The 25 best films about journalists and reporters

Based on the play “The Front Page,” “His Girl Friday” features the outstanding chemistry of Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell as a newspaper editor and his former star reporter — who also happens to be his former wife. In order to keep her from moving away and marrying a dud, Grant convinces her to tackle one last story (in addition to various mischievous high jinks) in this 1940 classic screwball comedy.

Few Alfred Hitchcock films disappoint, and “Foreign Correspondent” from the 1940s is no exception. John Jones (Joel McCrea) is hired by a New York Globe editor looking for a fresh take on the impending arrival of World War II. Soon after, he witnesses a murder and suddenly finds himself in over his head. If he’s not careful, he’ll be the next victim in the grand conspiracy weaved by this classic, Oscar-nominated spy thriller.

Often referred to as one of the greatest films ever made, “Citizen Kane” centers on the life and death of media magnate Charles Foster Kane (played by Orson Welles, and loosely based on William Randolph Hearst) and the efforts of one reporter, Jerry Thompson (WIlliam Alland) to find the meaning of the mogul’s last word: “Rosebud.” Although robbed of all but one of its nine Academy Award nominations, the now-iconic “Citizen Kane” certainly didn’t suffer any because of the snub.

Critics weren’t kind upon its release, but “Ace in the Hole” has since become an acclaimed tale of a down-and-out newspaper reporter who gets one last shot at a big break, makes it, and then loses everything once again. Kirk Douglas takes the lead as Chuck Tatum in this 1951 drama, with Billy Wilder behind the camera and the script, along with co-writers Water Newman and Lesser Samuels.

“The Parallax View” is basically the worst-case scenario for a journalist. After a TV newswoman is killed, a newspaper reporter (Warren Beatty) begins investigating the case only to become a target himself. In the end, audiences discover things can get a lot worse than they thought was possible for Beatty’s character in this 1974 thriller.

Sidney Lumet’s 1976 satire “Network” tells the tale of TV news anchor Howard Beale, who is given his two weeks notice due to poor ratings. Instead of going out quietly, he rants against TV networks, ethics in business and society in general, which becomes a hit with viewers. Viewers begin repeating his mantra of “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” Starring Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, Beatrice Straight, William Holden, Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty, “Network” won four Oscars — including acting wins for Finch, Dunaway and Straight.

Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman portrayed Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the men responsible for uncovering the Watergate scandal and the eventual resignation of President Richard Nixon in 1974. At the time, the work of Woodward and Bernstein was called the single greatest reporting effort of all-time, and the movie, “All the President’s Men,” wasn’t too shabby either — especially since it was based on the duo’s book of the same name. Although the political thriller lost its Academy Award nomination for Best Picture to “Rocky,” it won four of its eight nominations including Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Art Direction, Best Sound and Best Supporting Actor (Jason Robards).

When nuclear power plant supervisor Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon) suddenly discovers his facility is dangerously unstable, his superiors brush him off. So, he teams with reporter Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) to expose the truth to the world. “The China Syndrome” competed for the Palme d’Or at the 1979 Cannes Film Festival and earned $51.7 million at the box office — numbers that were helped by the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, which coincidentally occurred just 12 days after the film’s theatrical release.

Written, directed and produced by Warren Beatty (who also starred in the film), “Reds” is 195 minutes of cinematic gold. The 1981 epic serves as a bio for John Reed, a journalist who covered the Russian Revolution in 1917 and also includes noted journalist and activist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). “Reds” earned a dozen Oscar nominations and took home three for Best Supporting Actress, Best Cinematography and Best Director.

“Absence of Malice” should be shown to journalism students as a crash course in what not to do. Miami Standard newspaper reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) is at the center of the 1981 thriller. Field betrays her sources, mishandles sensitive information, sleeps with her subject (played by Paul Newman) and, essentially, makes one reckless decision after another. However, in telling her story, director Sydney Pollack makes all the right decisions — as evidenced by the film’s three Academy Award nominations.

The 1984 autobiographical drama “The Killing Fields” tells the story of real-life journalists and photojournalists Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston), Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor), Al Rockoff (John Malkovich) and Jon Swain (Julian Sands) as they cover the Cambodian War and the regime of the Khmer Rouge from the front lines. Other than being highly acclaimed and a box-office hit, “The Killing Fields” is notable for including first-time actor and prison-camp survivor Haing S. Ngor in a leading role, which earned him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar in 1985.

Journalists are supposed to be impartial, protected individuals when covering conflicts in the field. But in the 1986 drama "Salvador," veteran photojournalist Richard Boyle (James Woods) ends up entangled with both the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front and right wing army while attempting to save his girlfriend and her children during the Salvadoran Civil War. The Oliver Stone film is critical of the U.S. military intervention and the actions of right wing groups in Salvador, including the government’s so-called “death squads.” Although neither film icon won, both Woods and Stone received Oscar nods — the latter for Best Original Screenplay.

“Broadcast News” is the story of three TV news employees: producer Jane Craig (Holly Hunter), who suffers emotional breakdowns on a daily basis; writer and reporter Aaron Altman (Albert Brooks), who is secretly in love with Craig; and Tom Grunick (William Hurt), a charismatic but inexperienced anchorman. Unlike most entries in this list, the Oscar and Golden Globe-nominated “Broadcast News” is more lighthearted and comedic than dramatic and focuses mostly on the entertaining love triangle between the three protagonists than on the industry itself.

