Amazon.com: Shattered Glass is the best film about journalism since All the President's Men. If that seems like lofty praise, consider this: In telling the true story of fallen journalist and pathological liar Stephen Glass, writer-director Billy Ray had to thoroughly and believably demonstrate how Glass--played in a pitch-perfect performance by Hayden Christensen--could single-handedly betray the trust of vigilant editors, writers, fact-checkers, and copyeditors while he falsified numerous highly praised articles as a hot, seemingly gifted reporter for The New Republic magazine in the late 1990s. Making an assured directorial debut, Ray brilliantly explores the delicate office politics that allowed for Glass's ongoing deception, which was diligently exposed by a reporter (Steve Zahn) from Forbes Online Tool, thus toppling Glass's tower of lies and setting a noble precedent for online journalism. From Glass's ingratiating psychopathology to the anguish of TNR's then-unpopular editor (Peter Sarsgaard) as he discovers the extent of Glass's wrongdoing, Shattered Glass is a riveting, perfectly cast study of ambition gone sour, countered by the nobility of respectable journalists in the wake of a worst-case scenario. --Jeff Shannon
Intense, compelling and heart-breaking If you have only experienced Hayden Christensen's work in brain-dead blockbusters, be prepared for a surprise. The kid can act.
"Shattered Glass," while far from perfect, is utterly engrossing. Both the heartbreaking exploration of a young journalist's fall from grace and a larger exploration of the definition of honesty, the film maintains suspense throughout.
The cast is uniformly magnificent, but no one shines brighter than Mr. Christensen. Despite playing a socially inept pathological liar, he won my sympathy. The slow, sad unraveling of Stephen Glass' career is treated with gentle decency. In the years since Mr. Glass' transgressions against the truth there have been far more egregious examples of reporters gone wrong. It is doubtful that those who followed in his footsteps deserve the sympathy that Glass does.
As worthy of notice today as it was when the events depicted occured, "Shattered Glass" is a worthy addition to anyone's library.
Amazing MOVIE and AMAZING performances =) Amazing MOVIE and AMAZING performances =)
This movie is excellent and for 90 minutes it moves at the perfect pace. The director does an amazing job. This film just pulls you in and you just can't seem to turn away. As much as i wish the film was longer it would probably lose its allure if it was drawn out. The appeal is that the scenes move so fluidly. Everyone's performance in the film is excellent except Hayden. He isn't awful but he is not the scene stealer in the film. I love the special feature of the 60 minutes interview with Stephen because the real Stephen Glass was G*Y and very obvious from the interview. I wonder if anyone else picked up on it. I am not going to get into details about the story but will give you a quick recap, as it's a story about a young journalist the youngest on his team fabricating his stories to impress his co-workers. One story in particular which is the last story he wrote for the magazine gains extra attention which is what leads to his downfall.
It was all a lie Mom told us never to lie. This movie shows us why. Not since All The President's Men has there been a movie that showed us the fetid stench of corruption in Washington. Not among its government officials this time, but among the people who inform the public what they're doing. Who's the guilty party now?
Stephen Glass was a rising star at The New Republic magazine in the mid 90s. He wrote funny and clever articles of political satire and events, was earning a six figure salary, and seemed to have it made. One day he wrote an article about a teenage hacker who was offered a position with a company he hacked into, Jukt Microtronics, because it was cheaper for the Jukt to hire him into their payroll rather than sue him for losses. At Forbes Magazine a few weeks later, another reporter was doing a follow up story on this zany adventure when they discovered that none of the people mentioned in the story seemed to exist. Neither did the hacker convention, neither did the corporation, neither did anything. Glass supplied his notes, email addresses, phone numbers, and other things that would allow for the follow up, but they were just lies to cover up the other ones. Soon his other work fell into question. The story about the Monica Lewinsky condoms. The evangelical church that worshiped George Bush Sr. It was all a lie.
Hayden Christensen plays this role quite well, in the fact that he desintegrates into a crying, sniveling little worm desperate to be believed and yet knowing he's been caught. How many others are lying to us? Not just in the field of journalism, but all around us. The best special feature of them all is on this disc, the 60 Minutes Interview with Glass. He explains himself, and we meet his coworkers who had to stand by him as a corporation but watched as they exposed his lies.
The message is NEVER TELL A LIE. It does it with such effortless finess.
Stephen Glass actually did what so many of us only fantasize about. You know, you could get pretty far in this world if you had no moral compass. Think about it. You could lie your way into new friendships, concocting little scenarios of history where you met people and did things the rest of us only could dream of.
That's just what journalist Stephen Glass did, and did so with incredible success before some wily investigators exposed him for the fraud he truly was. It was in that moment, when the light of truth finally found its way onto the life of Mr. Glass, that he plunged like Icarus from the sky and rose to write again no more (unless you count his floundering personal account of the events as they happened according to him).
Shattered Glass is an amazing story, and what's more, the incredible aspect of it being true, of there actually being a real Stephen Glass out there who created entire worlds of false reality to sell to people as fact. To witness the alluring ways Glass connected with people through the usage of his magnetic charm, wit, and well-polished lies is a thing of frightening beauty. This film serves as a well-made warning to the dangers of taking seriously those things that seem too good too be true.
An Unknown! Shattered Glass is an excellent movie. Starring Hayden Christensen (Star Wars, Factory Girl, The Unsaid) and Peter Sarsgaard (Jarhead) before they got famous.
It is a true story about a reporter, who simply made up his stories! Its that easy to explain, but makes for a great movie.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Tony's Online Tips
Trevor
