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'His Girl Friday' (1940) -

Cary Grant portrays newspaper editor Walter Burns whose attempts to stop his ace reporter ex-wife Hildy Johnson (Rosalind Russell) from remarrying sees the lovelorn news chief suggesting they cover one more story together, with hilarious results.

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'Foreign Correspondent' (1940) -

Alfred Hitchcock's spy thriller involves an American reporter (Joel McCrea) who uncovers a sinister spy ring in England. 'Foreign Correspondent' features the famous assassination scene where a diplomat is shot in the pouring rain by a gunman disguised as a photographer.

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'Citizen Kane' (1941) -

Orson Welles' epic tale of the life and legacy of fictional newspaper magnate and industrialist Charles Foster Kane was based partly on American media baron William Randolph Hurst, who attempted to stifle the film's publicity. 'Citizen Kane' is regularly voted one of the greatest films ever made.

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'Call Northside 777' (1948) -

'Call Northside 777' is based on real events and stars James Stewart as a determined reporter who's convinced a man jailed for murder was wrongly convicted.

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'Ace in the Hole' (1951) -

Chuck Tatum (Kirk Douglas) plunges the depths of gutter journalism as he reports on the plight of a local man trapped in a cave after a landslide. The movie examines the tactics of unscrupulous reporting and how the public can be manipulated by the press.

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'Sweet Smell of Success' (1957) -

Unethical Broadway columnist J.J. Hunsecker (Burt Lancaster) offers morally bankrupt press agent Sidney Falco (Tony Curtis) an opportunity to intervene in the relationship between Hunsecker's sister and her jazz guitarist lover, a liaison the sleazy columnist disapproves of.

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'La Dolce Vita' (1960) -

Suave gossip-hack Marcello Rubini (Marcello Mastroianni) wanders Rome over several days and nights in pursuit of the "sweet life." His famous frolic in the Trevi fountain with Sylvia (Anita Ekberg) is the visual highlight of Federico Fellini's masterpiece.

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'The Front Page' (1974) -

Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau—one of the great comedy partnerships of modern cinema—team up as reporter and editor respectively who both work for the fictional Chicago Examiner. Hildy Johnson (Lemmon) wants to quit the job, but Walter Burns (Matthau) insists he stays on to complete one more assignment. If the names sound familiar, it's because this film and 'His Girl Friday' (1940) are based off the same 1928 play, itself titled 'The Front Page.'

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'The Odessa File' (1974) -

Hamburg-based freelance journalist Peter Miller (Jon Voight) pulls up in his car to listen to a radio broadcast reporting the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The fateful distraction leads Miller on the trail of Holocaust victims, former SS members, and a secret organization called ODESSA.

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'The Parallax View' (1974) -

Newspaper reporter Joseph Frady (Warren Beatty) is dragged into a conspiracy theory centering on the murder of a presidential candidate. His dogged pursuit of the truth leads to tragic consequences.

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'All the President's Men' (1976) -

Based on the book by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, 'All the President's Men' follows the two journalists, played by Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman respectively, as they piece together the conspiracy that shook American politics to the core and led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon.

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'Network' (1976) -

'Network' is a brilliant cynical takedown of the entire television news broadcasting industry. Peter Finch plays news anchor Howard Beale, who is about to lose his job because of declining ratings. He threatens to kill himself live on air, an announcement that suddenly sees audience viewing figures spike.

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'The China Syndrome' (1979) -

Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon), a supervisor at a nuclear power plant, warns of an impending meltdown and invites television journalist Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) to report from inside the facility. While there, cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas) surreptitiously films an accident that appears to confirm Godell's worst fears. But is anybody listening?

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'Absence of Malice' (1981) -

Liquor warehouse owner Michael Gallagher (Paul Newman) is pursued for comment by reporter Megan Carter (Sally Field) after Gallagher is named in an investigation about the disappearance and presumed murder of a union official. The often blurred lines between disclosing damaging personal information and the public's right to know is an underlying theme of this Sydney Pollack-directed movie.

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'Reds' (1981) -

'Reds' follows the life and career of the American journalist John Reed, who covered the momentous events leading up to and during the Russian Revolution. His book, 'Ten Days That Shook the World,' provided source material for Warren Beatty, who plays Reed, and who also directed the film.

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'The Year of Living Dangerously' (1982) -

The attempted 1965 overthrow of President Sukarno in Jakarta, Indonesia provides the backdrop to this romantic drama, which follows the fortunes of Australian journalist Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) as he lives dangerously attempting to cover the ultimately abortive coup d'état while at the same time pursuing the affections of British Embassy official Jill Bryant (Sigourney Weaver).

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'The Killing Fields' (1984) -

Foreign correspondent Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) partners with Cambodian journalist Dith Pran (Haing S. Ngor) as the pair witness the arrival in Phnom Penh of the victorious communist Khmer Rouge. Schanberg is later evacuated stateside while Pran ends up in the notorious "killing fields."

