The Story: Broadcast News was James L. Brooks' first film since his extraordinary adaptation of Larry McMurtry's Terms of Endearment and it was full to bursting with good ideas. A smart film about smart people, it showed how even those with their wits about them can settle for the comfortable, how idealism can be steam-rollered for emotion, and how objectivity is an illusion where self-interest is concerned. And these are the people delivering to us what we need to know to run a representative democracy. Gosh, what do you think the ramifications of that might be? (Bear in mind this came out during the Reagan administration). These were issues that couldn't be brought up on the "Mary Tyler Moore" show, but no doubt Brooks was thinking about them. But you couldn't compare Ted Baxter with The Devil--it'd kill the comedic momentum (Brooks said that the three leads of Broadcast News each came up to him during shooting and asked "Is Tom The Devil?"). It is also one of those superbly written scenes where research informs character, where character informs humor, and where humor reveals truth. It's people using intellectual arguments to defend and disguise emotion. Note also Brooks' 'non-directorial" directing. Simple scene. But look how it's framed with Brooks and Hunter occupying their own spaces in the screen. How the architecture of the room is used--two doors to two rooms suggesting choices to be made, and how Hunter is usually situated on the landing, so she's higher--on a pedestal?--than Brooks (also it's practical to keep the elfin Hunter in frame with the taller Brooks). This is one of my favorite scenes in all of cinema, and it was delivered with consummate skill by Albert Brooks, who was amazing throughout the entire movie. Even he hasn't written himself something this good to display his talents.
The Set-up: Aaron (Albert Brooks) and Jane (Holly Hunter) work for a DC news network--he as a reporter, she as a producer. They are young, driven, devoted, idealistic and neurotic as all hell. They are also the best of friends. Then Tom (William Hurt) is hired on a fast-track to an anchor position. Tom is practical, without much depth, preppy-handsome and shallowly earnest. Where Aaron and Jane use story to evoke emotion, Tom just uses emotion. Tom and Jane are attracted to each other, while Aaron thinks he's a big phony. Tonight is an important night for Jane. She and Tom are going on a Big Date, but she makes the mistake of visiting Aaron to console him after a disasterous try-out as a week-end anchor. When Aaron sees her dressed up for her date with Tom it is too much to take and he angrily kicks her out of his house. But as she reaches the door, he regrets it.
Action!
Aaron: Come back here. C'mon. Don't go.
(Aaron goes outside, gathers himself, and re-enters)
Aaron: Aaaaah, Jane! Okay. Let's take the part that has nothing to do with me.
Aaron: Let me just be your trusted friend now, the one that gets to say all the awful stuff, okay?
Jane: I guess? Yes.
Aaron: You can't end up with Tom. Because it totally goes against everything that you're about.
Jane: Yeah. Being a basket case...
Aaron: I know you care about him. I've never seen you this way with anybody, so don't get me wrong when I tell you that Tom...
Aaron:...while being a very nice guy...
Aaron:...is the devil.
Jane: (She's had it. She gets up to leave) This isn't friendship. You're crazy, you know that?
Aaron: What do ya think the devil's gonna look like if he's around?
Jane: God...
Aaron: Come on, no one's gonna be taken in by a guy in a long, red pointy tail.
Aaron: Come on, what's he going to sound like (Snarls and claws)
Aaron: No. I'm semi-serious here.
Jane: You're serious that--
Aaron: He will be attractive, he'll be nice and helpful.
Aaron: He'll get a job where he influences a great, God-fearing nation.
Aaron: He'll never do an evil thing, he'll never deliberately hurt a living thing. He'll just, bit by little bit, lower our standards where they're important.
Aaron: Just a tiny bit. Just coax along flash over substance. Just a tiny little bit.
Aaron: And he'll talk about all of us "really being salesmen."
(She turns away)
Aaron (sourly): And he'll get all the great women.
Jane(at the door): Hey, Aaron? I think you're the devil!
Aaron: You know I'm not!
Jane (Gets in his face): How?!
Aaron: Because I think we have the kind of friendship where if I were the devil, you'd be the only one I'd tell!
