Shattered Glass Essay free essay sample

Have you ever wondered how it would feel to lose your career? Shattered Glass is a true story of a young journalistwho fell from grace when it was found he had fabricated over half of his articles. He was a staff writer at The New Republic for three years who rose to meteoric heights as a young writer in Washington, D. C. Looking for a short cut to fame, Glass combined sources, quotes, and even entire stories. He did everything in his power to make sure that everyone is pleased by him so that they do not figure him out. In the movie Shattered Glass, director Billy Ray adroitly shows how Stephen Glass is willing to lie just to further his career as a journalist. Stephen Glass is a very interesting character who not only has a lot of talent, but also has a lot of flaws too. He is a liar. The staff writers can read between the lines of his stories, but not the lies. Everyone around him seems fascinated about his stories. He also remembers a lot of things about his staff writers which show that he does care about them and does not want to hurt them or the magazine. He simply wants to further his career. As the movie demonstrates details of his life, it shows that he is a very confused, stressed out young writer by the way he is when he is not at work. The movie never showed that he has any family around. It shows that he is lonely in a way. He wants fame and thinks he can achieve it by pleasing everyone. Billy Ray does a fantastic job directing this movie because he has a lot of scenes that cut off and come back which makes it more interesting and mysterious. The film opens with a flashback of Stephen Glass at a convention celebrating Monica Lewinsky memorabilia. Glass’s voice-over criticizes other reports who try to get ahead. He recommends, instead, being humble and holding back. He is then shown in a classroom of his former high school journalist teacher, giving advice to young journalists that look up to him. The film occasionally cuts back to this scene; Glass is shown walking around in his socks and being friendly with his co-workers. The movie also introduces his co-workers and show how much they adore Stephen. Stephen writes a paper on â€Å"Spring Breakdown† which he describes to the journalists’ classroom. Editor Michael Kelly questions Glass about some of the facts in this story. In particular, the fact that the hotel had a mini-bar is questioned. Kelly requests Glasss notes so that it can be fact-checked again. Glass then claims to have consulted his notes and realized that he made a mistake in his story. He corrects himself stating that the minibar was not part of the hotel room, it was a rental. He offers to resign but Kelly dismisses the mistake as trivial and refuses Glasss resignation. Even so, Kelly makes a phone call to the hotel to confirm that mini-bar rentals are available. Glass gets away with another one of his fabrications. Towards the end of the movie, Glass makes up a story completely. He thinks he can get away with another one, but does not realize that an online magazine found some of his facts as interesting as not being real. They found out that his sources are fake. All of his notes and descriptions of the people neither the company are imaginations. Glass makes it so believable for the audience to think that the story exists that he takes over the audience’s imagination. Stephen Glass gets fact-checked over and over by many different people untill they realize that his story and facts do not even excist. It takes him a long time, but he finally admits that he lied in almost most of his issues which gets him fired from â€Å"The New Republic. † He begs for mercy from the people around him, and it seems as if there is no one to stand by his side. At the end of the movie, the audience realizes that the classroom is part of his imagination as well. Stephen Glass not only loses his highly respected job as a writer in â€Å"The New Republic†, but also loses his friends’ trust. Billy Ray has put a lot of work into making this movie by adding different thoughts to the audience. He gradually changes your opinion about the main character which makes the movie a lot more interesting. He also keeps you confused a little by not being too detailed. He gradually shows a different personality of Stephen Glass.