The Paper (film)

Last updated
The Paper
The Paper movie poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography John Seale
Edited by
Music by Randy Newman
Production
company
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date
  • March 18, 1994 (1994-03-18)
Running time
112 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$48.4 million [1]

The Paper is a 1994 American comedy drama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, Marisa Tomei, Randy Quaid and Robert Duvall. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song for "Make Up Your Mind", which was written and performed by Randy Newman.

Contents

The film depicts a hectic 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life. The main story of the day is two white businessmen found murdered in a parked car in New York City. The reporters discover a police cover-up of evidence that the Black teenage suspects in custody are innocent, and rush to scoop the story in the midst of professional, private and financial chaos.

Plot

Henry Hackett is the metro editor of the tabloid newspaper TheNew York Sun [lower-alpha 1] who loves his job, but has grown weary of the long hours and low pay. He also worries that he could become like his editor-in-chief, Bernie White, who put his work first at the expense of his family. Bernie reveals to Henry that he has been diagnosed with prostate cancer, and tries to track down his estranged daughter in an attempt to reconcile before his time is up.

Facing dire financial straits, the paper's owner has Henry’s nemesis, managing editor Alicia Clark, impose unpopular cutbacks. He is also clashing with his pregnant wife Martha, a fellow Sun journalist (currently on leave), over her fears that he won’t be around to help raise their child. She urges him to become an editor at the prestigious New York Sentinel, [lower-alpha 2] which would mean more money, respect, and fewer hours.

That morning, a hot story develops involving the murder of two white businessmen in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. A pair of African-American teenagers are arrested for the crime, but Henry and columnist Michael McDougal become skeptical after hearing cops criticizing the arrest on the newsroom police scanner.

Henry becomes obsessed with the case, pushing his staff to dig into the story. It leads him to blow his chances at the Sentinel when he cannot resist stealing information about the case while in the Sentinel newsroom interviewing for the job. Meanwhile, a source tells Martha that the businessmen were bankers who stole money from a reputed New York mobster, further convincing Henry that the Brooklyn youths were wrongly arrested.

Henry pushes to extend the deadline to get more time to nail the story, but Alicia refuses, citing the cost of overtime pay for the press workers and delivery truck drivers. With time running out, Henry and McDougal get a police detective to confirm that the suspects are innocent, and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Returning to the Sun, Henry confronts Alicia, who refuses to let him stop the presses and run the right story. They have an awkward fistfight before Alicia prevails, then fires Henry.

After having a drink with McDougal at a journalist watering hole, Alicia has a change of heart. But before she can reach the press room on a pay phone, she is hit in the leg by a stray bullet fired by a drunk city official who had gone to the bar to confront McDougal over columns attacking him.

Meanwhile, Henry arrives home just as Martha is being rushed to the hospital for an emergency cesarean section. As doctors prep Martha for surgery, in another part of the hospital, Alicia insists on calling the Sun to change the front page before allowing doctors to treat her.

The next morning, Alicia lies in her hospital bed reading a copy of the Sun with the headline “They Didn’t Do It!” Henry stops by the nursery to see his newborn son, then goes to Martha’s room. As he lies down with her, a news anchor on the bedside radio reports that the youths have been released thanks to the Sun's exclusive scoop.

Cast

Production

Screenwriter Stephen Koepp, a senior editor at Time magazine, collaborated on the screenplay with his brother David and together they initially came up with "A Day in the Life of a Paper" as their premise. David said, "We wanted a regular day, though this is far from regular." [2] They also wanted to "look at the financial pressures of a paper to get on the street and still tell the truth." [2] After they created the character of a pregnant reporter (played by Marisa Tomei) who is married to the metro editor, both of the Koepps' wives became pregnant. Around that time, Universal Pictures greenlighted the project.

