When I first watched it, I felt that the film was a bit untyped in terms of narrative. But after careful consideration, this view seems somewhat untenable. Its non-typing is more derived from the confusion of types. At least in this film, we can see the mashup of three types. The first is neuro-comedy, which is also the main character setting of the heroine; the second is the love type. ; Finally, the workplace drama.
Generally speaking, the mashup of the two types is enough to support a complete film, and the most common one belongs to a certain type of mashup of love scenes, thus forming two narrative lines A and B in one film. Of course, there are also other types of mashups. The more successful ones are "Alien", a combination of sci-fi and horror. In these films, if there is a love line, the love line must give way to the main genre, so as not to pose any threat to the audience's viewing expectations. Star Wars has done a very good job in this regard. The main genres of Star Wars are obviously Westerns and sci-fi movies, but there is a certain love factor in the movie, but this factor has never been the reason for the audience to watch the movie. No one Walk into the cinema with the idea of a love movie.
However, there are many problems in the type of "Broadcast News". To be honest, I initially thought this film was similar to "TV". Indeed, for a long time at the beginning of this film, the creator honestly focused the narrative focus on the TV workplace display. But after an hour, the focus of the narrative suddenly shifted to the emotional relationship between the characters, and it firmly occupied the main body of the narrative in the second half. This results in a very obvious sense of imbalance in the film, which gives people a feeling of unfinished (derogatory) feeling between the workplace and love.
The main genre is neuro-comedy, but there are not no films that combine work and love. Dustin Hoffman's My Fair Lady is one such film, but it's clearly more genre-defining. No audience thinks "My Fair Lady" is a film about performance, but performance does occupy a very large space in this film. The reason why there is no misunderstanding like "Broadcast News" is that not long after the opening of "My Fair Lady", the audience was clearly told that the TV set is only displayed as a narrative space for love promotion, and does not undertake the purpose of genre narrative. It is this clear boundary division that allows "My Fair Lady" to focus the film's narrative focus on the most important parts.
Likewise, there are plenty of movies about the relationship between workplace ambition and morality, and a large number of them involve romantic scenes. "Wall Street" is one of the best, and "Booming Drummer" in the first two years also belongs to this genre. The earlier "Comet Beauty" is also a model of this type of work. They all involve the individual's struggle between professional success and morality without exception. choice. Whether it's the remorse in "Wall Street" or the outright betrayal in "Broken Drummer," they're all the same kind of story. But in "Broadcast News," this type of workplace, even if it was once the focus of the narrative, quickly gave way to other focal points.
I'm not saying "On the Air" isn't a good movie. From a neuro-comedy point of view, it is no weaker than classic films like Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Harry, and even I think it inspired the character creation of American Beauty to a certain extent. . But none of these can hide the flaws of the film. It's not always a bad thing for a director to have ambition, but it's not always a good thing. Sometimes it may be a good attempt to restrain your desire to express yourself.
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