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TCM showed a rarely screened Samuel Fuller flick on Tuesday night - Park Row (1952, 82 mins). Self-produced by Fuller himself who put up $200,000 of his own money to make the (for the times) blisteringly drama about blood, passion, and ink spilled over the creation of a new idealistic daily newspaper. Fuller himself started out as a newspaper man and the movie was in part inspired by his own early newsroom memories, his own ideals of a "free press' and an undercurrent of strong oppositional commentary on the downright scary in their virulence McCarthyist witch hunters of the time. The film isn't as stunning visually or ground-breaking story wise as his classics Pickup on South Street, Shock Corridor and The Naked Kiss but it did bring up a lot of issues about what a "free press" is and what a newspaper should strive for. It seems to me that Fuller's attitude and vibe is sorely missing today. It seems especially the case when you contrast the newsroom in Park Row with that in the current season of The Wire. In Park Row we see a newsroom striving to break new ground and bring the people the real story, in The Wire we see what happens when all is lost and a survival tactic aimed at pleasing the money people is put into affect. The Globe in Park Row cares about the people. The Baltimore Sun in the Wire barely cares when people are murdered. I wish America had more people like Fuller. Where is our generations answer to this brave and bold artist?
"Every film must have a message. Maybe I’m too didactic. If so, too bad. That’s just the way I write. Even if people don’t agree with me, I like to make them think a bit. I’m not what you would strictly call an educator, but all the same, I think the cinema must be used in this way…" Samuel Fuller
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