For his next project after Far and Away (1992), director Ron Howard wanted to do something on the newspaper industry. Steven Spielberg recommended that he get in touch with David Koepp. Howard intended to pitch an idea to the writer, who instead wanted to talk about how much he loved the script for his 1989 film Parenthood . The filmmaker remembers, "I found that pretty flattering, of course, so I asked about the subject of his work-in-progress. The answer was music to my ears: 24 hours at a tabloid newspaper." [3] Howard read their script and remembers, "I liked the fact that it dealt with the behind-the-scenes of headlines. But I also connected with the characters trying to cope during this 24-hour period, desperately trying to find this balance in their personal lives, past and present." [4]

To prepare for the film, Howard made several visits to the New York Post and Daily News (which inspired the fictional newspaper in the film). He remembers, "You'd hear stuff from columnists and reporters about some jerk they'd worked with ... I heard about the scorned female reporter who wound up throwing hot coffee in some guy's crotch when she found out he was fooling around with someone else." [5] These types of stories inspired Howard to change the gender of the managing editor, a role that Glenn Close would later play. Howard felt the Koepps' script featured a newsroom that was too male-dominated. [6] The writers agreed and changed the character's name from Alan to Alicia but kept the dialogue the same. According to David Koepp, "Anything else would be trying to figure out, 'How would a woman in power behave?' And it shouldn't be about that. It should be about how a person in power behaves, and since that behavior is judged one way when it's a man, why should it be judged differently if it's a woman?" [6]

Howard met with some of the top newspapermen in New York, including former Post editor Pete Hamill and columnists Jimmy Breslin and Mike McAlary (who inspired the character played by Randy Quaid in the movie). They told the filmmaker how some reporters bypass traffic jams by putting emergency police lights on their cars (a trick used in the movie). Hamill and McAlary also can be seen in cameos. [5]

Howard wanted to explore the nature of tabloid journalism. "I kept asking, 'Are you embarrassed to be working at the New York Post? Would you rather be working at The Washington Post or The New York Times?' They kept saying they loved the environment, the style of journalism." [5] The model for Keaton's character was metro editor Richie Esposito of the Daily News. Howard said, "He was well-dressed but rumpled, mid-to-late 30s, overworked, very articulate and fast-talking. And very, very smart. When I saw him, I thought, that's Henry Hackett. As written." [3]

The director also was intrigued by the unsavory aspect of these papers. "They were interested in celebrities who were under investigation or had humiliated themselves in some way. I could see they would gleefully glom onto a story that would be very humiliating for someone. They didn't care about that. If they believed their source, they would go with it happily." [5]

In addition to being influenced by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur's famous stage play The Front Page , Howard studied newspaper movies from the 1930s and 1940s. Howard said, "Every studio made them, and then they kind of vanished. One of the reasons I thought it would make a good movie today is that it feels fresh and different." [7]

One of Howard's goals was to cram in as much information about a 24-hour day in the newspaper business as possible. He said, "I'm gonna get as many little details right as possible: a guy having to rewrite a story and it bugs the hell out of him, another guy talking to a reporter on the phone and saying, 'Well, it's not Watergate for God's sake.' Little, tiny – you can't even call them subplots – that most people on the first screening won't even notice, probably. It's just sort of newsroom background.'" [8]

Reception

Box office

The Paper was given a limited release in five theaters on March 18, 1994, where it grossed $175,507 on its opening weekend. It expanded its release the following weekend to 1,092 theaters where it made $7 million over that weekend. The film went on to gross $38.8 million in the United States and Canada and $9.6 million in the rest of the world for a total of $48.4 million worldwide. [1]

Critical response

The Paper received positive reviews from critics and holds an 89% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 37 reviews; the average rating is 7.2/10. The consensus states: "Fast and frenetic, The Paper captures the energy of the newsroom thanks to its cast and director on first-rate form." [9] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 70 out of 100 based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [10] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F. [11]

