JO KADLECEK finds parallels between ‘She Said’ and ‘All the President’s Men’…
Updated: 6:30pm (AEST)
She Said (AU – M/UK – 15/US – R)
In a Word: Brave
Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) and Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) in ‘She Said’, directed by Maria Schrader. PICTURE: © Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.
At a conference some 30 years after they won a Pulitzer Prize, legendary journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein spoke to a standing room only crowd of younger colleagues. In the middle of their discussion, someone shouted, “I became a reporter because of you guys! And the movie!” The place exploded in a chorus of “Me Too!” until the two managed to quiet the audience and continue their conversation.
But had it not been for star actors Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman, the general public might never have gotten the big screen lesson in investigative journalism. Because, really, the 1977 film, All the President’s Men – based on Woodward and Bernstein’s book of the same title – merely chronicles the tenacity and tedium that investigative journalists endure when following paper and money trails to get at truth. It is not sexy work.
“In some ways, director Maria Shrader’s new film, She Said is the female version of All the President’s Men. I hope so anyway. It follows two New York Times investigative reporters who break the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment story, which many believe is one of the most important stories in a generation.”
After all, Woodward and Bernstein scoured countless corporate documents and government records while also tracking down multiple sources – all before Google – to publish their incremental stories in the Washington Post. But it all mattered – the Watergate scandal was exposed and President Nixon resigned. And, thankfully, the film version captured the reporters’ commitment in such a way that its impact on people’s career choices and a nation’s history was far-reaching.
In some ways, director Maria Shrader’s new film, She Said is the female version of All the President’s Men. I hope so anyway. It follows two New York Times investigative reporters who break the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment story, which many believe is one of the most important stories in a generation.
The plot line of dogged reporting is similar to All The Presidents Men as reporters Megan Twohey (played by Carey Mulligan) and Kantor (played by Zoe Kazan) focus on a paper and money trail, except this is one infused with trauma. Each time they talk with a former female employee of the Hollywood producer, they discover the same troubling storyline: Weinstein would invite them to his hotel room for a ‘working’ meeting, greet them in his bathrobe and ask for a massage. “It’s no big deal,” he’d tell them, before forcing himself on them. If the woman pushed back, he would make sure she didn’t work in Hollywood again.
In other words, what she said didn’t matter.
Unlike Woodward and Bernstein, Twohey and Kantor did have the advantage of the Internet and tracked down women who worked for Weinstein 20, even 30, years ago. They find employees, accountants and lawyers, and piece together a story so damning that Weinstein ends up in prison and a movement to hear women’s voices is launched.
What makes this a different journalism movie, though, is the personal lens through which it, as a female-written and directed film, is told. Both Twohey and Kantor are young mothers of daughters and we meet their families early on in the film. From Twohey’s struggle with postpartum depression to Kantor’s Jewish celebrations with her husband and children, Mulligan and Kazan – though lacking the star power of Redford and Hoffman – bring an authenticity to the personal lives of these reporters, one that serves as a guide for their investigation. It helps, too, that their editors Rebecca Corbett (played by Patricia Clarkson) and Dean Baquet (played by Andre Braugher) are supportive but no-nonsense bosses who spare no expense to get the story.
In other words, we see compassionate but determined reporters and editors who seem to have as much invested personally in exposing the truth as they do professionally. The shots of the busy New York Times newsroom contrast to their home lives as well as to the silence of the victims they’re hoping will speak out. And the film’s use of flashback only deepens the need for justice.
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I saw the film with my three nieces, all in their 20s, and their mother, and afterward, I asked for their reactions. Eventually, one said, “Well, it’s not as if every woman ever hasn’t encountered somebody who’s been abusive, condescending or misogynistic. So the movie helps us know we’re not alone.”
Sadly, I had to agree with her. Especially because we know that trauma can sit for a long time but that doesn’t mean it goes away – as we see in the many women who tell their story in the movie. She Said is as important as All the Presidents Men but for an entirely different reason: it gives women permission to emerge from their sorrow and confront the truth of sexual harassment, even knowing it will be painful whether justice is served or not. Daily headlines (as in Australia’s Brittany Higgins case) confirm this.
I’m glad, too, that the film reinforces the purpose of journalism as a voice for the voiceless in bringing truth to light, just as it honours those who bravely tell of the corrupt use of power that exploits those in vulnerable situations. Women like actor Ashley Judd, who plays herself in the movie, risks her career to go on the record so that Weinstein’s abuse will be stopped. Weinstein didn’t make it safe for her or Gwyneth Paltrow or Laura Madden (played beautifully by Jennifer Ehle) or numerous others, but their collective voices in the New York Times stories did stop at least one monster.
Obviously, the horrors of sexual abuse haven’t gone away. But Kantor and Twohey’s reporting – like the movie – did put an industry on notice and asks us to listen. I’m hoping it also calls forward our best future reporters who one day might listen to Kantor and Twohey speaking at a conference and shout, “I became a reporter because of you two women! And the movie!”
