DVD Movie Rating for: Shattered Glass

Rating

Movie Plot of: Shattered Glass

Hayden Christensen stars as Stephen Glass, a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic, and a freelance feature writer. By the mid ’90s, Glass’s articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events—chronicled in Buzz Bissinger’s September 1998 Vanity Fair article on which Shattered Glass is based—suddenly stopped his career in its tracks.

In 1998, just months after being named editor of The New Republic, Charles Lane fired Stephen Glass for making up a story that ran in the magazine under the headline “Hack Heaven.” At once outrageously detailed and seductively just-ahead-of-the-curve on the biggest business story of the day, “Hack Heaven” was about a teenage computer hacker whose agent essentially extorts a lucrative package from a software company that had been one of the hacker’s victims.

Hack Heaven” was the last article Glass ever wrote, but, as it turned out, it was not the first time Glass had played fast and loose with the truth. In the end, Glass made up all or part of the facts behind 27 of the 41 articles that he wrote for The New Republic during his career there. As a freelance writer, he also wrote tainted stories for such publications as George, Harpers, and Rolling Stone.

It was with a mixture of dread and awe that I first learned of the saga of Stephen Glass through Buzz Bissingers Vanity Fair piece, “Shattered Glass,” says writer/director Billy Ray. “As soon as I’d read it, I knew that this was a story I wanted to tell. Glass’s rise and fall resonated with themes that matter to me: the responsibility of the press, the dangers inherent to a cult of personality, and the day-to-day ethical dilemmas that define us as individuals. He began to represent a wake-up call about the state of journalism in this country, one made even louder by this spring’s developments of Jayson Blair at The New York Times. When people can no longer believe what they read, their only choices will be to either turn to television for their daily news, or to stop seeking out news entirely. Either path, I think, is a very dangerous one for this country. That’s why I wanted to make the film.”

DVD Production Details of: Shattered Glass

Starring: Hayden Christensen, Chloë Sevigny, Rosario Dawson

Director: Billy Ray

Aspect Ratio(s): 2.35:1

Audio Encoding: Dolby Digital 5.1

Studio: Lionsgate/Fox
DVD Release Date: March 23, 2004
Run Time: 94

DVD Features:
Available subtitles: English, Spanish
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
Commentary by writer-director Billy Ray and former "New Republic" editor Chuck Lane

"60 Minutes" interview with the real Stephen Glass

DVD Easter Eggs

None

Cast of the movie: Shattered Glass

• Hayden Christensen .... Stephen Glass
• Peter Sarsgaard .... Charles 'Chuck' Lane
• Chloë Sevigny .... Caitlin Avey
• Rosario Dawson .... Andy Fox
• Melanie Lynskey .... Amy Brand
• Hank Azaria .... Michael Kelly
• Steve Zahn .... Adam Penenberg
• Mark Blum .... Lewis Estridge
• Simone-Elise Girard .... Catarina Bannier
• Chad Donella .... David Bach
• Jamie Elman .... Aaron Bluth
• Luke Kirby .... Rob Gruen
• Cas Anvar .... Kambiz Foroohar
• Linda E. Smith .... Gloria
• Ted Kotcheff .... Marty Peretz
• Owen Rotharmel .... Ian Restil
• Bill Rowat .... George Sims
• Michele Scarabelli .... Ian's Mother
• Terry Simpson .... Joe Hiert
• Howard Rosenstein .... Suit #1
• Louis Philippe Dandenault .... Michael (as Louis-Philippe Dandenault)
• Morgan Kelly .... Joe
• Christian Tessier .... Cade
• James Berlingieri .... Jason
• Brett Watson .... Seth
• Andrew Airlie .... Alec Shumpert
• Russell Yuen .... Emmit Rich
• Pierre LeBlanc .... Monica Merchant #1
• Pauline Little .... Monica Merchant #2
• Kim Taschereau .... Stout Woman
• Phillip Cole .... Security Guard
• Mark Camacho .... Glass' Lawyer (as Mark Camocho)
• Ian Blouin .... Chuck's Son
• Lynne Adams .... Kelly's Colleague
• Caroline Goodall .... Mrs. Duke
• Brittany Drisdelle .... Megan (as Brittany Drisdell)
• Jeffrey Ford .... Security Guard (voice)

