Forgotten Film Friday: The Paper

A review by Brooks Rich

I love movies about journalism. All the President's Men. Spotlight. His Girl Friday. The Front Page. The journalist is a fantastic character, always striving for the truth no matter what he or she might be up against. Today we highlight a journalism film from 1994 that has slipped through the cracks and has been relegated to the forgotten corner of cinema.

Michael Keaton is Henry Hackett, the metro editor of a small New York City newspaper called the New York Sun. His wife is pregnant and due in two weeks and the paper is facing the embarrassment of having been outscooped the day before. With the city wrapped up in a double murder, Henry attempts to get the paper an exclusive while also balancing his personal and professional life.

The cast in this is outstanding. Michael Keaton always makes a good journalist, whether it's a fiction one like Henry or real journalist, like Walter Robinson in Spotlight and Robert Wiener in Live From Baghdad. Henry's main antagonist is the managing editor Alicia Clark, played wonderfully by Glenn Close. The two butt heads constantly and one of the main themes of the movie is the two of them forgetting their journalistic integrity for the sake of a petty rivalry. Robert Duvall plays the editor in chief and Randy Quaid, in the middle of his big turn in the '90s before he lost his mind, plays a columnist in the middle of a feud with a city worker.

Director Ron Howard makes us feel the frenetic energy of a newspaper. We track through the main newsroom as we follow Henry to his office, watching as every other reporter and editor in the building comes up to him. Howard always has a solid visual eye and while The Paper isn't his most cinematic work, it's still a solid effort from him.

I love this movie even though it's played mostly for laughs and it focuses on a borderline sleazy newspaper. all the characters take pride in reporting the truth. Nothing gets printed unless it's true. That's the heart and soul of a good movie about journalism.... at the end of the day, nothing matters but the truth. No matter how uncomfortable it may be and no matter how much it might compromise their careers it’s the truth that counts.

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