Jane: Well, you were awful quick to run after Tom's help when you--
Aaron: All right! Fine! Yes!
Aaron: And if things had gone well for me tonight then I probably wouldn't be saying any of this.
Aaron: I grant you everything!
Aaron: But give me this: He personifies everything that you've been fighting against.
Aaron: And I'm in love with you. (Jane is taken aback)
Aaron: How do you like that? I buried the lede.
(He falls back on the couch exhausted)
Aaron: I've got to not say that out loud.
Aaron: It takes too much out of me.
Aaron: I never fought for anyone before.
Aaron: Does anyone win one of these things?
Broadcast News
Words by James L. Brooks
Pictures by Michael Ballhaus and James L. Brooks
Broadcast News is avaialble on DVD on Fox Home Video
In Search of Charlie Parker
or
Goose-Stepping to a Different Drummer
Whiplash is a movie about crazy people.
In other words, it's about musicians.
Not entirely fair, that. But, it would seem to be the attitude of Whiplash, which tells the story of an ambitious student (Miles Teller) at a music academy. A devotee of Buddy Rich (superb drummer, but a bit of a prick), Andrew Nieman is studying drums with the idea to perfect his technique, constantly practicing, hammering away at the skins until his fingers bleed. But, at the moment, he's merely an alternate in the second string jazz ensemble, not a "core" player. The best he can do is turn the core's pages.
One day bursts in Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons in a performance that only be described as un-medicated, making you worry he'll have a stroke on-screen), the leader of the school's award-winning jazz group. He's recruiting new players and puts all prospects through withering, if brief, auditions. When he's through, he dismisses the core player and puts Andrew in the hot seat. Andrew lasts a little longer and is told "Room B16. 6 am. Don't be late."
Of course, he is, arriving an hour late. But no one's there. At 7:59 am, the band starts to crash in, taking their places and quickly prepping. At precisely 8, Fletcher walks in the room, removes his hat and coat and earplugs. Time to begin. The class is sitting at attention, waiting for him to raise his arm and wave a count. He announces the first piece and they begin.
Things don't progress very far. Andrew, turning the core's pages, observes as Fletcher starts the group and cuts it off. "This one really upsets me. We have an out of tune player." He scans the band like an eagle looking for a salmon. He asks for the offending player to confess. Silence. "This is your chance..." then a minute pause. "...and there it goes." He singles out an overweight trombone player and spits out a series of withering insults until the humiliated student runs out of the room. Fletcher brightens and addresses the class. "For the record, Wentz wasn't out of tune. You were, Erickson. That he didn't know is bad enough."
And that's Fletcher in a playful mood. Over the course of the movie, he will talk up, talk down, harangue, berate, persecute, scream, threaten and play his jazz band like they were his own personal slaves. They're buck privates and he's the sadistic DI. As a conductor, he doesn't conduct himself very well. Chairs will be thrown as well as tantrums, and drummer Andrew Nieman is the one he attacks in triple time.
Nieman is fair game. He's already a perfectionist, arrogant enough to expect the best of himself, unsure enough to keep raising his own personal bar that he might never achieve. The duet the two play is a discordant battle of wills that's mutually destructive. At some point, the music gets lost in the scuffle...
But one is always drawn in by the work of music supervisor Andy Ross (the intricate score is by Justin Hurwitz and it's a subtle stunner) and writer-director Damien Chazelle who constructs the musical sequences out of bits and pieces of intricate camera moves and pointed insert shots. Those sequences are impressive, exciting and prove him to be (at least) an interesting video director, building suspense and paying it off. His script sat on The Black List for a couple years until he was encouraged to make a short (with Simmons as Fletcher) that impressed film festival crowds enough to encourage financing a feature.
Short "presentation" films are well and good, but Whiplash is a sustained effort that so impresses that one suspects that Chazelle could become more than second-string, and step up to be a major player.
Jane(really upset): This is important to me!
Aaron: I think it's important for you, too! C'mon. Sit down. Siddown.
Jane (sits down on some magazines): What is this?
Aaron (irritated): I'll take it. (sighs)
Jane: What?!
Aaron: Give me one minute, please. This is tough! .jpg)
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