STATE OF PLAY: Ink-stained scribe no longer Hollywood hero

UNIVERSAL PICTURES Enlarge Image 

Russell Crowe, left, and Rachel McAdams are reporters with different approaches.

Pen cocked, hat titled to rakish perfection and able to speak faster than a livestock auctioneer in a burning barn, the image of the hard-boiled reporter was once an integral part of Hollywood tradition.

The wily Everyman who could fight city hall -- and win -- thanks to a gift for humour and lightning-fast fingers, the big city reporter used to be the closest thing to a spandex-sporting superhero back in the days of newsreels and radio because he was endowed with the special powers of the Fourth Estate.

From Clark Gable's wisecracking journo Peter Warne in It Happened One Night to Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant trading zingers in His Girl Friday, journalists of yore appealed to the romantic, and generally righteous, sensibilities of the movie-going audience.

They were undeniable heroes without being saints, and by casting some of the most adorable people in show business as the inky, stinky and slightly pinky truth seekers behind the front page, Hollywood's seminal producers essentially cemented the place of the daily scribe into the foundation of the American ethos as a tool of democracy.

This is now, and things haven't been so rosy for the newsie of late -- despite a feisty resurrection of the journalist character in the new film State of Play (based on a 2003 BBC miniseries of the same name). Directed by Kevin Macdonald (The Last King of Scotland) and starring Russell Crowe as a veteran political reporter, State of Play picks up an old narrative model where the journo has the power, and the desire, to bring down a popular politician with high-powered connections to the biggest media conglomerates in the world.

"It's fascinating to look at the way journalists are depicted on screen," says Macdonald.

"I've been thinking a lot about it in the last few months and it's quite sad, really. As an organization, and as a culture, journalism really does seem to be on its last legs. Everything that newspapers represent is under threat, and it feels like we aren't all that concerned about it because people think something else will replace them," he says.

"That's true... but they won't be the same. We're going to lose something, and part of why I wanted to make this movie was to take a look at this changing (landscape) and what we might be missing in the near future."

The first thing Macdonald wanted to focus on was the image of the reporter, the old-fashioned brand of scribe who was part detective, part anarchist and partial to 40 per cent proof.

"Russell's character is a real throwback to the shabby journalist and the old days of print reporting -- and he rubs up against (Rachel McAdams') character, who is a blogger. They really are not the same things, and we get into that," says Macdonald.

"We also show why, sometimes, it's important to wait for the whole story: because sometimes the whole story is complex and can't be boiled down to a few blog lines. There's nothing wrong with blogging, but we should recognize that it's a different thing, and fulfils a different function, from standard newspaper reporting."

Macdonald says the once-noble pursuit of journalistic truth has been replaced by a perceived hunger for celebrity scandal, vacuous drivel about pop stars, and a sense of ennui with all things political, pressing or too time-consuming to adequately research.

But the decline of big media's truth mojo is part of a larger social shift that continues to redefine the qualities we believe to be important not just in a reporter, but in a human being.

Crowe and Macdonald give the anemic screen journo a valiant kick in the pants, but reanimating the place and purpose of the Fourth Estate on the big screen is going to take a lot more than a big-budget movie with big stars.

The general public will have to rediscover a love for the loudmouth reporter, and all the messy, unpleasant, and frequently complicated stories he or she is willing to bring to light -- regardless of who gets hurt.

-- Canwest News Service

MOVIE PREVIEW

State of Play

Starring Russell Crowe and Helen Mirren

Opens Friday

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition April 16, 2009 D8