Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy «««½
PG-13, 94m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Will Farrell (Ron Burgundy), Christina Applegate (Veronica Corningstone), Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana), Steve Carell (Brick Tamland), David Koechner (Champ Kind), Fred Willard (Ed Harken), Chris Parnell (Garth Holliday). Screenplay by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Directed by Adam McKay.
I actually know a few people who act exactly the way Will Farrell’s ego-driven, male chauvinistic television newsman does in the often genuinely funny Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy which probably explains why I enjoyed it so much.
Farrell’s Ron Burgundy comes adorned with bushy sideburns, moustache and laughably bad three piece multi-colored dress suits that are an obvious throwback to the 1970s before broadcast journalism ever heard of women co-anchors. The guy is so full of himself that it’s not enough for him to remind himself looking in the mirror at how handsome he thinks he is. He wants everyone else in on his secret as well.
"Hey everyone, come and see how good I look," he yells.
Most all activity seems to come to a dead stop in San Diego the moment this handsome dim bulb with a deep authoritative voice goes on the air to report the latest on a water skiing squirrel. Instead of the first words from a baby’s mouth being "father" or "mother", it’s the name "Ron Burgundy."
The guy lives for the job so much so that he can’t say something meaningful to a woman without the help of a teleprompter to feed him the next line.
"I wanna be on you," Burgundy tells one woman at a pool party.
God help him if the day should come that someone ends the line "I’m Ron Burgundy" with a question mark that the award winning newsman actually says the line like he’s asking himself a question. Or for that matter, end the nightly news by telling the city to go "F--- themselves" thanks to Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), the new blond female no nonsense news anchorwoman recently hired by the station who makes a few changes to the script.
On one level, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy could be a satire in the way today’s local news anchors are promoted on a daily basis by the stations they work for through clever advertising commercials. The kind where such television media personalities are seen either reporting the news live or from behind a desk to the tune of a powerfully suspenseful soundtrack and where the station meteorologists are portrayed as trusting weathermen who can be counted on to deliver the latest on Mother Nature.
In real life, newscasts from rival stations would never meet in an abandoned alley like the ones who midway through the film are seen armed with guns, knives and hand grenades ready to fight one another in a brawl like the street gangs did in West Side Story (1960).
"No hitting the face or the hair," Burgundy says before the fight begins.
On another level, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy could also be seen as a battle between the sexes as depicted in the recent remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). This could be a case of "he said, she said" as Farrell’s Burgundy and Applegate’s Veronica trade mocking blows exchanging insults as the end credits of the nightly newscast roll across the screen.
I almost thought the film might actually have something to say about the changing times when it comes to not just breaking the status quo and having both a male and female co-anchor news team but also about having women in the workplace in general.
“Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies, but they don't belong in the newsroom,” says investigative reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) upon learning the network feels having a female at the anchor desk could bring in higher ratings.
“It’s anchorman, not anchor-lady,” adds another.
Alas, the film has nothing to say about broadcast journalism. Even if it did, it wouldn’t be any more surprising than what movies like director James Brooks’ Broadcast News (1987) proved. That lesson was in some cases, the most good looking news anchors might not be that bright and what matters more, besides a pretty face viewers can trust is high ratings.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is instead a brainlessly entertaining 90 minute comedy. The film is as much about a self-centered, self-absorbed egotist who sleeps with his dog as it is about a group of dim-witted, well-dressed male chauvinist pigs who have a problem adjusting to having a woman in the workplace. It is a world where male newsmen or co-workers talk about their latest sexual conquests in the office and unexpectedly burst into song singing “Afternoon Delight.”
©7/12/04
PG-13, 94m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Will Farrell (Ron Burgundy), Christina Applegate (Veronica Corningstone), Paul Rudd (Brian Fantana), Steve Carell (Brick Tamland), David Koechner (Champ Kind), Fred Willard (Ed Harken), Chris Parnell (Garth Holliday). Screenplay by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Directed by Adam McKay.
Farrell’s Ron Burgundy comes adorned with bushy sideburns, moustache and laughably bad three piece multi-colored dress suits that are an obvious throwback to the 1970s before broadcast journalism ever heard of women co-anchors. The guy is so full of himself that it’s not enough for him to remind himself looking in the mirror at how handsome he thinks he is. He wants everyone else in on his secret as well.
"Hey everyone, come and see how good I look," he yells.
Most all activity seems to come to a dead stop in San Diego the moment this handsome dim bulb with a deep authoritative voice goes on the air to report the latest on a water skiing squirrel. Instead of the first words from a baby’s mouth being "father" or "mother", it’s the name "Ron Burgundy."
The guy lives for the job so much so that he can’t say something meaningful to a woman without the help of a teleprompter to feed him the next line.
"I wanna be on you," Burgundy tells one woman at a pool party.
God help him if the day should come that someone ends the line "I’m Ron Burgundy" with a question mark that the award winning newsman actually says the line like he’s asking himself a question. Or for that matter, end the nightly news by telling the city to go "F--- themselves" thanks to Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), the new blond female no nonsense news anchorwoman recently hired by the station who makes a few changes to the script.
On one level, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy could be a satire in the way today’s local news anchors are promoted on a daily basis by the stations they work for through clever advertising commercials. The kind where such television media personalities are seen either reporting the news live or from behind a desk to the tune of a powerfully suspenseful soundtrack and where the station meteorologists are portrayed as trusting weathermen who can be counted on to deliver the latest on Mother Nature.
In real life, newscasts from rival stations would never meet in an abandoned alley like the ones who midway through the film are seen armed with guns, knives and hand grenades ready to fight one another in a brawl like the street gangs did in West Side Story (1960).
"No hitting the face or the hair," Burgundy says before the fight begins.
On another level, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy could also be seen as a battle between the sexes as depicted in the recent remake of The Stepford Wives (2004). This could be a case of "he said, she said" as Farrell’s Burgundy and Applegate’s Veronica trade mocking blows exchanging insults as the end credits of the nightly newscast roll across the screen.
I almost thought the film might actually have something to say about the changing times when it comes to not just breaking the status quo and having both a male and female co-anchor news team but also about having women in the workplace in general.
“Don't get me wrong, I love the ladies, but they don't belong in the newsroom,” says investigative reporter Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd) upon learning the network feels having a female at the anchor desk could bring in higher ratings.
“It’s anchorman, not anchor-lady,” adds another.
Alas, the film has nothing to say about broadcast journalism. Even if it did, it wouldn’t be any more surprising than what movies like director James Brooks’ Broadcast News (1987) proved. That lesson was in some cases, the most good looking news anchors might not be that bright and what matters more, besides a pretty face viewers can trust is high ratings.
Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy is instead a brainlessly entertaining 90 minute comedy. The film is as much about a self-centered, self-absorbed egotist who sleeps with his dog as it is about a group of dim-witted, well-dressed male chauvinist pigs who have a problem adjusting to having a woman in the workplace. It is a world where male newsmen or co-workers talk about their latest sexual conquests in the office and unexpectedly burst into song singing “Afternoon Delight.”
©7/12/04
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