As Many Misses as Hits, but this Satire of the Seventies Still Proves its Point

Rating: 7/10 (25 December 2013)

Set during a period when men were men and women were ... just there, THE LEGEND OF RON BURGUNDY looks at the lives of a crack local television news team headed by the eponymous hero (Will Ferrell). While spending their lives covering stories of astonishing banality, they believe they are the best at their various jobs: even Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) who can barely string two words together without the aid of an autocue. Their lives are thrown into chaos with the arrival of Vanessa Corningstone (Christina Applegate), who proves herself much superior in terms of television technique, while remaining strangely impervious to the team's sexist (and cringingly obvious) attempts to get her into bed. The scenario here is a familiar one, reminiscent of SWITCHING CHANNELS (1988), or more famously HIS GIRL Friday (1941) in which the newsroom becomes the arena for an analysis of sexual politics. Both director Adam McKay and Ferrell (who co-wrote the script) are concerned to show limited the opportunities for women are in professions historically deemed "male" (such as the media). But the film never takes itself too seriously, with joke after joke piling on top of one another, both visual and verbal. As Burgundy, Ferrell is both repellent yet attractive; we understand how his personality is determined by his television image - nothing exists underneath. By the end, however, even he has dimly become aware of the importance of changing his world-view so that he and Vanessa can work together harmoniously in the future.