In the United States of America, following the scandal Harvey Weinstein, which saw the latter sentenced to 23 years in prison on charges of rape and sexual assault after a legal battle that began in 2017, has created what is called the "Me Too" movement, better known as #MeToo: a feminist movement against sexual harassment and violence against women. We know well that this type of violence unfortunately existed long before and, too often, the facts are hidden under a carpet and then come back to light, sometimes, when it is too late. But this is not the case. Before the Weinstein scandal, another very similar episode happened to several journalists from the Fox. Bombshell - The Voice of Scandal, in fact, it is a cross-section of the United States that took place a year before the most well-known case, but no less important.
The film deals with social, political, entrepreneurial and above all feminist themes almost as if it were a sort of documentary, a clear sign of the screenplay written by Charles Randolph (writer of La Grande Bet). The events told in this film, directed by Jay Roach (Meet mine; Meet yours?), Are what really happened in the lives of many journalists. Faced with a new and better job opportunity within the company managed in this case by Roger ailes (wanted by the tycoon Rupert Murdoch), through what can be called coercion, they have been forced to accept sexual favoritism for him and for whoever he wants.
Time bombs
What we will see at the beginning of Bombshell - The Voice of Scandal, is what can be clearly defined as the whole message of the film. Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron) is the current Fox News anchorwoman and will have to hold a debate with the candidate for president of the United States of America <br><br>Donald Trump. The ideology of Fox and Ailes himself is the same as what will become the 45th American president, an expression of the conservative right. The journalist, disgusted by this man due to the numerous accusations of misogyny, will try in every way to make him lose credit without succeeding, indeed receiving a backlash. Contextually Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), very close to the themes of feminism, she was first downgraded to an afternoon television program and no longer in prime time and then fired from Wings (she will be the one to expose the first complaint), and also the journalist Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie) will find the courage to denounce the head of Fox News, thus starting what we could define the woman's revenge that will end with more than 20 rape charges against the Fox tycoon.
"I am discreet, but I can also be ruthless"
The events of the film are obviously already known and known to many: the defeat of Roger Ailes, which took place in just 16 days, is the demonstration of how a large and strong group like the one that was in this case, can and must always come out. In light of the facts highlighted, the President and CEO of Fox News and Fox Television at the time was ousted from the Murdoch family themselves with a good exit of 40 million. In these hectic sixteen days of accusations, lawyers and various health problems, Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) will continue to deny almost everything. In 1996 he was put in charge of the Fox industry by the same Rupert Murdoch (Malcolm McDowell) making the television network become Fox News the reference TV for every politically right-wing person transforming traditional cable news and bringing Fox to the forefront. He succeeded above all thanks to the electoral debates he idealized, with which Nixon, Reagan and George W. Bush were then elected, ending precisely with Donald Trump.
In all these years, 20 to be precise, Roger Ailes has always wanted to hire women more for their beauty rather than for their skill: beautiful, pleasant, charming, young. He himself was the recruiter, along with other male executives, who made the candidate parade showing off every aspect of her body, urging her not to use pants and to wear short dresses since TV is a visual media, and the system to entertain the television audience for 24h was to leverage the beauty of the journalists, hence the transparent desks.
Bombshell: from figurine to TV
Bombshell always maintains an intense rhythm (probably due to the not very long duration), and always manages to keep the viewer enticed and interested in discovering the evolution of the story. The cast chosen is top notch and which boasts, among the three women protagonists, 2 Oscars and one candidate; John Lithgow himself, a two-time Academy Award nominee, in addition to showing a truly remarkable facial resemblance to his real counterpart, was capable and skilled in assuming a role in some ways psychologically difficult, if not very far from what it should be the right way of thinking and being. Negative note in bombshell is perhaps a tone that is sometimes too ironic for this film, which has very little fun, relegating everything to a single and important scene of harassment, suffered by Margot Robbie (the only one who in reality does not play any real character but embodies the will of all the others) with a lot shots perhaps more thrust than what they should have shown or simply be.
Bombshell, the chronicle described by Jay Roach, released in American theaters on December 20, 2019 and distributed through the platform Amazon Prime Video on April 17, 2020, it was well worth it 3 Oscar nominations including a statuette for the "Best Makeup and Hairstyle". This was followed by numerous other nominations or awards such as the BAFTAs or the Golden Globes.
