Shattered Glass

Starring:Hayden Christensen, Peter Sarsgaard, ChloÃ« Sevigny, Rosario Dawson, Melanie Lynskey, Hank Azaria, Steve Zahn, Mark Blum, Simone-Elise Girard, Chad Donella, Jamie Elman, Luke Kirby, Cas Anvar, Linda Smith (VII), Ted Kotcheff, Owen Rotharmel, Bill Rowat, Michele Scarabelli, Terry Simpson, Howard Rosenstein (II)
Director: Billy Ray
Studio: Lions Gate
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Product Description
Shattered Glass stars Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass, a staff writer for the respected current events and policy magazine The New Republic and a freelance feature writer for publications such as Rolling Stone, Harper's and George. By theimid-90s, Glass' articles had turned him into one of the most sought-after young journalists in Washington, but a bizarre chain of events suddenly stops his career in its tracks. Shattered Glass is a study of a very talented and at the same time very flawed character. Stephen Glass was a part of our culture's noblest profession, one that protects our most precious freedoms by revealing the truth. Read between the lies.

System Requirements:

Running Time 94 Min

Format: DVD MOVIE
Amazon.com
Shattered Glass is the best film about journalism since All the President's Men. If that seems like lofty praise, consider this: In telling the true story of fallen journalist and pathological liar Stephen Glass, writer-director Billy Ray had to thoroughly and believably demonstrate how Glass--played in a pitch-perfect performance by Hayden Christensen--could single-handedly betray the trust of vigilant editors, writers, fact-checkers, and copyeditors while he falsified numerous highly praised articles as a hot, seemingly gifted reporter for The New Republic magazine in the late 1990s. Making an assured directorial debut, Ray brilliantly explores the delicate office politics that allowed for Glass's ongoing deception, which was diligently exposed by a reporter (Steve Zahn) from Forbes Online Tool, thus toppling Glass's tower of lies and setting a noble precedent for online journalism. From Glass's ingratiating psychopathology to the anguish of TNR's then-unpopular editor (Peter Sarsgaard) as he discovers the extent of Glass's wrongdoing, Shattered Glass is a riveting, perfectly cast study of ambition gone sour, countered by the nobility of respectable journalists in the wake of a worst-case scenario. --Jeff Shannon

Average customer rating:

A couple of days with a liar
Investigating the Investigative Journalist
A Brilliant Movie
SERIAL LIAR
He Should Have Been a Novelist

Shattered Glass
Starring: Hayden Christensen , Peter Sarsgaard , Chloë Sevigny , Rosario Dawson , and Melanie Lynskey
Director: Billy Ray
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0001907AI
Release Date: 2004-03-23

Amazon.com

Shattered Glass is the best film about journalism since All the President's Men. If that seems like lofty praise, consider this: In telling the true story of fallen journalist and pathological liar Stephen Glass, writer-director Billy Ray had to thoroughly and believably demonstrate how Glass--played in a pitch-perfect performance by Hayden Christensen--could single-handedly betray the trust of vigilant editors, writers, fact-checkers, and copyeditors while he falsified numerous highly praised articles as a hot, seemingly gifted reporter for The New Republic magazine in the late 1990s. Making an assured directorial debut, Ray brilliantly explores the delicate office politics that allowed for Glass's ongoing deception, which was diligently exposed by a reporter (Steve Zahn) from Forbes Online Tool, thus toppling Glass's tower of lies and setting a noble precedent for online journalism. From Glass's ingratiating psychopathology to the anguish of TNR's then-unpopular editor (Peter Sarsgaard) as he discovers the extent of Glass's wrongdoing, Shattered Glass is a riveting, perfectly cast study of ambition gone sour, countered by the nobility of respectable journalists in the wake of a worst-case scenario. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

A couple of days with a liar.......2007-06-27

I have showed this movie to two of my high school classes for several years now, and they are riveted to it. It provides a little bit of real-life journalism, but basically includes what not to do. It serves as a nice springboard to several ethical issues discussions. The 60 Minutes interview afterwards is a nice feature, too.

Investigating the Investigative Journalist.......2007-06-17

This is an absorbing account of how a failure of journalistic ethics at "The New Republic" magazine was uncovered. It is like a serious version of "The Office," with a number of people eventually reaching beyond their individual workspace cubicles to collaborate on finding out whether the fascinating stories that Stephen Glass submitted to the magazine were fact or merely fictions he invented to advance his career as a writer.