In his review for The Boston Globe , Jay Carr wrote, "It takes a certain panache to incorporate the ever-present threat of your own extinction into the giddy tradition of the newspaper comedy, but The Paper pulls it off. There's no point pretending that I'm objective about this one. I know it's not Citizen Kane , but it pushes my buttons". [12] Peter Stack of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote, "In the end, The Paper offers splashy entertainment that's a lot like a daily newspaper itself – hot news cools fast." [13] Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "B" rating and Owen Gleiberman praised Michael Keaton's performance: "Keaton is at his most urgent and winning here. His fast-break, neurotic style – owlish stare, motor mouth – is perfect for the role of a compulsive news junkie who lives for the rush of his job." But Gleiberman felt that the film was "hampered by its warmed-over plot, which seems designed to teach Henry and the audience lessons". [14]

In her review for The New York Times , Janet Maslin was critical of the film. "Each principal has a problem that is conveniently addressed during this one-day interlude, thanks to a screenplay (by David Koepp and Stephen Koepp) that feels like the work of a committee. The film's general drift is to start these people off at fever pitch and then let them gradually unveil life's inner meaning as the tale trudges toward resolution." [15] Rita Kempley, in her review for The Washington Post , wrote, "Ron Howard still thinks women belong in the nursery instead of the newsroom. Screenwriters David Koepp of Jurassic Park and his brother Stephen (of Time magazine) are witty and on target in terms of character, but their message in terms of male and female relations is a prehistoric one." [16]

In an interview, New York journalist and author Robert Caro praised The Paper, calling it "a great newspaper movie." [17]

Year-end lists

Notes

  1. ↑ This newspaper is fictional. The real New York Sun merged with another paper in 1950, but the film version shares the same masthead. Since the film's release, a new incarnation of the Sun appeared, also using the masthead.
  2. ↑ Based on The New York Times .

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ron Howard</span> American filmmaker and actor (born 1954)

Ronald William Howard is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and actor. Howard started his career as a child actor before transitioning to directing films. Over his six-decade career, Howard has received multiple accolades, including two Academy Awards, six Emmy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and a Grammy Award. He was awarded the National Medal of Arts in 2003 and was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 2013. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for his contributions in film and television.

<i>Chicago Tribune</i> Major American newspaper, founded 1847

The Chicago Tribune is an American daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper", a slogan from which its once integrated WGN radio and WGN television received their call letters. As of 2023, it is the most-read daily newspaper in the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and the ninth-largest newspaper by print circulation in the United States.

The Daily Bugle is a fictional New York City tabloid newspaper appearing as a plot element in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Daily Bugle is a regular fixture in the Marvel Universe, most prominently in Spider-Man comic titles and their derivative media. The newspaper first appeared in the Human Torch story in Marvel Mystery Comics #18. It returned in Fantastic Four #2, and its offices were first depicted in The Amazing Spider-Man #1.

<i>Chicago Sun-Times</i> Daily newspaper in Chicago, Illinois

The Chicago Sun-Times is a daily nonprofit newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has long held the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the Chicago Tribune.

<i>The Baltimore Sun</i> Daily broadsheet newspaper in the US

The Baltimore Sun is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local, regional, national, and international news.

<i>Los Angeles Times</i> American daily newspaper covering the Greater Los Angeles area

The Los Angeles Times is a daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles area city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the nation and the largest in the Western United States with a print circulation of 118,760. It has 500,000 online subscribers, the fifth-largest among U.S. newspapers. Owned by Patrick Soon-Shiong and published by California Times, the paper has won over 40 Pulitzer Prizes since its founding.

<i>Daily Star</i> (United Kingdom) British daily tabloid newspaper published by Reach plc.

The Daily Star is a tabloid newspaper published from Monday to Saturday in the United Kingdom since 1978. In 2002, a sister Sunday edition, Daily Star Sunday was launched with a separate staff. In 2009, the Daily Star published its 10,000th issue. Jon Clark is the editor-in-chief of the paper, while Andrew Gilpin is editor of the web version.

