The first image in Ron Howard\u2019s 1994 film The Paper <\/i>is of gears turning inside an alarm clock. It\u2019s a disorienting start to a movie that\u2019s supposed to be about newspapers. It\u2019s also a signal that this movie (released 25 years ago this week) is as obsessed with time as its characters are with getting a leg up on their competition. <\/span><\/p>\n Time is a fixture from this film\u2019s first frame, and it\u2019s inherent to the story the film tells, which takes place over the course of a single day. It follows the staff of The New York Sun, a trashy tabloid heavily inspired by New York City\u2019s actual trashy tabloids. The world of that paper is as sensational as the stories it prints. Crazy things just keep happening. Over the course of the movie, Alicia, the managing editor played by Glenn Close, attempts to negotiate a raise for herself, has a physical altercation with one of her employees, and is shot in the leg. She\u2019s not even the main character.<\/span><\/p>\n That honor goes to Michael Keaton\u2019s Henry Hackett, the paper\u2019s metro editor. Henry has a very pregnant wife, a job opportunity at a much classier paper, and very little interest in either of those things. Instead, he spends his day chasing down a story about a shooting in Brooklyn that\u2019s been blamed on two young black men. He hears that the arrest is a sham, and wants to get confirm it before any of the city\u2019s other papers get a chance to.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2014<\/strong> The Paper<\/em> only opened on five screens (and did very well) before expanding wide the next week. The wide releases it opened against were The Naked Gun 33 1\/3: The Final Insult<\/em> and something called Monkey Trouble<\/em>, in which young Thora Birch gets a monkey for a pet. Harvey Keitel is also in it, obviously.<\/p>\nTIME CAPSULE: March 18, 1994<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Compiled by Eric D. Snider<\/strong><\/h5>\n