Examples Of Ambition In Nightcrawler

The adrenaline, which surfaces within a nightcrawler, creates questionable integrity when looking for the perfect and best-selling stories. Dan Gilroy’s film Nightcrawler, demonstrates the sacrifices made by Lou Bloom, the main character, to feed his ambition. The film portrays modern day media coverage by demonstrating how ambition can make any nightcrawler unwise when obtaining stories. In which the video means more than the story. According to a conversation between Nina Romina, Channel 6 news director, and Lou Bloom, Nina says, “Well, graphic. The best and clearest way that I can phrase it to you, Lou, to capture the spirit of what we air, is think of our newscast as a screaming woman running down the street with her throat cut.” This is an important quote

out of the movie because it shows the main focus of news. Gilroy establishes pathos by using words such as “screaming,” and “cut,” to evoke strong emotion. To use such words, Gilroy expresses the main focus of the importance of graphic images rather than the ethics and reasoning behind a story. Gilroy intends to show the audience how the video does mean more than the story and how technology has dominated the media coverage. According to Joe Loder, one of the nightcrawlers presented within the film, he says, “If it bleeds, it leads.” The key words here are “bleeds” and “leads.” To make such comparison, Gilroy express how the news is interpreted today, the news which make headlines, and the stories people want to know. Most of the people in today’s generation, do not care whether or not, the news is reliable. Likewise to Murrow’s theories, he believes television and radio has been corrupted by having sponsors only broadcast information that Americans want to hear and not what they need to hear. While Murrow worked in CBS News, he made a realization of the role of the media. According to Murrow’s speech on the Future of News Media, he says, “We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information, and our mass media reflect this.

But unless we get up off our fat surpluses and recognize that television in the main is being used to distract, delude, amuse, and insulate us, then television and those who finance it, those who look at it, and those who work at it, may see a totally different picture too late.” Murrow establishes pathos when he uses words such as “distract”, “delude”, and “insult” to evoke strong emotion, giving the public a wake-up call. To use such words, Murrow expresses the main focus of the true intentions of the radio and television in hopes of making the audience realize the world in which they live in today. Even though the story is the targeted focus of journalists, for others the images are the cherry on top. Today’s world has come to a point where everyone stops to see what happened within a car accident, to see the victims, to witness someone else’s tragedy. This is portrayed within the film Nightcrawler. The director shows behind the scenes of how news is directed and overall created. However, it is also demonstrated how fame and recognition plays a major role. Within the film, Lou Bloom videotapes a man bleeding to death after a carjacking, a home invasion with a triple homicide, and

his partner’s death. As the film progresses, the film becomes more realistic, as Bloom becomes more deluded from reality. While showing blood, death, and chaotic events, the audience is given a real sense of what happens in the real world. Emphasizing what happens when gold is struck, when the images are obtained. However, along the way, Bloom questions his credibility and his aim to strive. Once Bloom starts to nail the job, his true vision is lost. As the film advances, lines are crossed, in which obtaining footage is far from ethical. Bloom not only transitions from being an observer to a participant in occurring crimes, but he uses the tapes as a way for him to become the star. Referring back to Bloom’s conversation about prices with Nina, he says, “You’ll take me around, you’ll introduce me as the owner and President of Video Production News and remind them of some of my many other stories.” Bloom’s main concern is to become well-known for his footage, which is why he was willing to go the extra mile. He broke into a home, videotaped the criminals in a getaway car, and lied to federal agents. On the contrary, in comparison to Cronkite not only did he say the truth, but mentioned his sources, while reporting. For instance, live during the event of John F. Kennedy’s assassination, Cronkite says, “It is now official that President Kennedy died.” He never credited himself, but was more persistent in delivering the most accurate and up-to-date information toward the public. Moreover, Fox News and CNN both focus on obtaining the most captivating stories, with images to back them up. While Fox News focuses on entertainment, CNN focuses on a wider audience providing them with more news than entertainment. To get the audience’s attention they need to be given reliable news information, which they do not necessarily want, but need. Gilroy’s film Nightcrawler, not only emphasizes the boundaries crossed to obtain stories, but the intention and sole purpose of what media today has become. By revealing graphic and gruesome scenes, the question whether a nightcrawler’s job is worth the discretion, the pain, the shock, still roams.