Respond to these rapid questions in our Spotlight quiz and we will tell you which Spotlight character you are. Play it now.
When subscribers to the Boston Globe picked up their local paper on January 6, 2002, they saw the following headline on the front page of the paper: “Church Allowed Abuse by Priest for Years.” The report, which was written by Michael Rezendes, a reporter for the investigative “Spotlight” team, was enormous in terms of the number of words and the impact it had, but this was only the beginning. That day, two more Spotlight stories on the same subject were published, and more were forthcoming. Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, resigned in disgrace in December 2002, saying in a statement, “To all those who have suffered from my shortcomings and mistakes I both apologize and from them beg forgiveness.” The uproar that was caused by the Spotlight stories was so sustained that The Boston Phoenix, an alternative weekly, had covered church sexual abuse but it didn’t have the circulation of the Globe. The Boston Phoenix had covered church sexual abuse but it didn’t have the circulation of the Globe. (Pope John Paul II appointed him to his current position in Rome, which he has held continuously since then.) In recognition of their outstanding reporting, the Spotlight team was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2003. These events are common knowledge at this point, but the first Spotlight stories brought back painful memories for Boston Catholics (my family is Boston Irish-Catholic). It was the first news story to dominate everyone’s conversations since the terrorist attacks on September 11, which had occurred only a few months earlier.
This investigation is recounted in Tom McCarthy and Josh Singer’s excellent novel “Spotlight,” which was written by McCarthy and Singer jointly. In addition to the obvious comparisons with “All the President’s Men” and “Zodiac,” two movies with a similar devotion to the sometimes crushingly boring gumshoe part of reportage, “Spotlight” calls up comparisons with Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell shouting into adjacent phones in “His Girl Friday.” “Spotlight” is a great newspaper movie of the old-school model. There is a scene near the end of the movie “Spotlight” in which an image shows the presses printing off the edition that carries the story about the church abuse. In most films about newspapers, a scene like this is so standard that it verges on being trite, but in “Spotlight,” it’s a time of profound feeling for the characters. The truth contained in that edition, as well as the evil that it describes, will leave a wound in the psyche of millions of people; however, it is imperative that it be made public.
Michael Keaton plays the role of the newspaper’s editor, Walter “Robby” Robinson, while Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, and Brian d’Arcy James take on the roles of reporters Michael Rezendes, Sacha Pfeiffer, and Matty Carroll, respectively. Ben Bradlee Jr., the managing deputy editor of The Globe, is portrayed here by John Slattery. Every single reporter is a native of the area, and the majority of them have some sort of association with the Catholic Church (referred to as only “The Church”). When Marty Baron, played by Liev Schreiber, is brought on as a new editor, he is immediately viewed as an outsider due to the fact that he is not from Boston at all (he is first seen boning up on the city by devouring “The Curse of the Bambino.”) Baron brings up a recent article written by a columnist for the Boston Globe about the Boston archdiocese’s potentially questionable handling of various abuse cases during their first meeting together with Robby. Baron suggests that the story might be just what the Spotlight team needs to complete their mission. Robby shows some reluctance, but Baron persistently prods him, saying, “This seems like an important story for a local paper.” It’s a fantastic line, but Schreiber delivers it in such an understated manner that you might miss the impact it has on the scene. This is true throughout the entirety of his performance. They get together in Marty’s office right before the edition on church abuse goes to print, and he goes through a hard copy of the story, crossing out words while muttering to himself, “Adjectives.” That is a delivery person for newspapers.
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The members of the Spotlight team behave as one would expect from people who spend more time with each other than they do with their own families while holed up in a basement office that is cluttered with clutter. The amount of personal information provided about their lives is kept to a minimum. The weekly trip to church that Sacha takes with her grandmother is becoming an increasingly difficult tradition for her to endure. The relationship between Rezendes and his wife is in trouble. Matty is a proud father of a few young children and displays a large magnet on his refrigerator that reads “Remember 9/11” alongside an image of the American flag. These individuals are well known to us.
Spotlight Quiz
The initial focus of the investigation is on a former priest named John J. Geoghan, who is suspected of having sexually abused a large number of children in the past. Baron reminds them that the story is about more than just one “bad apple” priest and urges them to keep this in mind. He intends to challenge the entirety of the system. The corruption is obviously pervasive throughout the system, but the question that really matters is: did Cardinal Law know? This is the big fish that Spotlight wants to catch. It’s possible that “The Curse of the Bambino” taught Baron about Red Sox Nation, but a meet-and-greet with Cardinal Law (played by Len Cariou in a creepily sincere performance) during Baron’s first week on the job is even more enlightening. Law’s assumption that the Boston Globe would collaborate with the Catholic Church astonishes Baron, who can’t believe what he’s hearing.
Also, you will find out which character are you in this Spotlight quiz.
The adult victims who are willing to come forward are in such a state of trauma that they are unable to find the words to describe what was taken from them when Sacha and Michael question them. In terms of the law, two attorneys, Billy Crudup and Stanley Tucci, play roles that are diametrically opposed to one another, and their interactions with the Catholic Church fall on opposite ends of a spectrum.
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McCarthy and his entire team, including production designers, location scouts, and extras casting directors, do an excellent job recreating the city of Boston. It is common practice to refer to entire worlds by the names of specific Boston neighborhoods, such as Back Bay and Southie. There is a distinct gap between the classes (predator priests often worked in low-income neighborhoods, targeting boys who needed father figures). The atmosphere is very “Boston,” such as when people argue about work while eating hot dogs at Fenway or when they drink beer on the back porch in the middle of winter. The city of Boston, with its winding roads dating back to the colonial era and its church spires that seem to protrude from the ground at every turn, is the heart and soul of the film. “Spotlight” has a strong sense of place.
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“Spotlight” also reveals a more profound reality, which is the extent of the psychological damage caused by abuse, not only to the individuals who were abused, but also to horrified Catholics all over the world. Faith is treated with respect in “Spotlight.” An important source is a former priest who is now a psychiatrist; when he is asked how Catholics can reconcile the abuse scandal with their faith, the ex-response priest’s is as follows: “My faith is in things that will last forever. I make an effort to keep the two distinct.” Mark Ruffalo’s performance evolves to a world-class level throughout the course of the movie. He goes from being a patient and dogged investigator to a rumpled maniac who races through courthouses, chases down cabs, and yells at his boss. In a vulnerable moment, he admits to Sacha that despite the fact that he hasn’t attended church in a number of years, he has always presumed that he will do so at some point in the future. “I had that in my back pocket,” he says, casting an agonized glance in her direction before continuing. The issue of faith that has been lost is made more tangible in the movie “Spotlight” because the writers took the time to let it breathe and let it play its part in the narrative.
Since 2002, there have been many significant shifts throughout the newspaper industry. The future does not look very bright. However, there are still outlets that publish quality long-form journalism (the recent New York Times series about the conditions for nail salon workers is a good example). This kind of work is crucial in every era, including the modern one. A scene in the movie “Spotlight” showing a group of reporters taking notes in silence while huddled over church directories becomes an engrossing sequence because the movie is the type of film that can pull it off. (It brings to mind a scene from the movie “Apollo 13” in which a row of mission control employees simultaneously pull out their slide rules, almost single-handedly expanding our understanding of what it means to be a hero.) With all of its anguish and sense of immediacy, “Spotlight” is a film that is ultimately a celebration of journalists doing what they do best.
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