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James L.
Brooks is a man that I happen to truly regard as a genius.
Every one of his films that I have seen, I have loved (I haven't
seen I'll Do Anything, so I don't know how far this extends,
though). After the phenomenal critical and box-office success
he had with his feature film debut, Terms of Endearment, Brooks
focused his camera to an area behind the camera with Broadcast
News.
The film
is a fictional account of the lives of three people inside
a network news organization. There's the handsome, but dim,
reporter Tom (William Hurt). He knows he's got the looks and
charisma, but he also knows that he doesn't understand half
the news he reports. Aaron (Albert Brooks) is the very definition
of journalistic integrity. More interested in substance than
style, he unfortunately doesn't have the face for network
television. Between these two men is their producer Jane (Holly
Hunter). A woman who lives for her work and only with the
arrival of Tom does she see a world outside that of her career.
Broadcast
News is another type of film that doesn't have a real straight-through
storyline. It reflects more of a portion of these people's
lives than a narrative with a beginning, middle, and end.
The main focus and the heart of the film is the romantic triangle
between the three leads. Hurt is the face she wants but Brooks
has the mind she likes. These are people and situations that
we can all relate to and it is a testament to James L. Brooks
that he doesn't just make a movie every year, but rather he
waits until he's got a great movie to be made and then goes
ahead with it.
Broadcast
News is a fascinating look at a world that most people never
get to see. I'd liken this to what Garry Shandling did years
later with late-night and The Larry Sanders Show. All the
performances are perfect and garnered several acting nominations
to prove it. Plus any chance to see Albert Brooks and I'm
there. And look for Jack Nicholson in an unbilled role as
the network's anchor. Filled with smart dialog and witty situations,
Broadcast News is a great film in a world where not that many
get made.
Video: How Does The Disc Look?
After a
week of sub par Fox DVD releases, Broadcast News gets the
best treatment of the bunch I've seen, which is sad because
it's not that good. This is the first time the film has been
made available in widescreen, so fortunately this non-anamorphic
DVD is a new transfer. Lost with the new transfer is the all
too typical artifacting from older D2 masters. This gives
the picture a much smoother look overall.
Now the
bad news. Colors in this DVD are a bit too oversaturated with
fleshtones taking on an orange appearance. Black level is
good but the picture is altogether too dark and has poor shadow
detail with blacks and grays mixing together for a lack of
delineation between them. This is closer in presentation quality
to a standard laserdisc release with nothing to define a DVD
presentation.
Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?
As is typical
with dramas of the 1980s, Broadcast News has about as much
life in its Dolby 2.0 surround track as your evening news
does. The soundtrack does break into more directionality during
the Central American fire-fight, but not by much. Most of
the soundtrack is mono by design with stereo accompaniment
by the Bill Conti score. Still, every word is clearly understandable
with no distortion or masking. A French mono track is included
with Spanish and English subtitles.
Supplements: What Goodies Are There? The film's
theatrical trailer is included in full-frame mono. That's
it! This is an area that I think Fox really screwed up on
and if any of you have been reading my Crusader
columns, you'll remember that I was hoping to incite some
interest at Gracie Films on this title. That interest never
materialized. I thought a commentary track by James L. Brooks
would have been as entertaining as the one he did for As Good
As It Gets. Alas, we get none. Also, the terrific score by
Bill Conti has never been available for sale and I for one
have been looking and hoping for it for nearly twelve years
now. Another disappointing missed opportunity.
Parting Thoughts
Broadcast
News is a fantastic film, but unfortunately, there's nothing
here you couldn't get out of a VHS copy of it. Pretty sad.
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