The 2012 release "Big Miracle" tells the story of the attempt to rescue whales trapped beneath Arctic ice. In addition to joining the growing genre of movies about animals in distress relying upon the efforts of humans to save them, "Big Miracle" becomes the latest theatrical release to examine the effects of media onslaught upon a small community. That latter film genre is probably more populous than you think, with a population highlighted by some genuinely subversive and challenging examples of cinema.
"They Won't Forget"
As I have written before, "They Won't Forget" is quite possibly the most cynical movie ever made. This fictionalized retelling of the true story of the Leo Frank trial for the murder of Mary Phagan may well forward the strongest case ever put on film of the inescapable and highly questionable interdependence between journalism and the legal system.
The local celebrity reporter is as much to blame for the possible railroading of an innocent man as the grandstanding district attorney. These two men whose working relationship should be defined by a natural antagonism instead gleefully work together to create a frenzied atmosphere fueled by sexual titillation, the cultural divide between North and South, and rural suspicion of the intellectual elite. That fuel fires the mysterious murder of a young woman from a local bonfire into a national inferno.
You won't forget "They Won't Forget," which opens with the sight of Lana Turner strutting down the street and unquestionably earning her subsequent nickname "Sweater Girl" and ends with vigilante justice that may almost make you as sick to your stomach as when you heard the O.J. Simpson verdict.
"Ace in the Hole" ("The Big Carnival")
It sometimes seems as if there was no movie genre that Billy Wilder could not master. "Ace in the Hole" can sometimes be found listed under the title "The Big Carnival," which is much more appropriate. If you have never seen "They Won't Forget," you might view this film as the most cynical movie to ever fit into the genre of newspaper movie. The studio feared that audiences would arrive expecting a carny flick instead of a jaundiced examination of ambition and exploitation, so the title was changed to avoid confusion. Yeah, good job, guys!
Kirk Douglas is a reporter whose career has tanked inside a bottle of alcohol. He trades his dignity for a job with a dead-end New Mexico paper and then lucks into a potential tragedy his reporter's senses convince him will be his ticket back to the big leagues. Douglas brilliantly manipulates the story of a man trapped in a cave who could have been rescued just a few hours later into a media carnival that prolongs the agony, suffering, and growing audience interest.
If that carnival atmosphere seems like business as usual today, it may help to remind yourself that it was so shocking in its dark portrayal of the seamy underbelly of selling newspapers that it became one of Wilder's worst-reviewed films at the time. Today, of course, it is recognized as just another of the director's masterpieces.
"Cold Turkey"
In order to overcome increasingly bad publicity about its product, a tobacco company gambles with a marketing idea that seems guaranteed to avoid disaster: promise millions of dollars to any town that can convince its residents to give up smoking for a month. Against all odds, one small town is convinced by its officially sanctioned conscience, a minister played by Dick Van Dyke, to sign the contract. The result is wonderful satire that by virtue of placing humor to the forefront seems less dark and bitingly cynical than the other two movies on this list, but really isn't.
Almost no ideological state apparatus gets off without taking a mocking assault, but "Cold Turkey" actually becomes more of a bitter commentary on the state of American media than on the business of government-sanctioned legalized selling of poison to its own citizens. The entire citizenry of the small town that took on the challenge is affected by the media coverage that essentially doubles the town's population, corrupts the town's innocence with the arrival of businesses thriving on human vices, and threatens to interfere in the natural progression of events to the point of controlling them.
Of course, that could never happen to any small town overrun with journalists in real life.
For more from Timothy Sexton, avoid the media circus, sit back and relax and read these:
Overlooked Comedy Films: "Cold Turkey"
Public Domain Treasures Available for Instant Streaming From Pub-D-Hub
Newspaper Movies: Is the Internet Killing a Classic Movie Genre?
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