Photo Gallery of the movie: Shattered Glass

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Shattered Glass Photo Gallery

Reviews of the movie: Shattered Glass

In the 1998 Stephen Glass was a man with a future. At 24 he was contributing articles to Rolling Stone and Harpers, whilst working as a staff reporter for the venerable political journal The New Republic; a publication held in such high esteem by the American establishment that it was nicknamed “the in-flight magazine of Air Force One”. Told retrospectively, Hayden Christensen, playing Glass, begins the film as the epitome of fresh-faced dedication and ambition. He is accommodating to his peers, respectful of his superiors and conscientious about his writing. Enviable vapour trails of wit, charm and ability follow Glass wherever he goes and an exhaustive dedication to his craft, shedding light on many up-to-the-minute issues, wins him the loyalty of the shop floor.

As Stephen’s reputation skyrockets, his articles becoming more and more important to the content of The New Republic, the cracks start to appear. When Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria, the voice of Mo, and many others, in The Simpsons), the journals’ long-standing editor and habitual defender of Glass’ “gonzo-style” techniques is sacked, Glass loses his mentor, a powerful ally and the benefit of the doubt. The film uses the ensuing power struggle to complicate Stephen’s own story by making a number of relevant points about the instability of the modern office environment. The newly selected editor Chuck Lane (Peter Sarsgaard) is regarded by his peers as obsequious and grovelling, apparently wangling his way into the affections of the magazine’s owner Marty Peretz (Ted Kotcheff) so that he was the natural choice as replacement. However, the audience is made acutely aware that the reality is somewhat different, Lane’s bad reputation is born out of envy, and the film’s rigorous examination of the apparent subjectivity of truth soon kicks in. Lane is well aware that the position is something of a poison chalice and we witness his personal misgivings; Peter Sarsgaards’ subtle portrayal of Lane fleshes out the films’ most interesting character.

After being alerted by a rival journalist that Glass’ investigations may not be entirely rooted in fact, Lane goes on the offensive, and people in the office begin to draw lines in the sand. Glass finds himself the champion of his colleagues in the fight against Lane’s perceived lack of leadership, but all the while he scrambles to substantiate the tall stories that he told. The film splits loyalties between Glass and Lane, so that it becomes hard to know entirely what transpired until the conclusion, giving the film the added lure of a good thriller.

Shattered Glass is a well judged, superbly taut drama that achieves its director’s aim of being the cinematic equivalent of good reporting. Glass’ rise and fall is the central focus of the film and provides most of the riveting tension, but as the facts become less fragmented the audience is invited to analyse every scene like a proofreader with a red pen. The story begins in a mess of distorted facts; manipulated to force a well-timed rhythm onto the narrative, that are untangled over the course of 2 hours. As the lies continue to pile up, our job is to sift through them. Hayden Christensen plays the compulsive liar with an easy charm, proving to naysayers unimpressed with his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker that he really can act, his favourite comeback in the film: “Are you mad at me?” displays enough vulnerability to mask his pathologically deceitful inner self. Glass simply can’t stop lying and as his attempts to keep his head above water whilst digging even deeper ditches provides the fuel that propels the story along to it’s inevitable and damning conclusion.

The state of modern journalism and the intricacies of office politics are dissected vigorously in Shattered Glass, and whom we most closely associate with in the film is constantly being questioned, until it is a real surprise to see who ends up as the good guy. It works as a drama, contains many of the juicier elements of a thriller and is a savage assessment of the short professional life of a would-be alchemist of words who attempted to create the truth out of fiction. The biggest compliment I can pay the film is that it just might make you think twice about what you read in the papers.