<i>National Enquirer</i> American supermarket tabloid published by American Media, Inc.

The National Enquirer is an American tabloid newspaper. Founded in 1926, the newspaper has undergone a number of changes over the years. The National Enquirer openly acknowledges that it pays sources for tips, a common practice in tabloid journalism that results in conflicts of interest. It has also been embroiled in several controversies related to its catch and kill practices and allegations of blackmail. It has struggled with declining circulation figures because of competition from other glossy tabloid publications.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Koepp</span> American screenwriter (born 1963)

David Koepp is an American screenwriter and director. He is the ninth most successful screenwriter of all time in terms of U.S. box office receipts with a total gross of over $2.3 billion. Koepp has achieved both critical and commercial success in a wide variety of genres: thriller, science fiction, comedy, action, drama, crime, superhero, horror, adventure, and fantasy.

<i>Newsday</i> American daily newspaper founded in 1940

Newsday is a daily newspaper in the United States primarily serving Nassau and Suffolk counties on Long Island, although it is also sold throughout the New York metropolitan area. The slogan of the newspaper is "Newsday, Your Eye on LI", and formerly it was "Newsday, the Long Island Newspaper". The newspaper's headquarters are located in Melville, New York.

<i>The Sun</i> (New York City) American daily newspaper (1833–1950)

The Sun was a New York newspaper published from 1833 until 1950. It was considered a serious paper, like the city's two more successful broadsheets, The New York Times and the New York Herald Tribune. The Sun was the first successful penny daily newspaper in the United States, and was for a time, the most successful newspaper in America.

A newsroom is the central place where journalists—reporters, editors, and producers, associate producers, news anchors, news designers, photojournalists, videojournalists, associate editor, residence editor, visual text editor, Desk Head, stringers along with other staffers—work to gather news to be published in a newspaper, an online newspaper or magazine, or broadcast on radio, television, or cable. Some journalism organizations refer to the newsroom as the city room.

<i>-30-</i> (film) 1959 film by Jack Webb

-30- is a 1959 film directed by Jack Webb and starring Webb and William Conrad as night managing editor and night city editor, respectively, of a fictional Los Angeles newspaper, loosely based on the real-life Los Angeles Herald-Examiner.

<i>Telegram & Gazette</i> Newspaper in Worcester, Massachusetts

The Telegram & Gazette is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as the Telegram or the T & G, offers coverage of all of Worcester County, as well as surrounding areas of the western suburbs of Boston, Western Massachusetts, and several towns in Windham County in northeastern Connecticut.

<i>Scandal Sheet</i> (1952 film) 1952 film by Phil Karlson

Scandal Sheet is a 1952 American film noir directed by Phil Karlson. The film is based on the 1944 novel The Dark Page by Samuel Fuller, who himself was a newspaper reporter before his career in film. The drama features Broderick Crawford, Donna Reed and John Derek.

<i>A Beautiful Mind</i> (film) 2001 film by Ron Howard

A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical drama film about the mathematician John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics, played by Russell Crowe. The film is directed by Ron Howard based on a screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, who adapted the 1998 biography by Sylvia Nasar. In addition to Crowe, the film's cast features Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer in supporting roles. The story begins in Nash's days as a brilliant but asocial mathematics graduate student at Princeton University. After Nash accepts secretive work in cryptography, he becomes liable to a larger conspiracy, through which he begins to question his reality.

Dylan Howard is an entertainment journalist and media executive. He is best known for his work as editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer tabloid between 2014 and 2020, a period in which he oversaw a number of scandals involving powerful figures.

<i>Deadline – U.S.A.</i> 1952 film by Richard Brooks

Deadline – U.S.A. is a 1952 American film noir crime film and starring Humphrey Bogart, Ethel Barrymore and Kim Hunter, written and directed by Richard Brooks. It is the story of a crusading newspaper editor who exposes a gangster's crimes while trying to keep the paper from going out of business; he is also attempting to reconcile with his ex-wife.

