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Know Your J-Jargon

off-camera reporter: One who gathers news for television but does not report on the air. News Reporting & Writing (Eighth Edition) by the Missouri Group. Copyright 2005. Reproduced by permission of Bedford/St. Martins.

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Reviews for Movies

	Title	Author	Latest Edition	Star Rating
	I Love Trouble	Charles Shyer	1994	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 717951003126
Summary and User Comments: Two competing news reporters, one seasoned and one green, ultimately join forces to uncover a company’s cancer-causing secrets. Although the two start out competitive, they end up cooperating to try to get the story. Not very realistic -- the reporter played by Julia Roberts shows up in high heels to cover a train wreck. Rated PG. Comment on I Love Trouble
	Up Close and Personal	Jon Avnet	1996	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 717951003447
Summary and User Comments: Although this story of a journalist's rise to fame tells of the struggles of a beginning reporter, it is clouded by the romantic escapades of its two main characters. It conveys the accelerated journey of a young journalist who works her way up the proverbial food chain to become a top network reporter. Rated PG. Comment on Up Close and Personal
	Broadcast News	James L. Brooks	1987	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 086162128936
Summary and User Comments: When intense, super-smart producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter) falls for pretty boy anchor Tom Grunick (William Hurt), she seems to be overlooking his emphasis on entertainment over news values and even ethics – things that have always mattered to her. Add to that dilemma talented – and ethical – newsman Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), who really cares for Craig, and the result is a romantic comedy. Rated R. Comment on Broadcast News
	-30-	Jack Webb	1959	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC:
Summary and User Comments: A campy day in the life of a newspaper managing editor involving family crises, wide-ranging activities and personal issues. As one reviewer says, "Highly implausible." However, if you are an aficionado of the work of Jack Webb, William Conrad and/or "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet's" David Nelson, this film is for you. Comment on -30-
	His Girl Friday	Howard Hawks	1940	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 084296401406
Summary and User Comments: Based on the play The Front Page, this movie is an example of Hawks's rapid-fire, overlapping dialogue in what one reviewer calls "the fastest-moving comedies ever filmed." The tyrannical editor becomes likable as the movie progresses. Starring Cary Grant, Rosalind Russell and Ralph Bellamy, the film presents the stereotypical newsroom at its funniest. Comment on His Girl Friday
	The Paper	Ron Howard	1994	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 025192001123
Summary and User Comments: Although this tale of a rough and tumble New York City tabloid may lack a little realism, it makes up for that with lots of heart and a good deal of emphasis of the importance of getting the story. Workaholic assistant managing editor Harry Hackett (Michael Keaton) comes up against his deadline, lack of a solid source and the views of his man-hating boss (Glenn Close) — and he almost loses his very pregnant wife and former reporter (Marissa Tomei) in the process. Rated R. Comment on The Paper
	Network	Sidney Lumet	1976	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 027616672025
Summary and User Comments: A TV network exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor’s ravings and revelations about the media for its own profit. A film raises classic ethical questions as well as lasting phrases and one-liners -- like the famous directive to open the windows and yell outside, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Biting satire by Paddy Chayefsky, this film won four Academy Awards. Rated R. Comment on Network
	Live From Baghdad	Mick Jackson	2002	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 026359202827
Summary and User Comments: During the first Gulf War, CNN was the only U.S.-based television news network to have journalists reporting from Kuwait and Iraq every day. This film tells how the only embedded journalists reporting from Baghdad battled to be there when U.S. forces began dropping bombs. Comment on Live From Baghdad
	The Year of Living Dangerously	Peter Weir	1982	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 027616663825
Summary and User Comments: An Australian journalist covers the Indonesian civil war of 1965 while having an affair with a diplomat. Stars Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver. Rated PG. Comment on The Year of Living Dangerously
	A Mighty Heart	Michael Winterbottom	2007	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 097363505242
Summary and User Comments: Set in Karachi, Pakistan, this film conveys not only the chaos of the city, but the chaos encircling a wife desperate to find her husband. Mariane Pearl, wife of the late Daniel Pearl, is played by Angelina Jolie, as she struggles to locate the people responsible for kidnapping her husband. With a mixture of English and Arabic (with no subtitles) viewers can truly sense the struggles of a journalist and his family during wartime. This film shows how good journalists risk everything to tell the truth, especially in the context of a seemingly unending war, in which the lines between allies and enemies are blurred. Note: There is frequent use of the "F" word. Rated R. Comment on A Mighty Heart
	Citizen Kane	Orson Welles	1941	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 053939656527
Summary and User Comments: Called a “timeless masterwork” and rated #1 in the American Film Institute’s 1998 list of Best American Movies, Citizen Kane explores the rise and fall of an influential publishing tycoon, loosely based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. Disc two chronicles the battle over the film between Hearst and creator Orson Welles. Rated PG. Comment on Citizen Kane
