The Paper (film)

This article is about the 1994 film. For The MTV reality show, see The Paper (TV series). For other uses, see Paper (disambiguation).

The Paper
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ron Howard
Written by	David Koepp Stephen Koepp
Produced by	Brian Grazer David Koepp
Starring	Michael Keaton Robert Duvall Glenn Close Marisa Tomei Randy Quaid Jason Robards Jason Alexander Spalding Gray
Cinematography	John Seale
Edited by	Daniel P. Hanley Mike Hill
Music by	Randy Newman
Production company	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date	March 18, 1994
Running time	112 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6 million
Box office	$38,824,341

The Paper is a 1994 American comedy-drama film directed by Ron Howard and starring Michael Keaton, Robert Duvall, and Glenn Close. The film depicts 24 hours in a newspaper editor's professional and personal life.

Plot

Henry Hackett is the metro editor of the New York Sun, a fictional New York City tabloid. He is a workaholic who loves his job, but the long hours and low pay are leading to discontent. He is at risk of experiencing the same fate as his Publisher, Bernie White, who put his work first at the expense of his family.

The paper's owner, Graham Keighley, faces dire financial straits, so he has Alicia Clark, the managing editor and Henry's nemesis, impose unpopular cutbacks. Henry's wife Martha, a reporter on leave and about to give birth, is fed up because Henry seems to have less and less time for her, and she really dislikes Alicia Clark. She urges him to seriously consider an offer from Paul Bladden to leave the Sun and become as an assistant managing editor at the New York Sentinel, a fictional newspaper based on The New York Times, which would mean more money, shorter hours, more respectability...but might also be a bit boring for his tastes.

A hot story confronts Henry with tough decisions, deadlines and personal crises. He literally has to yell "stop the presses" to correct an injustice, while his star columnist, McDougal, is threatened by an angry and drunk city official named Sandusky that McDougal's column had been tormenting for the past several weeks. Their drunken confrontation in a bar leads to gunfire. And Henry's wife is rushed to the hospital at the end of a wild 24 hours.

Cast

• Michael Keaton as Henry Hackett
• Robert Duvall as Bernie White
• Glenn Close as Alicia Clark
• Marisa Tomei as Martha Hackett
• Randy Quaid as Michael McDougal
• Jason Robards as Graham Keightley
• Jason Alexander as Marion Sandusky
• Spalding Gray as Paul Bladden
• Catherine O'Hara as Susan
• Lynne Thigpen as Janet
• Jack Kehoe as Phil
• Roma Maffia as Carmen
• Amelia Campbell as Robin
• Clint Howard as Ray Blaisch
• Geoffrey Owens as Lou
• Jill Hennessey as Deanne White
• William Prince as Howard Hackett
• Augusta Dabney as Augusta Hackett
• Bruce Altman as Carl

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." They also wanted to “look at the financial pressures of a paper to get on the street and still tell the truth.” After writing the character of a pregnant reporter married to the metro editor (that Marisa Tomei ended up playing in the film), both of the Koepps' wives became pregnant. Around this time, Universal Pictures greenlighted the project.

For his next project, Ron Howard was looking 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 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." 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.”

To prepare for the film, Howard made several visits to the New York Post and Daily News (which would provide the inspiration for 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." It was these kinds of stories that inspired Howard to change the gender of the managing editor that Glenn Close would later play. Howard felt the Koepps' script featured a newsroom that was too male-dominated. The writers agreed and changed the character's name from Alan to Alicia but keep 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?"

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 Randy Quaid’s character 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.

Howard wanted to examine 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.” The model for Keaton’s character was the Daily News' metro editor Richie Esposito. 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."

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.”

In addition to being influenced by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s famous stage play The Front Page, Howard studied old 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.”

One of Howard’s goals was to cram in as much information about a 24-hour day in the newspaper business as humanly 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.’”

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 later expanded its release to 1,092 theaters where it made $7 million over that weekend. The film went on to gross $38.8 million in North America and $9.6 million in the rest of the world for a total of $48.4 worldwide.

Critical response

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". 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.” 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 felt that the film was "hampered by its warmed-over plot, which seems designed to teach Henry and the audience lessons".

However, 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." 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."

External links

• The Paper at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie
• The Paper at Rotten Tomatoes
• The Paper at Box Office Mojo