Critics and audiences alike fell for Ron Howard’s 1994 comedy-drama “The Paper.” The film focuses on 24 hours in the life of tabloid editor Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton), a workaholic who loves his job but struggles to find time for his expectant wife. On the same day she goes into labor, Hackett and columnist Michael McDougal (Randy Quaid) happen to be husting to exonerate two teens arrested for a murder they didn’t commit. Just another day in life of a newspaper employee.

Under the guise of covering a motorcycle race, real-life journalist Hunter S. Thompson (Johnny Depp) and his attorney Dr. Gonzo (Benicio del Toro) speed off to Las Vegas in a red convertible with a trunkload of various psychoactive substances. The result of this trip was a 1971 Rolling Stone article, 1972 book and 1998 film called “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas,” a so-called savage journey to the heart of the American dream. Director Terry Gilliam wanted his far-out film to “be seen as one of the great movies of all-time, and one of the most hated movies of all-time." The cult classic achieved that goal with flying, psychedelic colors.

Based on a true story, “The Insider” centers on the true story of former big-tobacco biochemist Jeffrey Wigand, who blew the whistle on Brown & Williamson for adding chemicals like ammonia to cigarettes in order to increase their addictive power. Wigland teamed up with CBS producer Lowell Bergman for a “60 Minutes” exposé, and both ended up subsequently defending themselves when the network turned its back on the duo. Their story was eventually chronicled in both the New York Times and Vanity Fair, and in 1999 was made into an Oscar-nominated movie directed by Michael Mann and starring Al Pacino, Russell Crowe and Christopher Plummer.

The cast of “Almost Famous” alone makes it an amazing film, as it includes Kate Hudson, Frances McDormand, Billy Crudup, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Zooey Deschanel, Anna Paquin, Jason Lee, Jimmy Fallon, Eric Stonestreet and Marc Maron. It’s also a funny and heartfelt movie with an Oscar-winning script and Grammy-winning soundtrack about a 15-year-old kid who gets to tour with rock musicians and basically have the best summer of his life. If you don’t like this film, you’re probably just jealous of writer and director Cameron Crowe, who actually got to live it.

Not all films of this type portray journalists and reporters as heroes. “Shattered Glass” (2003) tells the true story of Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen), a journalist/editor at The New Republic who was exposed as having fabricated quotations, sources and events in 27 of his 41 pieces throughout the 1990s. Glass was eventually ousted from the publication, blacklisted from the industry and had his story made into an acclaimed biographical drama that co-starred Peter Sarsgaard, Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Melanie Lynskey, Hank Azaria and Steve Zahn.

Often referred to as one of the funniest and quotable movies of the modern era, “Anchorman” stars Will Ferrell as Ron Burgundy, an uber-popular San Diego-based newsman who has to cope with sharing the spotlight with a co-anchor, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), for the first time. Ferrell and Adam McKay wrote the goofball comedy that features an extremely long list of famous faces in both supporting roles and cameos: Steve Carell, Paul Rudd, David Koechner, Chris Parnell, Kathryn Hahn, Vince Vaughn, Ben Stiller, Luke Wilson, Fred Armisen, Fred Willard, Tim Robbins, Seth Rogen and more.

George Clooney wrote, directed and co-starred in “Good Night, and Good Luck. The historical drama follows real-life journalist and TV anchor Edward R. Murrow (David Strathairn), who attempts to report about Communism and other controversial topics while battling accusations of himself being a Communist — including from Senator Joseph McCarthy himself. Although the Oscar-nominated film came out in 2005, it was released in black-and-white to more accurately capture the 1950s setting. 

After resigning the presidency in 1974, Richard Nixon led a mostly private life. But, hoping to repair his image, he agreed to a series of interviews with English journalist David Frost in 1977. Like the interviews themselves, “Frost/Nixon,” the 2008 Ron Howard film about the event, was successful both financially and critically with heaps of praise given to both stars Frank Langella (Nixon) and Michael Sheen (Frost).

Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams star in “State of Play” as two journalists investigating the death of a congressman’s mistress and its possible connection to numerous other murders around Washington, D.C. The 2009 political thriller also features Ben Affleck as the congressman, as well as Helen Mirren, Jason Bateman, Robin Wright Penn and Jeff Daniels.

It doesn’t matter whether we’re talking about the Swedish or American version of “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” as they are both acclaimed films that each hold the exact same freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes: 86 percent. Based on the book of the same name by Stieg Larsson, “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” teams investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist with troubled hacker Lisbeth Salander to tackle the complex disappearance of a woman from a wealthy family — an unsolved case that dates back 40 years.

Not only is the Boston Globe's “Spotlight” team the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in U.S. history, it’s also the team responsible for unearthing the widespread sexual abuse allegations against the Catholic church in 2001. In addition to uncovering the names of 87 abusive priests, Spotlight also exposed the ongoing coverup undertaken by the Boston Archdiocese as well as similar events around the country and world. Their efforts were chronicled in the 2015 drama “Spotlight,” which starred Michael Keaton, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, Liev Schreiber, John Slattery and Brian d'Arcy James. The film won Oscars for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.

It’s hard to go wrong with a film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. So, it’s no surprise that “The Post” (2017) earned six Golden Globe nominations and Oscar nods for Best Picture and Best Actress (Streep). “The Post” is the true story of the attempt by journalists to publish the Pentagon Papers, which explains the history of the United States' political and military involvement in Vietnam from 1945 to 1967, as told by the Department of Defense.