That Escalated Quickly

Rating: 4/10 (22 October 2016)

There was really only one reason that I ended up watching this film and that had to do with that meme that was really popular round 2011 (and still appears around the place). I knew that it was connected to this film, but had never really thought about it all that much until one night when there was not all that much to do and had been reminded of it after seeing a friend's Facebook post. Anyway, when the film had hit the cinemas I wasn't particularly interested in it (but then again it was 2004 so I wasn't really spending huge amounts of time in the cinemas in any case), and it had never really grabbed my attention, even when the sequel was released. Well, as it turned out, other than a few funny moments, I now understand why I never went out of my way to watch it – it wasn't all that great.
The film is set in San Diego in the early seventies, back before there was cable as the narrator tells us, and in a time when men dominated the new rooms. Burgundy is the multi-award winning anchor of the Channel Four news and has managed to secure the top ratings. Everything seems to be going well for him and his crew until the network decides to introduce a bit of diversity and brings in a woman journalist, who wants to also be an anchor. Mind you, unlike now, this was a male dominated industry, so when Veronica Corningstone enters the office all of the men suddenly want a piece of her.
Sure, Anchorman has quite a few classic lines (such as 'that escalated quickly'), but in the end it is your typical American comedy – funny in places but basically a feel good movie where everything works out well in the end, and with the exception of the guy that has a trident thrust through his chest, nobody really dies, or at least dies in a serious manner. However, the catch is that while one could argue about equal opportunity in the workplace, and with women being just as capable of performing the roles of men, in reality this is once again little more than your typical, sexist, American movie. Sure, we do have an element of girl power, but the way that the women are treated, especially at the beginning of the film, is nothing short of atrocious.
Sure, some suggest that such films are funny because they have no shame in what they make fun at, and sure I agree that there is a form of censorship over what people can actually say and that we go out of our way not to say things that just might offend somebody; however there is also the case that sometimes we make mockery of people who have really no way of being able to defend themselves. Yet, there is also the case that these rather successful people are all basically morons – it is just that they are celebrities, and because they are celebrities then they are successful, though all they can do is read a teleprompter, and look good.
However the other interesting thing is that Ron is painted as not actually being all that sweet tongue, especially at the beginning (his attempt to chat up Veronica is absolutely disastrous). However, we must also note that he does eventually succeed quite early on in the film, and also despite Veronica wishing to keep this quiet, he does anything but – in fact he shouts it not just from his office, but also live on air. Isn't it also quite interesting that Ron (at least) gets an office, while Veronica spends the entire film at a desk with everybody else. Oh, the other thing is that this film is pretty predictable, particularly since I could see a joke with the teleprompter coming right from the beginning of the film – though that might have more to do with Chekov's gun, not that Hollywood actually has any hard and fast rules that they follow.