Shattered Glass
On a scale of 1 to 10(10 being excellent) how do you rate the film? Explain your answer.
Shattered Glass, a movie directed by Billy Ray and released in the year 2003, is a movie which traces the life of young writer Stephen Glass who created headlines for making up all the articles which he had written for several well-known publications. The movie can be given a rating of 8 out of 10. The biggest positive point about the movie is that it creates a realistic vision of the world of journalism and the ambitions of journalists to the viewers. The ethics regarding the responsibilities of the journalist and the publishing companies has been blown wide open by this movie. This movie is an eye opener for the public in that aspect. The most intriguing part about the movie is that none of the characters can be said to possess a complete black or white shade . The director, Billy Ray, has to be credited for bringing out the best of grey shades in his crew. The casting is fantastic. Stephen Glass, played by Hayden Christensen, brings out the best through the character of Stephen Glass. The other stars including Steve Zahn, Rosario Dawson, Peter Sarsgaard and Chloe Sevigny also play their parts to perfection.
In what ways were Stephen Glass (as depicted in the film) a ‘flawed person’? How could he have corrected or compensated for those flaws?
Stephen Glass always paid more worth to his ambitions than the way through which he achieved the ambition. While working for The New Republic Affair, his atrocities only rose. He completely broke every law of ethic ever created. The media plays a pivotal role in the perceptions of the public towards the outside world and being a media person it is not right to misguide the public just to achieve a personal ambition. This clearly is a conflicts of interest issue. In this way, Glass is flawed. He reflects the flaw of most of the people of this generation- the flaw of running behind fame, ambition and money. He could have rectified his mistakes once he saw the damage he was creating. Glass’s actions started creating suspicion among many and he could have stopped his actions at that point of time and made amends for the mistakes of his past. Glass should have owned up to his mistakes rather than continue in his twisted way of achieving his ambition. His action damaged the reputation of the entire journalist community as people started eyeing them with disinterest. He could have come out in the open himself by making himself realize that ambition is not everything. Maybe this would have saved his journalism ambition from not going down the drain completely.
Works Cited
Ebert, Roger. Roger Ebert. 7 November 2003. 4 May 2016 <http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/shattered-glass-2003>.
Scott, A.O. New York Times. 31 October 2003. 4 May 2016 <http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9F03E0D71430F932A05753C1A9659C8B63>.
