FREE: Up Close and Personal (VHS, 1997)

The listing, Up Close and Personal (VHS, 1997) has ended.

The story of Tally Atwater, an inexperienced but ambitious TV news personality, and her well-weathered journalistic mentor, Warren Justice, was carefully tailored to fit its stars. What began as a screenplay based on the biography of troubled TV anchorwoman Jessica Savitch took more than eight years to reach the screen, written and rewritten, on and off, over the years by husband-and-wife team John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion, mainly because they needed the work to qualify for the splendid Writers' Guild health-insurance plan. Although the considerable charisma of Pfeiffer and Redford go a long way, in many respects Nash's original nonfiction book, offers tales more compelling than the one that eventually made it to the screen. But, all things considered, that's a little like comparing apples and oranges, since the slick Up Close and Personal bears about as much resemblance to its gritty original source material as...well, an apple does to an orange. Critic Roger Ebert, who awarded the movie three stars, nevertheless said he was reminded of the time producer Samuel Goldwyn commissioned a screenplay about the Lindbergh kidnapping. Only, to quote Goldwyn, "it can't be about kidnapping, which is against the Code. For legal reasons, we have to change the name from Lindbergh. And the kid's father shouldn't fly." Read the book, see the movie, read the book about writing the movie. Anyone interested in how movies are made will learn an entertaining lesson about the studio system by devouring all three. --Jim Emerson

Actors: Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna, Kate Nelligan
Directors: Jon Avnet
Writers: Alanna Nash, Joan Didion, John Gregory Dunne
Producers: Jon Avnet, David Nicksay, Ed Hookstratten, John Foreman
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Walt Disney Video
VHS Release Date: March 4, 1997
Run Time: 123 minutes