Morning Glory poster
The newsroom has always been a perfect setting for a movie. It doesn't ever need to be about the newsroom itself, it can be about a subject seen through the eyes of the journalists trying to find out, it can be a way to convey a story in a different way. However, it can be a fantastic story about the workings of a news show. Morning Glory is released this weekend, which sees Rachel McAdams take on the running of a failing morning news show called Daybreak (yes, it's a coincidence). Harrison Ford and Diane Keaton are the warring presenters and McAdams needs to tame them somehow. We thought it was about time we gave you a neat little round-up, like we like to do, of the best newsroom movies. Good Night and Good Luck is the story of veteran news broadcaster Edward R. Murrow and his staff, as they show up and discredit the tactics Joseph McCarthy used to sniff out Communism in the government during the early cold war era. This is a perfect example of a film centering on a broader subject but told from the perspective of a newsroom during the era. The film was directed by and starred George Clooney, along with starring Robert Downey Jr and David Strathairn. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor. Robert Downey Jr also popped up in David Fincher's serial killer newsroom story, Zodiac. The killer sent letters to police and ciphers to newspapers, Downey Jr plays the crime reporter and Jake Gyllenhaal plays the cartoonist who becomes obsessed with solving the ciphers sent to the newspaper. The murders remain one of San Francisco's most prolific unsolved cases. If newsroom comedy or satire are more your thing, well, there's a couple of those too. Network follows news-anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) as the anchor of a failing news programme, given two weeks until he has to leave. On air he tells the audience that he will commit suicide the following Tuesday, he is fired, but allowed back for a farewell, his rants cause ratings to soar and they keep him on air. Network won three of the four acting awards at the Oscars, tying with A Streetcar Named Desire and also won Best Screenplay. Network also featured the first ever posthumously presented award for Best Actor for Peter Finch. It ranks in the AFI's Top 100 U.S. Films. Anchorman is one of the most recent newsroom comedies and definitely most commonly recognisable these days. Adam McKay's directorial effort follows the Channel 4 Evening News Team anchorman Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) and his fellow team members Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), Champ Kind (David Koechner) and Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) as they fight fellow news teams, party and deal with the introduction of a female co-anchor. The largely improvised comedy kick-started the careers of Steve Carell and Paul Rudd along with starting a fruitful partnership between Adam McKay and Will Ferrell which, although not reaching the heights of Anchorman, has produced such hits as Step Brothers and The Other Guys. This is the most ridiculous of newsroom comedies, but it doesn't matter, it doesn't stop it from being set in a newsroom and being very very funny. Back to the serious films once again though, The Insider is directed by Michael Mann and sees the trials and tribulations of a news programme seeing a story but being advised against it. A research biologist (Russell Crowe) is forced to honour a confidentiality agreement to a tobacco company, however he does an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes and risks Contempt of Court, CBS attorneys advise against showing the interview and so it is shelved, risking perjury on the part of the tobacco company. Al Pacino plays the producer of 60 minutes and the film was nominated for seven Oscars in total, although didn't win any. State of Play also starred Russell Crowe and is based on the BBC television series of the same name and is set in Washington D.C. following a journalists investigation into the suspicious death of a congressman's mistress. The film was described as a strong and credible thriller, although not being as good as the original mini-series, it was still given generally positive reviews by critics. All The President's Men won four Oscars and it told the story of the Watergate scandal from the point of view of the two journalists who discovered it, Woodward and Bernstein, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman. Chronicling one of the century's biggest scandals was always going to be a tough job on film and it was pulled off perfectly. Rightly taking its place amongst the top 100 films of the last 100 years, a list compiled by the AFI. Citizen Kane, sometimes classed as the best film ever made, had to make this list. It follows the story of Charles Kane, a wealthy media magnate who starts as an idealist but becomes a man hungry for power. Orson Welles played the man himself and directed, but really the film doesn't take place in a newsroom, however, it would be rude not to allow it onto the list, it's not as though its ego needs bigging up anymore though. So, there you have it, eight films you should watch to look at the newsrooms across the world (America) and you can see Morning Glory this weekend. You can see the English remake starring Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley every weekday morning on ITV.
FemaleFirst - James Butlin
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