Stephen Koepp is a journalist, editor, and entrepreneur. As co-founder and Chief Content Officer of From Day One, a conference series and media outlet focusing on corporate values, Koepp is a regular media commenter on the relationship between companies and their employees, customers, and community As a business publication, From Day One produces news and original reporting on topics of corporate social responsibility, human resources, marketing, and communications, and is accredited by SHRM and HRCI. From Day One's conferences often feature academics, journalists, and authors, in addition to business leaders.

Journalism has been depicted frequently throughout the 20th century in American pop culture media, such as motion pictures and television. For decades, movies about journalism either have criticized bad journalism or celebrated good journalism. Since the 1930s, more than 100 films have had a journalism theme or recounted journalism history. Because of the early 20th century beginnings in the newspaper industry in the United States, these films focused on the print industry. After the 1976 release of “All the President's Men,” an increased number of young people inspired by the watchdog and investigative function of newspapers entered journalism programs at colleges and universities. As television and radio news launched into prominence in the 1960s and later, more movies about broadcast journalism were produced.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Paper". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  2. 1 2 Schaefer, Stephen (March 27, 1994). "New edition competes with small screen, too". Boston Herald .
  3. 1 2 Arnold, Gary (March 27, 1994). "Tabloid press gets the Ron Howard touch in The Paper". Washington Times .
  4. ↑ Uricchio, Marylynn (March 25, 1994). "Opie's Byline: Paper Director Ron Howard was drawn to Keaton's Style, Newsroom's Buzz". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette . p. 29. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Kurtz, Howard (March 27, 1994). "Hollywood's Read on Newspapers; For Decades, a Romance With the Newsroom". The Washington Post .
  6. 1 2 Schwager, Jeff (August 13, 1994). "Out of the Shadows". Moviemaker. Archived from the original on November 14, 2006. Retrieved 2007-04-16.
  7. ↑ Dowd, Maureen (March 13, 1994). "The Paper Replates The Front Page for the 90's". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  8. ↑ Carr, Jay (October 10, 1993). "Director Ron Howard goes to press with The Paper". The Boston Globe .
  9. ↑ "The Paper (1994)". Rotten Tomatoes . Fandango Media. Retrieved June 29, 2024.
  10. ↑ "The Paper". Metacritic . Retrieved 2023-09-01.
  11. ↑ "Search for 'The Paper'". CinemaScore . Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  12. ↑ Carr, Jay (March 25, 1994). "The Paper gets the story right". The Boston Globe .
  13. ↑ Stack, Peter (March 25, 1994). "Extra! Extra! Paper Really Delivers!". San Francisco Chronicle .
  14. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (March 18, 1994). "The Paper". Entertainment Weekly . Retrieved June 29, 2024.
  15. ↑ Maslin, Janet (March 18, 1994). "A Day With the People Who Make the News". The New York Times . Retrieved 2010-03-05.
  16. ↑ Kempley, Rita (March 25, 1994). "Stop the Presses! Roll The Cameras! It's The Paper". The Washington Post . Retrieved 2007-05-08.
  17. ↑ Robbins, Christopher (17 Feb 2016). "Robert Caro Wonders What New York Is Going To Become". The Gothamist. Archived from the original on 4 January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2016. ... you know there's another movie, called The Paper. ... Robert Duvall [plays] this editor very much like the editor who I said didn't want to hire anyone from the Ivy League ... It's a great newspaper movie.
  18. ↑ Sheid, Christopher (December 30, 1994). "A year in review: Movies". The Munster Times . Munster, Indiana.
  19. ↑ Mayo, Mike (December 30, 1994). "The Hits and Misses at the Movies in '94". The Roanoke Times (Metro ed.). p. 1.
  20. ↑ Carlton, Bob (December 29, 1994). "It Was a Good Year at Movies". The Birmingham News . p. 12-01.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.