During the first week of November, while the air was crisp and the weather was rainy, our journalism team gathered to watch “State of Play.” At first glance, it is a film revolving around two journalists, Della Frye, played by Rachel McAdams, and Cal McAffey, played by Russell Crow, who work to uncover the truth behind the scandal surrounding a friend, and politician, Stephen Collins, played by Ben Affleck.
With its multitude of plot lines, at times, this movie was hard to follow between all the different characters and their lies. But don’t let that dissuade you from sitting down in front of the television with a bucket of popcorn and some fun candy one night to watch this. Even through the confusion, this was a strong movie with overarching themes of justice, truth, and the fight to do what is right.
There’s usually a reason behind why we watch movies during classes, either learning lessons, getting historical context, but really any plethora of reasons. But in journalism, this movie was supposed to show us what journalism is all about; both the what to-dos and the big no’s. Skylar Vasko, current Journalism senior, thought that, “it was a very textbook journalist movie with the stacks of papers everywhere, but it was really good.”
Obviously, the film takes a dramatic spin on what real-life journalism would look like, but this movie teaches valuable lessons to those hoping to pursue a career in journalism, or even just those aspiring to be good people.
A major conflict throughout the movie occurred when journalists took their investigations too far. This included neglecting to include police in investigations, or at times, withholding evidence from the police in order to further their own story. This crosses a boundary that is very important to uphold-journalistic integrity.
Without giving away any major spoilers an important theme in “State of Play” was the credibility of the journalists and the people around them. We see this in life, credibility can be the breaking point between a good argument and an excellent one. Yes, someone can have a strong argument with amazing points, but if they lack credibility, or they’ve done something bad then the audience may not listen.
In typical journalism fashion, there’s often a surprise that hits the characters when it’s least expected. Senior Carson Hodges remarked that “The plot twist caught me off guard.” In the case of this movie, characters turned against characters, but also, as often happens, there is a sense of gratification for the viewer.
Ultimately, this movie reinforced the age-old idea of journalism as a fast-paced, constantly moving profession. However, after meeting real journalists at the National Journalism Conference in Nashville, I can attest that, often, journalism does not move at such a fast pace. That does not mean that it is not an interesting and exciting career; movies just exaggerate what it actually is.
