The Paper

Santos, Steven Ayrton V. 172000

A Paper on “The Paper” (1994)

The Paper was a very insightful film that helped me understand journalism. The film gave me a deeper idea and understanding of what exactly a journalist does, the effects the job has on an entire community or specific people, and the dangers it comes with.

The film opens in Brooklyn, New York with two african-american teenagers walking down the street minding their own business. They come across a white car with racial hate messages vandalized all over it. Inside it are two caucasian businessmen who appear to be murdered. The two are stunned over the gruesome view. A lady sees the two and the teenagers run away as at that time, it would’ve made them suspects.

Characters are then introduced into the story. The main antagonist of the film is Henry. A workaholic who loves his job as a journalist. He works in The New York Sun which is like what I would compare to a tabloid company; not exactly what most people would see as the most reliable source of information. Henry is then offered a job at The New York Sentinels, a highly respected newspaper company. Henry’s wife Martha is pregnant and feels as if he is not spending enough time with her due to him being too attached to work. She then persuades Henry to take the job at the New York Sentinels as it would mean less office hours and more money which would put them in a great situation as they are expecting a child soon.

The New York Suns are in a bad situation as they are losing money. The company feels the need to make a great headline for the next day. They consider headlining a complete but not very interesting story about a train derailing or the arresting of the two teenagers suspected of murdering the two businessmen.

Henry goes to the job interview at The New York Sentinels and the interviewers says that this job would put him at the top of the world. He also belittles Henry’s job at the New York Suns which made feel Henry disrespected. Henry then steals the files about the murder case.

The two teenagers are then arrested in their own homes causing mass controversy as racism was (and still is) a big issue in the United States. The police had no real evidence tying them to the murder. No prints on the murder weapon, no intent. Henry then leaks the information he stole from the New York Sentinels in a meeting with the Suns. Alicia, one of the most hated employees of the company; wants to make the headline of the next day’s paper about confirming the arrests of the two teenagers making them look guilty despite Henry’s (unofficial) knowledge about their innocence.

Soon after much investigation, Henry has solid proof that the teenagers were innocent. The police had only framed them for the murder as they wanted to make “New York’s Finest” look good as closing a case of that gravity would prove to the world that the city is safe with them around.

Henry and his buddy rush to the Sun office but find out that Alicia has already approved of the headline she wanted to publish in the first place and already printing the papers with the wrong information. Henry, knowing that it could ruin the innocent teenagers’ lives get into a fight with Alicia. The film ends with Alicia getting shot and being in the same hospital as Martha who then gives birth. Alicia changes her mind thus stopping the publications of the wrong information and gets the right news printed. This proves the innocence of the teenagers and sets them free from jail.

In my opinion, the main message of The Story is that journalism is indeed heavy. It has the power to save, or destroy lives. The truth is a must and journalism should never be taken lightly.

From what I’ve seen in the film, being a journalist must be really stressful. The New York Suns office seemed incredibly busy, most of the workers seeming already stressed out at just the start of the morning. Some dilemmas encountered by the journalists in the film were massive rivalry between companies, coming up with exceptional stories, and being the first to spread the word. The biggest problem in the film was how Alicia almost destroyed the futures of two innocent young men who had promising futures. It would’ve only taken one mistake for that to happen.

What I’ve learned about covering, writing, and publishing stories have to be 100% the truth. Again, one single mistake could ruin the lives of people who don’t deserve it. I guess that it could also work the other way around, as false information could disprove true accusations on guilty people who indeed need to be punished for what they have done. The gravity of journalism is pretty crazy as the whole point of it is to spread the news to millions of people.