Shattered Glass

Billy Ray, who wrote and a first time director, was influenced to write it by an article written by H.G. Bissinger that covered Glass’s journalistic career from 1995 to 1998. Ray became interested with the topic and wrote then later wrote Shattered Glass. Not only was the movie excellent but after watching an excerpt from an interview with the real Stephen Glass it became apparent that Mr. Ray’s interpretation of the events that occurred are very close to the original fiasco.

Hayden Christensen is not only a Stephen Glass look alike but a sensational actor. After gaining recognition in his roles in Star Wars he was chosen to play the lead role in Billy Ray’s movie. Christensen did a fantastic job of playing his role. He portrayed Glass who charmed the staff at The New Republic, but when a new editor is put in charge, Glass’s time in The New Republic is numbered. After journalists from the Forbes Digital Tool come across some fabrication in Glass’s article, “Hack Heaven” Stephen is caught in a world of lies. But no matter how many times Glass says, “I didn’t do anything wrong, Chuck,” Christensen still looks as believable he did the first time he said it.

Mychael Danna who was responsible for the movie’s music did a great job with putting the music together. During times of tension the music was soft and almost sad like. When Chuck fired Stephen there were violins playing and it fit the movie perfectly.

Although I saw the movie in three different parts, I think the movie’s length was appropriate. Shattered Glass was 94 minutes long, which is the length of most movies. After all the movie needed to include all aspects of what happened all three years of Glass’s career, so the length was just right.

The movie was released on October 31, 2003. Currently the only way of seeing this movie is by DVD. Shattered Glass raised $2,944,752 worldwide, with a budget of six million dollars. Although the movie didn’t raise much money, all in all it was a fantastic movie that teaches journalists everywhere that fabricating your stories may lead to a short time success but in the long run it’s not worth it.