Spotlight: Shining a light on the real power of journalism
Audible gasps and grunts of disgust echoed through the cinema as Spotlight drew to a close. The true horror of the subject was no more obvious as hundreds of cities around the globe flashed before your eyes; cases of institutional sexual assault found in every one, including Canberra, Australia.
Spotlight is an important addition to the canon of newspaper films and it might just be the best of an impressive bunch. It doesn’t have the edge-of-your-seat moments that All the President’s Men (1976) gave us. Nor does it include the humorous journalistic clichés presented in The Paper (1994), Michael Keaton’s previous venture into the newspaper genre. However, I left the cinema truly touched by the story – deeply saddened but at the same time truly proud of what this team of journalists had done. This is something none of those previous films achieved.
Spotlight introduces us to the investigative team of The Boston Globe who spent most of 2001 uncovering the true extent of cover-ups within the Catholic Church of paedophile priests. The Spotlight team is headed up by veteran journalist Walter ‘Robby’ Robinson (Michael Keaton), who at first is hesitant to take on the Catholic Church. The personal torment involved by investigating an institution within which they were all brought up is a theme explored through all the characters. For example Sacha Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams) is horrified by the stories of the victims but unwilling to share this information to her grandmother attending mass three times a week.
The spotlight team struggle against an institution entrenched in Boston life and it takes the new editor of The Globe, Martin “Marty” Baron (Liev Schreiber) “an unmarried Jew who doesn’t like baseball”, to finally convince the team the story needs reporting. The film depicts an incredibly effective team as they negotiate the difficulties of uncovering such a story together. As such, the film works because of such a complementary ensemble; there is no “star” of this show. If there is perhaps a stand-out, it would be Mark Ruffalo as the dogged, somewhat socially-awkward, yet likable Mike Rezendes. It is through Rezendes that we see the typical pitfalls of the job; he’s constantly at the office and his marriage is clearly failing.
Director Tom McCarthy, who also wrote the film alongside Josh Singer, deserves a lot of credit for taking what could be an incredibly boring film and making it compelling. The team seems to be endlessly poring over old clippings, court documents and following up numerous leads. It’s bread and butter journalism work, which the film does not skip, but makes interesting with clever pacing and writing. In the end the team, and the audience, are rewarded for enduring such a process.
It also would have been very easy for the film to assault us with horrific tales of children being molested expecting an emotional response. Thankfully it didn’t by focusing on the team’s investigation which conveys the awful reality of the story much more subtly and this is the real power of the film.
Spotlight is a must-see for any aspiring journalist, especially if you need some inspiration. It shows us how powerful journalism can be when done right as well as asking some important questions about our industry and those that operate within it.
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