Tom Mccarthy Spotlight Essay
Spotlight by Tom McCarthy may just be the sleeper classic of the 2010’s. The fact that is supported by the best picture award and the incredibly real tragedy portrayed in the film. Spotlight goes farther than just exposing the lies of the Vatican and its horrific cover-up. The film breaches topics one can see in everyday life such as the “death” of investigating journalism and a rapid technology boom with unforeseen consequences. Even the very foundation of its cinematic techniques create a graceful viewing of unfortunate events.
Spotlight makes no attempt at subtlety with its rightful lambasting of the modern Catholic Church. The film displays the tragedy of real events and their subsequent cover-up by a Church leadership who valued reputation over the lives of victims. Tom McCarthy does an exceptional job at setting up each reveal of immorality as one learns not only is there a predator in the church, but many, not only is the church made aware of the predators but the full extent of involvement and illegality in the …show more content…
Catholic Hierarchy. Unfortunately, the film’s presentation of historically unchecked villainy and wickedness in unchecked power not only creates a need for the film to be remembered but for it to serve as a lesson for future generations.
In Spotlight, the film illuminates the beginning of a severely under-discussed topic, the “death” of investigational fact-based journalism.Spotlight’s subplot about the defunding and the decline in community funded reporting was true in 2001, it was true when the film was made in 2015, and, barring significant cultural changes, will still be relevant fifty years from now.
All throughout the film, one can see the financial crisis of the Boston Globe and the coming changes regardless of the actions of the journalists or the chief editors. In one scene, new editor Baron, played by Liev Schreiber, is conflicted with the sympathetic plight of chief reporter Walter Robinson, played by Michael Keaton, versus the need to create revenue, thru cheap stories, in order to support not only himself but the families of every worker depending on him.This stark reality brought upon by the internet age and its unforeseen, or rather overlooked
consequences. The mastery of Spotlight is not a revolutionary technique á la Pollock but instead is the detailed attention to tried and true methods like the European geniuses of Baroque. There is no long shot too long, no dutch angle too slanted, and no scene is irrelevant to the storyline. The lighting, or lack of, is a critical technique used by director McCarthy for creating atmosphere. Boston is a New England city which is not unaccustomed to gray days but even it is not usually as grim as depicted in Spotlight. That is the key in its style, this is not supposed to be a happy tale.
Even if the protagonists win the day expose the vile truth to the world, there are still hundreds upon hundreds of victims who may never fully recover from the traumatization the Catholic Church allowed to happen. This film will not be remembered for its editing but that is because one does not notice it. Every transition is so smooth and seamless that it just fades into to the background while everything else is front and center. Fifty years from now the cinematic techniques could be forgotten but the core of the film will stand the test of time.
Winning an Academy Award has always been just as political as it has been about a film’s own merits. However, these awards have their own effect on the legacy of their respective films. The term “Oscar bump” is used all throughout the film industry and rightfully so. An Oscar bump is when a film is nominated, or when a film wins the award and receives an increase in viewership and revenue around the time of the ceremony. This has a lasting impact on the legacy of a movie as it not only increases exposure but increases the film longevity as well. This is especially true for Spotlight as a Google search trends results show an increase of ten times the normal search traffic after the film had won best picture.1 This increase in exposure worth millions of viewers is guaranteed to bolster the longevity of Spotlight.
A smaller, less noticeable concept in the film is the boom in civilian technology in the early 2000’s. Personal computers had been around since the mid-80’s but required large manuals and were never truly user-friendly. This began to change in the late 90’s and 2000’s with the development of software like Microsoft Windows 97. This new era gave way to something much greater than the PC, an infinite amount of free information on an ever-expanding place called the internet. This threat of an unfiltered stream of information is looming in the background of Spotlight. It is not so much what the film shows the viewer but rather what one can deduce from watching in 2017 and most likely in the year 2067. One only has to turn on the nightly news to see journalists struggle to keep up with the vicious news cycle powered by the internet. Unless massive cultural changes begin to take place in fifty years it truly will mean the aforementioned “death” of journalism.
