course, they were all male until many years later.

It's odd when you think about it because the newscasters were really just reading the news. But most of them came from newspapers, so they wrote some of their own stories as well as delivering them. Interestingly, in England, for example, the people who broadcast the news on television are called “news readers” and they don’t have anything like the prestige newscasters in America have.

So when Broadcast News came along it became this window into the world of TV news that none of us knew that well. And though a woman still isn’t an anchor in this 1987 production, a woman, Jane, is a producer—and a good one. She’s not the boss, but she’s up there. And she’s super-principled, is bummed that news is becoming more like entertainment and believes news should be serious, should be news. But a new reporter, Tom, is brought in to anchor the news and he doesn’t write the news at all—he’s just, well, not very bright. But he’s super attractive and looks great on camera. Contrast this with another reporter at the station, Aaron, who imbeds himself in the middle of wars—he’s a true reporter.

Take a look at the trailer for the film.

Jane and Aaron are great friends, but he’d like to be more. And even though Jane doesn’t respect Tom as a newsman she sees him trying to better himself, and he’s SO attractive, that she falls for him big time.

So the question that drives the film is - what do you do when your principles collide with your desires?

As you’re writing your romantic story, ask yourself if you can summarize the major thrust of the film, the major dilemma if you will, in one sentence like that. Because you really need to be able to do that if you’re going to tell the story.

Next week's film is set in the world of politics where, as in Broadcast News, principles come up against desire for power in a little charmer called Dave.

Copyright © Diane Lake

08Dec24

Email Diane a question to Diane@DianeLake.com