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Week 10 Newswriting

Shattered Glass is the true story of Stephen Glass, an associate editor of the political magazine “The New Republic”, who in 1998 it was discovered that he fabricated 27 of his stories for the magazine. This movie came out in 2004 and Peter Sarsgaard won a Golden Globe for best-supporting actor from his part in the film. The movie directly correlates to the true story very well. After watching the movie, I read the Vanity Fair article “Shattered Glass” that it’s based on and they include almost every detail of the story in the movie, except for Stephen's high school experience. Even the dialogue from the important conversations is word for word from real life to the movie. In high school, Stephen Glass was a theater lover and served as technical director for a couple high school productions written by students. One of which was about a Washington journalist caught in a web of corruption. Glass also participated in an activity called “Adventures of the Mind” that challenged intelligent students to design scenarios and expand on ideas until they were a reality. Stephens high school in Highland Park was known for being a rigorous and competitive school where five percent of the senior class were National Merit semifinalists. Stephen was definitely under a lot of pressure to succeed in High School and in the years following. 

The casting in this movie was done really well, Hayden Christensen does a great job with being a super charismatic and admired young man, but also subtly creepy in his own way. And it also seemed like Glass was like this in real life. From the beginning of the movie, the watcher can already tell that glass is a troubled guy and that he could be unreliable. Christensen’s acting is impeccable as Sarsgaard’s, who as mentioned above won a Golden Globe for this part. Two recognizable actors, Chloe Sevigny and Rosario Dawson were also impressive. 

The only part of the movie that left me confused is at the beginning, Glass is talking to a coworker about how he had dinner with someone from another magazine and he tells his coworker that he ended up kissing the other man? It’s a very random part in the movie and I’m not sure how it adds to the rest of the story except to add to Glass’s creepiness. 

Shattered Glass is not the most enjoyable movie to watch, only because Stephen Glass is so charismatic and makes up almost every word he says and writes. Despite it being frustrating to watch, I recommend this movie because its an important story to know and it’s important to understand how important journalism is and how easy it can be, to make up your own facts. 

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