Broadcast News



"Tom: You're an amazing woman. What a feeling, having you inside my head. Jane: Yeah, it was an unusual place to be. Tom: It's, like, indescribable. You knew just when to feed me the next line the second before I needed it. There was a rhythm we got into. It was like great sex."

A 1987 drama-comedy written, directed, and produced by James L. Brooks, Broadcast News tells the tale of three newspeople who get tangled in a Love Triangle. At one vertex, producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) leads her life in chronic emotional meltdown because of her obsessive-compulsive character. She's sexually attracted to but professionally repulsed by Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a simple reporter who landed his job solely on good looks and charisma. He only survives on live TV because Jane feeds him everything he needs to say through an earpiece. Meanwhile, the brilliant Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks) dreams of reporting evening news but his un-telegenic looks hold him back both from his ambitions and his crush on Jane.

All three share a slavish devotion to their work ? even Tom, ever aware of his low intelligence, wishes to someday cover a story without Jane's help. As Roger Ebert describes: "After Hunter whispers into Hurt's earpiece to talk him through a crucial live report on a Middle East crisis, he kneels at her feet and says it was like sex, having her voice inside his head. He never gets that excited about sex. Neither does she." Indeed, it's only because their romance gets tied up in the workplace's questions of journalistic standards and integrity that Jane, Tom, and Aaron's Love Triangle gets tenser and tenser.

Watching this character knot unravel is exciting due to both strong performances by the lead actors and an excellent screenplay by James L. Brooks. He frequently shifts from comedy to drama but his dialogue always shimmers: it's hard not to laugh at Jane and Tom's good-natured flirting on the one hand, while when Aaron presses Tom on his ignorance of basic world affairs the discomfort hangs like a dagger in the air.

Broadcast News kept low profile but was universally praised by critics, getting four stars from Roger Ebert and fifth place in Gene Siskel's favorite films of 1987. The movie was named to the National Film Registry in 2018.

"(on faking tears for a news item) Jane: You can get fired for things like that. Tom: I've been promoted for things like that."
 * An Aesop: The film is a searing indictment of declining news reporting standards. Over 20 years later, it looks more prescient than ever.

"Aaron: Can you believe it? I just risked my life for a network that tests my face with focus groups. (Beat) I don't feel good."
 * Book Ends: The film begins with vignettes of the three main characters in childhood, and ends with them seven years after the events of the movie (although they do not look appreciably aged in that scene).
 * Deadpan Snarker: Aaron, in spades.

"Paul: It must be nice to always believe you know better, to always think you're the smartest person in the room. Jane: (sincerely) No. It's awful."
 * And yet it doesn't seem like it was intended to be depressing.
 * Distant Finale: The last scene is set seven years after the end of the narrative.
 * Drowning My Sorrows: Aaron.
 * Gainax Ending
 * Insufferable Genius: Aaron and Jane. Jane is aware of her pushiness, however.

"Tom: I'm going to miss you... you're a prick in a good way... I'm sorry. Aaron: No, I liked how that made me sound."
 * I Resemble That Remark / Worthy Opponent: Subverted, slightly.

"Jane: It made me... ILL."
 * Love Triangle
 * Pull the Thread: Used by Aaron to get Tom to admit he doesn't know the members of the presidential cabinet.
 * Screw the Rules, I'm Beautiful: Tom advances in TV news on his looks despite never going to college and not knowing current events.
 * Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer: Jack Nicholson.
 * Smug Snake: Bill Rorich.
 * So Beautiful It's a Curse: Tom in a rare male example. As a child he resents being hit on by the waitresses in a restaurant.
 * The Ted Baxter: Subverted the hell out of. Tom knows he's coasting on his appearance. He still knows all of the tricks that Aaron doesn't know.
 * What the Hell, Hero?: