Collaborating once again with honors students from St. John Fisher University, Hollywood as Historian, as a class, seeks to focus on the fascinating ideological role that Hollywood in particular has played in shaping our vision of ourselves as Americans. As a film series, we narrow the focus to films about journalism, in which the participants on screen are, themselves, writing “the first rough draft of history,” as Washington Post publisher Philip L. Graham said in a 1963 speech to Newsweek correspondents. His widow, Kay Graham, is at the center of the opening film as she and her staff debate the merits of publishing the Pentagon Papers in The Post. From there, we move through modern history, exploring cover-ups and scandals through the fourth estate, and through film.
Dates and Titles:
March 25: Good Night, and Good Luck (George Clooney, US 2005, 93 min., 35mm)
April 8: The Post (Steven Spielberg, US 2017, 116 min., DCP)
April 15: Shattered Glass (Billy Ray, US 2005, 94 min., DCP)
April 22: Spotlight (Tom McCarthy, US 2015, 129 min., DCP)
Events in this Series
Spotlight (DCP)
Hollywood as Historian The controversial story of the Boston Archidocese’s cover-up of their priests’ criminality and the Boston Globe’s expose gets the Oscar-worthy treatment in this all-star drama. Robby Robinson (Michael Keaton) heads the “Spotlight” team at the Globe, a small group of investigative journalists that take months to research and publish.
Shattered Glass (DCP)
Hollywood as Historian Based on the New Republic scandal of the late-1990s, Hayden Christensen plays Stephen Glass, the youngest reporter on the magazine’s staff, and seemingly a star on the rise. Glass draws the attention of the editorial staff when elements of his story on young Republicans are unable to be verified.
The Post (DCP)
Hollywood as Historian In 1963, Washington Post publisher Philip L. Graham told assembled Newsweek reporters that journalism was the “first rough draft of history.”
Good Night, and Good Luck (35mm)
George Clooney directs and co-stars in this captivating story of legendary newsman Edward R. Morrow (David Strathairn), focusing on the exposé by Morrow and his CBS television staff—defended by CBS—that helped lead to the downfall of Senator Joseph McCarthy.