There is a lot of suspense in this movie. Like me, you may find yourself holding your breath, waiting to see if a given website that Glass cites as a reference to substantiate the factuality of his story - actually exists. And in those tense moments, you are not sure what you are hoping, where your sympathies should lie. The times you cheated on school exams or failed to report something on your income tax form may flash through your mind.

So the film centers on detective work, but not the kind of detective work that Sherlock Holmes would readily recognize. It involves tracking elusive sources through cyberspace, through re-routed and hand-off websites, through drop-box email addresses.

The presumption is that if Glass' stories are fictitious, he has committed the ultimate journalistic transgression. The viewer is left with no alternative but to agree with that strict standard. But the movie might have left just the least little bit of wiggle-space for an advocate of leniency. After all, ""The New Republic" is a magazine of feature stories written from a definite personal point of view. It does not deal in hard news.

An acquaintance of mine once posed as a French woman to entice a man she was interested in. She plowed through the deception with such saucy aplomb that at the end of the date, the man winked and said, "If you aren't French, you should be." Although ultimately I suppose we do have to enforce strict standards of veracity in journalism - it's just that wink I miss in this movie.

A Brilliant Movie .......2007-04-09

I just finished watching this movie for what has to be the 10th time and I'm sttill blown away by it. The power of the film is based in how much you want to like Stephen Glass played by Hayden Christiansen. The desperation and intensity of the performance is a wonder. In fact, the entire cast is a joy to watch from Stephen Zahn finally revealing himself as something other than a nerd to Hak Azaria being serious to Sargaard stepping forward and out of the shadow of his sidekick character status.

As a study of codependency gone over the edge, this film is incredible and even the score offers a unique combination of range and consistency.

The DVD also offers commentary by the director and Chuck Lane, the TNR editor who along with Forbes exposed Glass. The commentary allows this movie to step beyond Hollywood history to being actual history.

On a final note, it's interesting that Tom Cruise is an executive producer of this film. Whatever his beliefs and personal life, as an executive producer he had a hand in bringing this brilliant film to the screen and it is for contributions like this, as much as his acting, he deserves consideration.

SERIAL LIAR.......2007-04-08

SHATTERED GLASS was the first movie written and directed by Billy Ray, a screenwriter who wrote or co-wrote, among others, the screenplay of Flightplan (Widescreen Edition) and Suspect Zero (Widescreen Edition). As though SHATTERED GLASS is based on a true story, the movie is more the portrait of a man than the account of a [...] that shook the small world of journalism.

SHATTERED GLASS is told in a flashback mode by Stephen Glass, the journalist a la mode in 1998. Stephen explains to a class of students how to write a good article. As we watch on the screen the events described by Stephen Glass, the director squeezes, at first discreetly, but then more and more often, the film of what had really happened to Stephen Glass. The split between these two narrations creates a discomfort in the viewer's mind as we start to understand that Stephen Glass could be a mythomaniac. And, thanks to the performance of Hayden Christensen and the director's vision, we will never know, or rather want to know, whether Stephen Glass was a brilliant crook or simply a sly psychopath who managed to cheat on dozens of so-called professionals.

A DVD zone who cares if it's real or not.

He Should Have Been a Novelist.......2007-03-04

Stephen Glass was an up-and-coming journalist who created this world of fiction in the articles that he wrote for The New Republic. He was an aspiring journalist who wanted too much too soon. What got him in trouble was the final article on a hacker's convention. There was no convention and there is no possible way that hackers are going to congregate in public for a convention!
We see Stephen as outgoing and cordial. He is full of life talking to his colleagues about what he's doing. However, a new editor steps in and finds that something isn't right about the stories that Glass writes and gets to the bottom of things which causes Stephen to crack. When he is finally exposed for the person he is, there is resentment.
Stephen Glass has left some bitterness among his former friends and colleagues. He is no longer in the journalism field but it hasn't stopped him from writing a fictional novel The Fabulist. He was better off writing fiction than covering stories.
Then again, journalism hasn't always been about the truth. There has been and still is libel and slander. News publications get sued or even shut down because of false allegations and plagiarism.
I learned that Glass was a fact checker for Ruth Shalit who was exposed for plagiarismm at The New Republic. This is a classic case of the blind leading the blind.
Whatever Stephen Glass is doing for himself, I hope he just don't mess it up again!

Average customer rating:

A couple of days with a liar
Investigating the Investigative Journalist
A Brilliant Movie
SERIAL LIAR
He Should Have Been a Novelist

Shattered Glass [Region 2]
Starring: Hayden Christensen , Peter Sarsgaard , Chloë Sevigny , Rosario Dawson , and Melanie Lynskey
Director: Billy Ray
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video