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ecent project was “Show Me a Hero” for
HBO, told the gathering. “There’s not a
lot of sex in it, not a lot of violence, but
there’s a lot of paper, and there are a lot
of ideas and a lot of humanity.”
Despite the Globe’s expose — and
investigations that followed at other
newspapers around the country — the
“Spotlight” filmmakers and their journalistic
muses all believe that the Catholic
Church has not adequately confronted
sexual abuse by clergy. They were troubled
that, during his recent visit to America,
Pope Francis initially praised bishops
for their response to the scandal.
“I think (those comments) make a
majority of people think, ‘Well, the church
is changing and we can lower our vigilance,’
” McCarthy says. “And what does
that mean, in reality? Kids lives, their welfare,
are still very much at stake. This
problem is not going away. You do not get
What I was fearful about after doing ‘Birdman’ was that
I would find more traditional moviemaking dull. The good
news is that that didn’t happen at all.” Michael Keaton
over a problem that has existed for hundreds
of years in just 10 years.”
While the movie holds the church primarily
culpable, part of the elegance of
the “Spotlight” story is that no individual
or institution shoulders all the blame.
McCarthy and Silver’s script reveals
how inertia and deference to authority
allowed countless children to be abused,
even though many people had at least an
inkling of what was going on. A subtext in
the film follows who, inside the newspaper,
could have done more.
“This was going on in every archdiocese
in the country,” says Robinson, now
editor at large at the Globe. “And in every
archdiocese, there was a major newspaper.
And everybody missed it, partly
because the church is the most iconic
institution in any city. To think that the
Church around the world is covering up
the sexual crimes of thousands of priests,
I mean, that’s just unimaginable.”
Or, as the lawyer Mitchell Garabedian,
played by Stanley Tucci, says in the
film: “If it takes a village to raise a child,
it takes a village to abuse one.”
Robinson, a Boston native like his
Spotlight comrades, has had a long
and celebrated career, covering everything
from politics to crime, and leading
the Globe’s metro desk in the 1990s. He
once drove a Massachusetts gubernatorial
candidate out of the race by exposing
resume fraud. Another project revealed
how museums possessed art stolen by the
Nazis. But Robinson calls the priest sex
expose “far and away the most important
story the Globe has ever done.” An
untold number of incidents of potential
child abuse were undoubtedly prevented
by forcing the church to drum out problem
priests.
Even as the real-life Spotlight members
make the festival and screening circuit
with their screen doubles, all is not
well back at the Globe newsroom. A new
round of job cuts will bring the staff to
something just over 300, down from a
peak of more than 500. Insiders describe
themselves as heartsick at more packing
and sheet-cake farewells, even as a movie
will be touting the Globe’s power.
But journalists at the paper and in other
newsrooms hope that “Spotlight” has
an impact not unlike that of “All the President’s
Men” 39 years ago. Maybe it will
sell a few newspapers, or at least some
online subscriptions. Journalism schools
will doubtless be lining up to show students
how a handful of people with passion
can make a difference.
“To me, this film shows that there
are so many injustices in the world that
nobody knows about,” Robinson says.
“And young journalists out there can find
them and expose them and cause change
for the better.”
Zodiac
(2007)
$33.1m
David Fincher’s critical
favorite centers
on a team of
reporters and investigators
(including
“Spotlight’s” Mark
Ruffalo) as they
obsess over San
Francisco’s Zodiac
killer. The film got no
Oscar love, but competed
in Cannes.
“Nightcrawler”
(2014)
$32.4m
Jake Gyllenhaal plays
a tabloid photojournalist
who goes
to corrupt lengths
for stories. Writer-director
Dan Gilroy’s
script was
nominated.
“It Happened
One Night”
(1934)
$2.5m
Frank Capra’s comedy
follows Clark
Gable’s reporter
as he blackmails a
socialite (Claudette
Colbert) for a scoop.
It was the first film
to win all five major
Academy Awards
(best picture, director,
actor, actress
and screenplay).
Citizen Kane
(1941)
$1.6m
Orson Welles’ film
about the life of a
megalomaniacal
newspaper tycoon
was loosely based
on William Randolph
Hearst, who blocked
mention of the
movie in his publications.
An Oscar
for screenplay was
its only win among
nine noms.
Features
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