All great films have some greater meaning within themselves. Star Wars is remembered for its stunning visual effects but one also deduces the fight against fascism or a belief in something greater than ourselves. Spotlight is very much the same. The film does a fine job lambasting the Catholic Church but it also delves deeper as it shows the unraveling of investigational journalism and the struggle of facts versus constant information. Spotlight may not be revolutionary but its core message should be one to hear for generations.
Spotlight makes no attempt at subtlety with its rightful lambasting of the modern Catholic Church. The film displays the tragedy of real events and their subsequent cover-up by a Church leadership who valued reputation over the lives of victims. Tom McCarthy does an exceptional job at setting up each reveal of immorality as one learns not only is there a predator in the church, but many, not only is the church made aware of the predators but the full extent of involvement and illegality in the …show more content…
Catholic Hierarchy. Unfortunately, the film’s presentation of historically unchecked villainy and wickedness in unchecked power not only creates a need for the film to be remembered but for it to serve as a lesson for future generations.
In Spotlight, the film illuminates the beginning of a severely under-discussed topic, the “death” of investigational fact-based journalism.Spotlight’s subplot about the defunding and the decline in community funded reporting was true in 2001, it was true when the film was made in 2015, and, barring significant cultural changes, will still be relevant fifty years from now.
All throughout the film, one can see the financial crisis of the Boston Globe and the coming changes regardless of the actions of the journalists or the chief editors. In one scene, new editor Baron, played by Liev Schreiber, is conflicted with the sympathetic plight of chief reporter Walter Robinson, played by Michael Keaton, versus the need to create revenue, thru cheap stories, in order to support not only himself but the families of every worker depending on him.This stark reality brought upon by the internet age and its unforeseen, or rather overlooked
consequences. The mastery of Spotlight is not a revolutionary technique á la Pollock but instead is the detailed attention to tried and true methods like the European geniuses of Baroque. There is no long shot too long, no dutch angle too slanted, and no scene is irrelevant to the storyline. The lighting, or lack of, is a critical technique used by director McCarthy for creating atmosphere. Boston is a New England city which is not unaccustomed to gray days but even it is not usually as grim as depicted in Spotlight. That is the key in its style, this is not supposed to be a happy tale.
Even if the protagonists win the day expose the vile truth to the world, there are still hundreds upon hundreds of victims who may never fully recover from the traumatization the Catholic Church allowed to happen. This film will not be remembered for its editing but that is because one does not notice it. Every transition is so smooth and seamless that it just fades into to the background while everything else is front and center. Fifty years from now the cinematic techniques could be forgotten but the core of the film will stand the test of time.
Winning an Academy Award has always been just as political as it has been about a film’s own merits. However, these awards have their own effect on the legacy of their respective films. The term “Oscar bump” is used all throughout the film industry and rightfully so. An Oscar bump is when a film is nominated, or when a film wins the award and receives an increase in viewership and revenue around the time of the ceremony. This has a lasting impact on the legacy of a movie as it not only increases exposure but increases the film longevity as well. This is especially true for Spotlight as a Google search trends results show an increase of ten times the normal search traffic after the film had won best picture.1 This increase in exposure worth millions of viewers is guaranteed to bolster the longevity of Spotlight.
A smaller, less noticeable concept in the film is the boom in civilian technology in the early 2000’s. Personal computers had been around since the mid-80’s but required large manuals and were never truly user-friendly. This began to change in the late 90’s and 2000’s with the development of software like Microsoft Windows 97. This new era gave way to something much greater than the PC, an infinite amount of free information on an ever-expanding place called the internet. This threat of an unfiltered stream of information is looming in the background of Spotlight. It is not so much what the film shows the viewer but rather what one can deduce from watching in 2017 and most likely in the year 2067. One only has to turn on the nightly news to see journalists struggle to keep up with the vicious news cycle powered by the internet. Unless massive cultural changes begin to take place in fifty years it truly will mean the aforementioned “death” of journalism.
All great films have some greater meaning within themselves. Star Wars is remembered for its stunning visual effects but one also deduces the fight against fascism or a belief in something greater than ourselves. Spotlight is very much the same. The film does a fine job lambasting the Catholic Church but it also delves deeper as it shows the unraveling of investigational journalism and the struggle of facts versus constant information. Spotlight may not be revolutionary but its core message should be one to hear for generations.