THE 10 BEST MOVIES ABOUT INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING

Having authored a trilogy of thrillers based on Kate Conway as an intrepid investigative reporter, I’m pointing out some of the classics that inspired me—and based on their explosive story value may inspire you. 

Citizen Kane (1941)

The brilliant expose and bio-pic of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst. Directed by and starring  Orson Welles. Often ranked as the greatest movie of all time. Script by Welles and Herman Mankiewicz.

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

Boston reporter Huntley Haverstock witnesses espionage, assassination, and windmills that turn the wrong way in uncovering a spy ring of war-mongering Fascists on the eve of World War II. This Alfred Hitchcock gem starred Joel McCrea and featured Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, and George Sanders.

The Story Of G.I. Joe (1945)  

Pulitzer-prize winning war correspondent Ernie Pyle (Burgess Meredith) follows a platoon of infantrymen from the battlefields of North Africa to the devastated townships of Italy, getting to know each intimately. The combat scenes are intense and realistic, but the film also shows the humdrum day-to-day duties and concerns of enlisted men with an almost documentary-like fidelity.

The Parallax View (1974)

A reporter played by Warren Beatty becomes enmeshed in a wide-ranging conspiracy in the wake of a prominent senator's assassination. With Paula Prentiss and Hume Cronyn. Director Alan J. Pakula brilliantly stirs up fears and doubts about our country's recent past. Based on the novel by Loren Singer.

All The President's Men (1976)

The movie version of the historic sleuthing by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in establishing the missing link between the 1972 Watergate burglary and a White House staffer. Played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, the pair have the blessing of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) as they "follow the money" to bring down the Nixon Presidency that two years prior had won re-election by the widest margin in history. Faithfully adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning book.

The China Syndrome (1979)

Jane Fonda plays an ambitious TV reporter who discovers irregularities at a nuclear power plant. Co-star Jack Lemmon won an Oscar as a concerned plant operator. This tense and timely nail-biter is effective not only because director James Bridges gets all the fundamentals right, but because its explosive subject matter would soon hit home with a terrifying real-life incident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania.

The Year Of Living Dangerously (1982)

It’s l965 and an Australian reporter played by Mel Gibson arrives in Indonesia to get the goods on the turbulent Sukarno regime. There he meets a British embassy attaché played by Sigourney Weaver and romantic sparks fly. Director Peter Weir heightens our awareness of impending societal disruption but actress Linda Hunt is the spell-binder in the gender-bending role of Billy, winning her a richly deserved Oscar.


The Killing Fields (1984)

New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg, played by Sam Waterston, covers the growing unrest in Cambodia along with his assistant Dith Pran until the 1975 take-over by Khmer Rouge guerrillas. Dith Pran endures years of torture during the genocide before escaping. Director Roland Joffe crafts an authentic and intelligent portrayal of individual heroism. As Dith Pran, Haing S. Ngor, a non-professional actor, won an Oscar.

The Insider (1999)

In this true story Russell Crowe plays Dr. Jeffrey Wigand, an embittered tobacco company employee who decides to blow the whistle on mammoth employer Brown & Williamson's deceptive practices. He enlists the help of Lowell Bergman, senior producer on 60 Minutes (Al Pacino) to get the story out and in the harrowing process both men's lives are nearly destroyed. Directed with breathtaking care and innuendo by Michael Mann.

Shattered Glass (2003)

Stephen Glass (Hayden Christensen) is a rising young reporter for The New Republic, whose shocking stories about celebrity hackers and illegal hijinks at a Young Republican convention earn him the respect and admiration of his peers, not to mention kudos from managing editor Michael Kelly (Hank Azaria). But Glass's highly irregular reporting practices gradually come to light in the form of rampant plagiarism. 

THE 10 MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS BY INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS

NOTE: This list has been culled from lists (and comments in some places) created by Nate Blakeslee and Jason Leopold, along with some doctoring to include my own preferences. Read and enjoy. Read and criticize. But read and pray that in today’s hard-scrabble and lightning-quick world of big money and ugly politics the lonely and determined investigative reporter will continue to work against those impenetrable odds we authors so admire.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

By doggedly exposing President Nixon’s role in Watergate the authors dramatically changed American politics—and we’re still paying the price.

SILENT SPRING by Rachel Carson

Serialized in the New Yorker, the book was finally published in 1962. It is credited with helping launch the contemporary environmental movement in America.

BARBARIANS AT THE GATE: The Fall of RJR Nabisco by John Helyar and Brian Burrough

The book is based upon a series of articles written by the authors for The Wall Street Journal. The title pretty much says it all.

UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED by Ralph Nader

This 1965 book detailed resistance by car manufacturers to the introduction of safety features, like seat belts, and their general reluctance to spend money on improving safety. It made Nader a household name.

THE AMERICAN WAY OF DEATH by Jessica Mitford

An exposé of abuses in the funeral home industry by documenting the ways in which funeral directors take advantage of the shock and grief of friends and relatives of loved ones.

THE JUNGLE by Upton Sinclair

This groundbreaking investigative work into Chicago's meat packing industry resulted in the creation of the Food and Drug Administration"

THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER by Janet Malcolm

The journalist in question is the author Joe McGinniss; the murderer is the former Special Forces Captain Jeffrey MacDonald, who became the subject of McGinniss' 1983 book Fatal Vision. When Malcolm's work first appeared in March 1989, as a two-part serialization in The New Yorker, it caused a sensation, becoming the occasion for wide-ranging debate within the news industry.^[2]

THE HEAT IS ON by Ross Gelbspan

Considered  by many the Holy Grail of the Environment. American writer and activist Gelbspan maintains the website heatisonline.org which he updates on a daily basis.

THE HISTORY OF THE STANDARD OIL COMPANY by Ida Tarbell

One of the original and leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, Tarbell began this landmark work after her editors at McClure's Magazine called for a story on one of the trusts.

THE SHAME OF THE CITIES by Lincoln Steffans

Ida Tarbell’s editor at McClure's. He became famous for investigating corruption in municipal government in American cities and for his early support for the Soviet Union.