Negativity and hate can spread like wildfire, but our newspapers and online outlets also have the ability to force real, positive change. One of the reasons I wanted to get into the world of journalism was the idea of investigative reporting—chasing down leads and making a difference in society. The power of the media, as evident as ever in modern-day society, has long been a fascination of the big screen.
Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight (2015) might just be my favourite film of all time (along with Celine Song’s Past Lives (2023)). As inspiring as it is heartbreaking, it can be difficult to put into words just how much this film means to me, from top to bottom.
It’s easy to see Spotlight as just another movie, but a roundtable with Marty Baron and the rest of the real-life investigations team in a bonus DVD feature hammers home the devastation of its narrative.
Mark Ruffalo, who portrays Boston Globe reporter Mike Rezendes, a member of the Spotlight team, shows enough sheer compassion and empathy in his eyes alone to make this a career-best performance, in my opinion. His emotional rants and tangents are oh-so-moving, particularly those delivered to Walter Robinson (Michael Keaton) in the Spotlight office.
Dialogue and flow are key in a screenplay like this, and it never fails to wow me on each rewatch. That flow allows the film to become a true piece of storytelling- we don’t see different scenes put together to make one big project but instead, we see a truly touching story unfold piece by piece.
With each major revelation, the gentle rise of music and the increase in urgency of the reporters on-screen echoes the importance of the events.
While the film as a whole is a masterpiece, there are certain moments that particularly stand out. One scene sees Matt Carroll (Brian d’Arcy) racing home after discovering a so-called ‘treatment centre’ for the offending priests almost on his doorstep. Hearing Carroll explain in the roundtable that this actually happened, that he really did stick a picture of this house to his fridge with a warning to his children to avoid it, displays the real gravity of the situation. Later, a choir of children singing ‘Silent Night’ just months after 9/11 is a tear-jerking scene that speaks again to the story’s layers of anguish.
Ruffalo and d’Arcy James aren’t the only outstanding performers; the entire cast are on their absolute A-game, to devastating effect.
I only recently stumbled across a fascinating titbit that links Spotlight to two other icons of the genre, that link being the Bradlee family. John Slattery excels in playing Ben Bradlee Junior in Spotlight, a supervisor of the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation and battle to expose the Catholic Church.
His father, Boston-born Ben Bradlee Senior, was executive editor at The Washington Post for well over two decades, and features prominently in The Post (2017) and All the President’s Men (1976), depicted by Tom Hanks and Jason Robards respectively.
Bradlee Senior played a significant role in peeling back the curtain on both the Vietnam War and the Watergate Scandal, the latter being particularly fascinating to me despite taking place well before I was born.
‘Journalism’s Finest 2 Hours and 16 Minutes’ was the headline used by Ken Ringle in The Washington Post to describe All the President’s Men over 30 years ago. Whilst some bits are most definitely over-dramatized, he says, it “remains the best film ever made about the craft of journalism and an eerily accurate evocation of the mood and psychology.”
The literal darkness of Bob Woodward’s (Robert Redford) car park rendezvous does a great job of depicting the figurative darkness of his journalistic mission, embarked upon with Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman).
Strong writing is at the heart of good journalism, and it is also at the heart of a good journalism-based film. The flow is brilliant in Alan J. Pakula’s masterpiece, just as it is in Spotlight, with both scripts elevated by great leading performances.
All the President’s Men is a particularly fascinating insight into pre-internet journalism; people are on the run to share messages, and characters are fiercely tapping away on typewriters as they seek to get the news out. This is also the case in The Post, although the modern edge of Steven Spielberg’s work, released more than 40 years later, takes away from the old-school authenticity.
The 2017 release sees The Washington Post, with Ben Bradlee at the helm, pitted against The New York Times—at least at first. Without giving too much away, the strength of unity and numbers comes to the fore eventually.
Similarly to Watergate, The Post’s subject of the Vietnam War is a topic that has kept people talking for decades. These two films reveal little details that non-Americans like myself haven’t always been aware of, particularly regarding the involvement of the US government. The Post seems to end where All the President’s Men begins which is another little nugget of information that tickles the right part of the brain.
At times, The Post feels a little too polished and borders on cheesy, particularly when compared to Spotlight, but it still takes the viewer on a fascinating ride through a journalistic breakthrough like no other. Matthew Rhys delivering the line, “Wouldn’t you go to prison to stop this war?” to Bob Odenkirk is powerful, and underlines the quintessential strength of the film.
“This kind of story is why we do this,” Baron says to the Spotlight team at the height of the drama, and these kinds of films make me want to follow in their footsteps. The ability to make a difference in the world with the work you do and the idea of giving voices to the voiceless will always inspire me massively.
Honourable mentions: She Said (2022), Network (1976), Citizenfour (2014), Shattered Glass (2003) and Good Night, and Good Luck (2005).
Words by Jamie Rooke
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