Journalism stars rising
Two new films focus on the news biz: Robert Redford’s ‘Truth,’ and ‘Spotlight’ about the Catholic Church scandal
Landmark moments in American journalism are dominating cinema this fall. First up is Truth (opens Friday in New York and Los Angeles, expands nationwide Oct. 30), a story that digs into Dan Rather’s legacy, starring Robert Redford as the CBS anchor. Mark Ruffalo and Rachel McAdams go into the trenches in Spotlight (Nov. 6), which tracks Boston Globe journalists as they investigate the Catholic Church pedophilia scandal. USA TODAY’s Andrea Mandell stacks the two big screen tales up.
‘TRUTH’
THE BIG STORY: Truth focuses on events preceding Rather’s final CBS sign-off in 2005, spurred by his controversial 60 Minutes questioning George W. Bush’s pre-Vietnam service in the Texas Air National Guard. When documents that verified Bush’s absence were discredited, Rather’s contract wasn’t renewed and his longtime producer Mary Mapes (Cate Blanchett) was fired.
TRICKIEST ELEMENT: “They know what he looks like, what he sounds like,” says Redford, who watched Rather’s newscasts to prepare. “I had to be careful not to do a caricature but get the essence.” Director James Vanderbilt decided to forgo prosthetics and simply grayed Redford’s hair. “We didn’t set out to restore Dan’s legacy,” Vanderbilt says. “If ( Truth) is having any kind of impact, it’s because people are reminded of the breadth of this man’s work.”
HOW THEY DID IT: Vanderbilt came across an excerpt of Mapes’ book, Truth and Duty: The Press, The President and the Privilege of Power, in Vanity Fair. “I was really taken with it,” he says. “I’ve always been passionate about journalism.” But Mapes was hesitant to sell the movie rights. “She was still sort of in a defensive crouch from what had happened,” he says.
INSIDE THE NEWSROOM: “The title is about what everyone is trying to get to,” Vanderbilt says. “How the sausage is made, how our news stories are baked, prepared and served to us.”
ADVICE FROM JOURNOS: “It was an unbreakable loyalty,” the actor recalls Rather telling him. “The shock and despair (was) when they broke that loyalty.”
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING: Industry experts are eying Cate Blanchett as a possible Oscar acting nominee. “Blanchett gives this dynamo of intelligence and doggedness a real human dimension that allows the propulsive drama to breathe,” The Hollywood Reporter wrote.
‘SPOTLIGHT’
THE BIG STORY: Spotlight dives headfirst into the Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation by
The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team as they uncover a systematic cover-up by the Catholic Church to protect abusive priests. To date, the church has spent more than $3 billion addressing the crisis.
TRICKIEST ELEMENT: Sifting through binders stuffed with hundreds of articles about the scandal published by the Globe. “Basically, we spent a lot of time investigating the investigation,” says director Tom McCarthy.
HOW THEY DID IT: The challenge was transporting the audience back to a time before there was knowledge of the abuse. Inside the Globe, “there was not a naiveté toward the Church, but no one had any idea of the scope of the crime,” an investigation that began with a dozen abusive priests and ballooned to 90 in the Boston area alone.
ADVICE FROM JOURNOS: A host of personalities are juggled in Spotlight, including no-non- sense new editor-in-chief Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber); Ben Bradlee Jr. (John Slattery), the deputy managing editor initially wary of the investigation; a protective Spotlight editor (Michael Keaton); and his gaggle of intrepid reporters (Ruffalo, McAdams and Brian d’Arcy James). “There’s a particular kind of culture that develops” in a newsroom, says McCarthy, based on “sharing, privacy, ego and randomness.”
INSIDE THE NEWSROOM: Spotlight invaded the Globe’s morning news meeting. The goal? “Let’s pass their litmus test.” Three weeks before production, “we sat with the reporters and went line by line, scene by scene” for accuracy, McCarthy says.
WHAT CRITICS ARE SAYING: Variety puts Spotlight in the mold of “slow-building, quietly gripping journalistic procedurals” such as All the President’s Men.
Deadline reports “many pundits are already declaring Spotlight a best picture front-runner.”