After a fun opening in which we meet each of the movie's characters as little kids, BROADCAST NEWS settles into a love triangle following an ambitious TV news producer (Holly Hunter) and two reporters: idealistic, intellectual but unpolished Albert Brooks, and well-spoken and handsome but not-so-bright William Hurt. Actually, Hurt IS bright but he just doesn't write his own stories and doesn't know much about current events. And Brooks isn't exactly a schlub, but he is when put up against Hurt.
Aside from dealing with the love triangle, the movie also explores the changing nature of the news media at the time (1987) and the morals and ethics of journalism in general. It's actually a little sad to look back on what this movie considers scandalous, since things have just gotten so much worse. For instance, the idea of a pretty face reading the news, but not writing it or understanding it, is approached as completely foreign to these characters. Meanwhile that's par for the course, now. Also, a crucial plot point hinges on Hurt editing an interview to exploit and somewhat misrepresent the emotions involved in it, and this is a breaking point for Hunter when it would be a normal day at the office for most producers today, I'd imagine.
So, the movie is both ahead of its time and behind the times, as it was smart enough to question all this bullshit but idealistic enough not to realize things were about to become ten billion times worse.
The movie has both a smart and funny script as well as three incredible leads. Hunter is perfect at playing both tough and vulnerable, Brooks, as always, effortlessly does smart and sarcastic, and Hurt has possibly the hardest part of all, as he plays the pretty boy who should be easy to hate, but does it with enough humility and sincerity that you kind of root for him, some times. That's what makes a good triangle: if you pretty much like everyone involved. Even the supporting cast is good with Jack Nicholson as a slimy anchor and Joan Cusack as a devoted assistant.
There's a famous sequence in this film in which Hunter is feeding Hurt lines through an earpiece and the two click on an intimate level as they're able to cobble together a story in real time, live on television. It's a pseudo-sex scene in which the editing, acting and sound design all comes together to put together a symphony of feelings. This is the essence of cinema -- purely visual storytelling, from all departments coming together in collaboration.
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