For Shattered Glass - Movie Review Example

Movie review for Shattered Glass Shattered Glass is an American film dealing with journalistic ethics. It was written and directed by Billy Ray, withRay writing the screenplay based on an article by H. G. Bissinger featured in the September 1998 issue of Vanity Fair. The film chronicled the fast and dubious rise of a journalist named Stephen Glass at The New Republic during 1990s, and how he had a steep and career-breaking fall, when his unethical or even fraud journalistic activities were exposed.

So, by summarizing the plot of the film and then focusing on the unethical activities of Glass, I will discuss how the film can relate to my daily life particularly in understanding about the negative effect of cheating and plagiarism.As mentioned above, this film is about the real-life story of a journalist Stephen Glass, played by Hayden Christensen. At the start of the film, Glass in his 20s comes up with an entertaining story of a teenage hacker who is recruited by a software company, after or for hacking into their own computer system.

However, when Glass fails to provide the relevant sources for that article, editor Charles Lane, played by Peter Sarsgaard, becomes suspicious. Then, when all his 41 published stories are investigated by the newspaper people, it is found out that Glass has completely or at least partially fabricated 27 of those articles. It is shown that Glass, without wanting to work hard and instead wanting to take a short cut to success, has came with these fabricated stories by concocting sources, supposed quotes, and even complete stories.

However, when all his dubious actions were found out, he was fired and made to apologize along with his colleagues. The film clearly depicted the unethical activities of Glass and how it led to his downfall. From the beginning of the film, he is portrayed as a manipulative individual, who wishes to achieve fame through any means. A journalist duty comprises of going to the fields, studying the issues, interviewing all the connected persons, getting the official position, cross-checking the materials in hand, and then only writing the article.

However, Glass due to his lazy nature and manipulative characteristic avoids fulfilling any of the above mentioned duties. Instead, he wrote articles from the confines of his office and home, by coming up with his own issues, by conducting fake interviews with concocted sources, and so on. Editors and other higher officials were also accused of journalistic dereliction because they missed cross-checking the stories of Glass, particularly his sources. The key lesson, I learned from this movie is that there is no shortcut to hard work and success, and even if a person unethically uses a shortcut to accomplish their short-term goals, they cannot escape from punishment.

In my case as a college student, I have shortcuts to cheat particularly during the completion of assignments. That is, I could cheat by indulging in plagiarism. However, I am sure the University has apt mechanisms to find out any plagiarism attempt by me. In addition, I also know that I will be punished severely for committing the mistake of plagiarism. Like Glass who eventually gets caught for his cheating, I am sure I will also be punished for cheating any time. So, instead of indulging in unethical acts and also getting caught, I have clearly understood that by working hard, I can complete my assignments effectively.