Broadcast News opened in December 1987 — call it 35 years ago. Back when William Hurt…the masterful Hurt!…was nearing the end of his glorious groove phase.
Holly Hunter‘s “Jane Craig”: “So…you like me, huh?” Hurt‘s “Tom Grunick”: “I like you as much as I can like anyone who thinks I’m an asshole.”
Posted by “YCo” on 2.8.17: “Hurt was the shit from ’81 through ’88…I don’t think I’ve ever been more excited about an Oscar upset than Hurt’s win for Kiss Of the Spider Woman…plus he made me root for Tom Grunick to get the girl in Broadcast News even though I know James L. Brooks didn’t want me to…he was the cerebral actor’s actor, and his seeming disappearance by the 90s and loss of esteem due to personal demons/issues is one of the more sad trajectories in Hollywood. Still, he is the shit.”
“Hit of the Evening,” posted on 2.8.17:
William Hurt‘s short speech last night in Santa Barbara on behalf of Isabelle Huppert was a quiet corker. His remarks were clearly directed at the horrific political climate being generated out of the White House these days; more than a few came up to Hurt later and said “great speech!” Hurt costarred with Huppert in Ned Benson‘s The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (’12). Plus he’s fluent in French and owns (or at least owned the last time I checked) a residence not far from Paris.
During the after-party we spoke about LSD, Altered States (i.e., Paddy Chayefsky vs. Ken Russell), Buddhism (a few years ago Hurt took a Columbia course in Indo-Tibetan Buddhism and computer science), Hank Paulson (whom Hurt played in 2011’s Too Big To Fail), etc.
“Agree About The Moustache,” posted on 6.25.16:
“Every time someone I like grows a moustache, something inside me dies a little. Or succumbs to a bad mood. When you grow a moustache, it’s like you’ve switched sides. Sign here on the dotted line…congrats, you look like a putz.
“Decades ago people believed that a moustache gave you a rakishly sexy vibe. That idea began, I suppose, when Clark Gable grew a pencil-line ‘stache in the mid ’30s. It peaked with Robert Redford‘s bushy squirrel in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It began to wither, I’ve come to believe, with the appearance of William Hurt‘s upper-lip growth in Body Heat. Example: I found Kirk Douglas‘s The Bad and the Beautiful character charismatic until he grew a moustache in Act Three. I could mention other instances. Just don’t grow the damn things.”
“Bill Conti‘s Broadcast News payoff doesn’t kick in until the 1:25 mark, but when it does..,
“It’s just a mild little TV-series melody, but the last twelve notes soothe you down and put you in some kind of mood. For no good reason, I mean. They just sink in and somehow tell you, ‘The film’s gonna work and you’re gonna be fine….trust us.’
“And I remembered this same thought flitting through my head when I first saw it 35 years ago. ‘This movie may or may not be as good as I’m hearing,’ I said to myself, ‘but I like it right now…it’s a light, schmaltzy-sounding tune, okay, but those four chords from those violins and bass violas end the melody with a slight touch of class, and so, nonsensically, I’m ready to roll with whatever the film is doing.’
“And all because of fucking Bill Conti. Curious but true. And I’m saying this as someone who can’t stand to listen to Conti’s ‘Gonna Fly Now”’Rocky tune.
“There have been other movies and other lulling, curiously charming musical scores, I’m sure. But this is the one I’m thinking of right now.
“When was the last time a film as smart and wise and amusing and morally affecting as Broadcast News opened? Movies of this sort are quite rare. You could say they’re close to being extinct.”