Back in 1993 a little film called The Paper, came and went without much of fuss. It told the story of, coincidental enough, a New York paper The Sun. Set over 24 hours, it gives the viewer a docu/drama style look at the characters that exist there and what is it that makes them tick.


We find out very early on that what actually makes them tick. Its the simple fact that they all are slightly insane, some more than others. They are insane about the news. Take for example Hackett(Keaton), we open the film at 7 in the morning with him lying next to his pregnant wife. He is still wearing his suit from the day before. She wakes him, he gets up and instantly goes for the morning papers. He is disgusted to realise that his paper missed a front page scoop that all the other papers got. The scoop is that two white men are gunned down in a black neighbourhood, as a result two innocent black teenagers are arrested on suspicion. We know they are innocent because we are shown it. This scoop drives Hackett insane with revenge to get the scoop the morning after.


Take a look at Hacketts' wife. She also works at the paper, but is on maternal leave. She too is going insane at not being at work, she must call her husband every two minutes to find out what is happening. She is going crazy knowing that everyone else is going crazy without her. She is so afraid that her child will keep her away from work forever.


Just look at the editor(Duvall). His marriage is on the rocks, his daughter won't talk to him, he drinks and smokes too much. All because he is crazy in love with the paper. Everyone is.


What Ron Howard and the writers have captured is the true meaning of the phrase "Working on a deadline". Everyone at this paper, which is on the verge of bankruptcy every six months, is working on a deadline. This phrase seems to give people the right to act illogically, they risk everything, relationships, life and money for the deadline. Simply because they love it. They cant live without it.


What Howard also has done, somehow, is to gather the perfect cast for the roles. Michael Keaton is probably one the best actors of his generation. He walks into the paper talks to a hundred people and thinks one hundred different thoughts. When his wife is speaking to him, you can see in his eyes that so much more is going on in his head. He is one of the few actors to be able to pull this off effectively, if others tried to do what he did, they would look intoxicated or retarded.


Then you have Glenn Close, this girl is a born bitch. A domanatat force of nastiest, obsessed about her "Murphy Brown" image of the reporter turning editor. Then you have Robert Duvall, the guy already looks like a crusty head editor with bad health and drinking problem. And to top the cake with a cherry, there is the ultimate comedic supporting actor, Randy Quaid as the paranoid columnists.


What drew me to this film more than anything else is the working environment. People are screaming about ferry boat capsizing in France and complaining that there was no one from New York involved, while another guy sitting in the corner is repeating in a monologitc tone "Does anybody know how to spell parataxis?". And someone busts in from the elevator shouting "MacLoughin cracked", everyone turns in response, the story is written already. To some this may only exist in the movies, but you would be surprised. It is this frantic atmosphere that Howard grasps so successfully, no-one ever smiles but you know their all loving every minute of it.


This film boarders so close to an actual documentary that Howard and the Keopps inserted the racial killing. As I said before, The Sun was scooped on the killing the night before, and Hackett, more than anything else wants to get the scoop tonight. He gets a vague lead to the fact the two teenagers could be innocent. He knows that everyone else will be as good as convicting them, but he plans on going the other way. Even if cost thousands of dollars. Whatever the cost?


From the very beginning, we see that Hackett and Close are in conflict. At this point. the two storms of unstoppable nature collide, in a fist fight.


This is it. This is what the film is about. Some people are so obsessively, passionately, ridiculously, in love with their work that they willing to sell it all. Relationships, Friendships and health all play second fiddle. But when you a lot of these type of people working in the same office, insanity somehow manages to creep its way. But who said that being insane was a bad thing?