	Shattered Glass	Billy Ray	2003	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 031398117049
Summary and User Comments: Stephen Glass presents a side of journalism our students don’t often consider: What happens when you don’t play by the rules? This true story follows his fall from grace as an editor of “The New Republic” magazine. Glass, in his apparent effort to please everyone from his editors to his peers to his high school journalism teacher, gets caught fabricating stories, and the movie follows the slow, steady unraveling of his deception. A “60 Minutes” interview with the real Glass at the end of the DVD adds to discussion possibilities. Rated PG-13. Comment on Shattered Glass
	The Front Page	Billy Wilder	1974	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 018713810205
Summary and User Comments: It's a remake of a version that’s even older (1931), but “The Front Page” with Jack Lemmon and Walter Mathhau is a sometimes-amusing but less-than-authentic look at a Chicago newsroom in the 1920s. Hildy (Lemmon) is the reporter who can dig the dirt and crank out the front-page stories, but he decides to chuck it all, get married and move to Philadelphia. Not quite yet, says his editor (Matthau) because there’s a big story right now – a walk to the gallows for a cop killer. Rated PG. Comment on The Front Page
	State of Play	Kevin Macdonald	2008	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 025195040075
Summary and User Comments: A nod to old-school beat reporting. When D.C. reporter Cal McCaffrey is assigned to investigate the murder of an assistant to an up-and-coming politician, he uncovers a conspiracy that threatens to bring down the nation’s power structures. In a town of spin-doctors and wealthy power brokers, he will discover one truth: when fortunes are at stake, no one’s integrity, love or life is safe. Russell Crowe, Ben Affleck, Helen Mirren and Rachel McAdams. Rated PG. 127 minutes Comment on State of Play
	Deadline U.S.A.	Richard Brooks	1952	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC:
Summary and User Comments: Crusading New York editor Ed Hutcheson (Humphrey Bogart) is about to lose his paper when owners want to sell it to a rival. But a big story breaks, and he fights to get the news out at the same time he tries to win back his estranged wife (Kim Hunter). Comment on Deadline U.S.A.
	Sweet Smell of Success	Alexander Mackendrick	1957	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 027616862969
Summary and User Comments: This is the story of J.J. (Burt Lancaster), a world-famous columnist who makes those in government and the entertainment industry panic when he "covers" their comings and goings. Rated PG. Comment on Sweet Smell of Success
	The China Syndrome	James Bridges	1979	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 043396015999
Summary and User Comments: While doing a routine story on alternative power sources, a reporter witnesses an accident at a nuclear power plant and has to face attempts to keep the incident secret. Nominated for four Oscars with Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon and Michael Douglas. Rated PG. Comment on The China Syndrome
	The Killing Fields	Roland Joffe	1984	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 085391141921
Summary and User Comments: Working with a Cambodian reporter and translator Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg (played by Sam Waterston) covers the events of the Khmer Rouge massacre in Cambodia during Pol Pot's bloody "Year Zero" ethnic cleansing. The movie won three Oscars. Rated R. Comment on The Killing Fields
	The Insider	Michael Mann	1999	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 717951007391
Summary and User Comments: True story of a scientist and tobacco company executive who comes under fire for talking with “60 Minutes” after signing a confidentiality agreement with his employer. The piece was eventually shelved because of corporate pressures. Rated R. Comment on The Insider
	Good Night, and Good Luck.	George Clooney	2005	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 012569806160
Summary and User Comments: The black and white images add to the impact of this look at the man many consider the father of broadcast news. Edward R. Murrow, played convincingly by David Strathairn, took on U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy. The movie captures the ethical issues Murrow and his team faced and the stresses that put on their lives. It’s an authentic view of the times, right down to the 1950s television equipment and Murrow’s ever-present cigarette. Rated PG. See also: http://hsbj.org/learning/gnagl.php. Comment on Good Night, and Good Luck.
	All the President's Men	Alan Pakula	1976	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 012569734012
Summary and User Comments: Based on the Woodward/Bernstein book about Nixon administration attempts to control information about covert activities, the film won four 1976 Academy Awards. DVD includes special features of who was Deep Throat. Some profanity. Rated R. Comment on All the President's Men
	Foreign Correspondent	Alfred Hitchcock	1940	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 085393186227
Summary and User Comments: An insubordinate city desk reporter is sent to London as a foreign correspondent where he gets involved with an international peace movement and also falls in love. Comment on Foreign Correspondent
	Salvador	Oliver Stone	1986	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 027616862822
Summary and User Comments: A journalist drives to El Salvador to cover the events of the 1980, including an assassination and military dictatorship. He has to deal with being used by all sides in the conflict. Rated R. Comment on Salvador
	Absence of Malice	Sydney Pollack	1981	1 2 3 4 5 Click on stars to assign your rating.
	ISBN/UPC: 5555282036
Summary and User Comments: Suppose you picked up this morning's newspaper and your life was a front page headline. And everything they said was accurate. But none of it was true. Paul Newman and Sally Field. Rated PG. Comment on Absence of Malice

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Reviews for Movies