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'Salvador' (1986) -

James Woods portrays real-life American photojournalist Richard Boyle in this Oliver Stone-directed movie. Stone also co-wrote the screenplay with Boyle, who worked in Salvador, Cambodia, Vietnam, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland before dying at the age of 74 in the Philippines, where he was on assignment.

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'Broadcast News' (1987) -

'Broadcast News' revolves around two rival television reporters (William Hurt and Albert Brooks) and their savvy television news producer Holly Hunter, who's caught in the middle of her polar opposite male colleagues.

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'The Paper' (1994) -

Henry Hackett (Michael Keaton) loves his job as editor of a New York City tabloid. But when a double murder takes place and accusations of a police cover-up surface, he's suddenly drawn into one of the biggest stories of his life, and one that could save the lives of two wrongly accused African-American teenagers. Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Marisa Tomei, and Randy Quaid costar. 

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'The Insider' (1999) -

A fictionalized account of a true story, 'The Insider' follows '60 Minutes' producer Lowell Bergam (Al Pacino) and his struggle to protect tobacco-industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe) after he comes under personal and professional attack for exposing the unscrupulous underbelly of the multi-million-dollar tobacco industry.

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'Almost Famous' (2000) -

Writing for Rolling Stone magazine has never been so much fun, or so fraught, as teenage wannabe music journalist William Miller (Patrick Fugit) finds out after he wins a commission to tour with fictitious 1970s rock band Stillwater. Philip Seymour Hoffman appears as Lester Bangs, the legendary real-life American music critic.

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'Veronica Guerin' (2003) -

Irish journalist Veronica Guerin's investigation into Dublin's thriving illegal substance trade led to her violent murder in 1996. Cate Blanchett stars as the fearless and gallant reporter, whose reporting uncovered some of Ireland's most notorious criminals.

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'Good Night, and Good Luck' (2005) -

Veteran radio and television journalist Edward R. Murrow would always sign off his broadcasts with the line "good night, and good luck," from which this George Clooney-directed black-and-white picture gets its title. David Strathairn plays Murrow, who infamously clashed with Joseph McCarthy during the 1940s-era anti-communist witch hunts.

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'Zodiac' (2007) -

'Zodiac' offers up a tantalizing clue as to the real identity of the infamous Zodiac killer, a serial murderer whose murderous spree in and around the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1960s and early 1970s terrorized the local community. The film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Mark Ruffalo, and Robert Downey Jr. Ultimately, however, audiences are left none the wiser as to who was responsible for the gruesome slayings.

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'Frost/Nixon' (2008) -

In 1977, three years after leaving the White House, Richard Nixon was grilled by British journalist David Frost in a series of interviews that led the former president to condemn himself on national television. Michael Sheen nailed the Frost character, while Frank Langella received an Academy Award nomination for his stint as Nixon.

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'State of Play' (2009) -

Journalist Cal McAffrey (Russell Crowe) is investigating the suspicious death of a woman believed to be the mistress of a congressman (Ben Affleck), who just happens to be an old buddy of McAffrey's. His editor, Cameron Lynne (Helen Mirren), encourages McAffrey's reporting, but warns of him of the often strained relationship between politicians and the press.

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'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' (2011) -

Disgraced Swedish journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) is still recoiling from a libel suit brought against him when he's offered the chance to investigate the disappearance 40 years previously of a girl from a wealthy family. With the help of Lisbeth (Rooney Mara), a brilliant but emotionally disturbed computer hacker, Blomkvist uncovers a disturbing family history revolving around murder and antisemitism.

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'Nightcrawler' (2014) -

A freelance stringer (Jake Gyllenhaal) prowls the streets of Los Angeles after dark with a camcorder seeking out violent events and scenes of crime to film and afterwards sell the footage to a local television station. His is a dark and morally questionable world, ultimately nourished by the insatiable appetite of a voyeuristic public.

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'Dear White People' (2014) -

'Dear White People' takes place at a fictitious Ivy League school. A look at student journalism, the film picks apart racial politics in America and is told from the point of view of a group of African-American heritage media arts majors.

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'Spotlight' (2015) -

The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" investigative unit that uncovered the astonishing sexual abuse scandal in the city's all-powerful Catholic Church is recalled in this powerful biographical drama, which includes Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, and Rachel McAdams among an ensemble cast. 

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'The Post' (2017) -

This historical political thriller centers around the Washington Post's pivotal decision to publish the classified "Pentagon Papers" in 1971. In the editor's chair during that period was Katharine Graham, the first female publisher of a major American newspaper, who is portrayed by Meryl Streep. Tom Hanks costars.

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'A Private War' (2018) -

Instantly recognized for her eye patch, American journalist Marie Colvin worked as a foreign affairs correspondent for the British newspaper The Sunday Times. She was on assignment in Syria in 2012 when she died while covering the siege of Homs. It was later established that the Syrian regime had ordered her assassination. Rosamund Pike stars as Colvin in this biographical drama that takes place up to and including the day she was killed.

Sources: (History) (Vulture) (Biography) (BBC)

See also: The 30 most essential cult films of all time

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