Mike Wallace Is Here
Directed by: Avi Belkin
Documentary/Biography - 90 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 31 July 2019
Documentary/Biography - 90 min Reviewed by Charlie Juhl on 31 July 2019
60 Minutes is the most successful show in television history and for the majority of its lifespan, Mike Wallace was its anchor. In a more genteel and softball era, at least in regards to interviews, many considered Wallace hyper-aggressive, pushy, or according to Barbara Streisand, “a son of a bitch.” Bill O’Reilly, one of TV history’s most grandiose bloviators, tells Mike if it were not for him, there would be no Bill. The moment does not come off as 100% complimentary. Avi Belkin’s probing documentary, Mike Wallace is Here, searches for answers. Did Wallace transform investigative journalism and loft it to new heights? Or did this pitchman/low-grade actor peddle an early form of “gotcha” journalism - more show business than pure reporting?
Belkin presents Mike Wallace, even during his early childhood and circuitous route toward what would make him a household personality, with an immediate, propulsive tone. A punchy synth soundtrack laced with a staccato, repetitive keyboard note maintains a brisk pace through Wallace’s early insecurities about acne and his time spent assuring viewers about the wonders of Revlon, Parliament cigarettes, and something called Fluffo. According to Belkin, it appears Mike Wallace was the first confrontational interviewer with his show “Night Beat”. His subject, often sweating and ensconced in billowing clouds of cigarette smoke, endured the harsh claps from an interviewer incredulous his questions are being dodged and demanding satisfaction.
Belkin presents Mike Wallace, even during his early childhood and circuitous route toward what would make him a household personality, with an immediate, propulsive tone. A punchy synth soundtrack laced with a staccato, repetitive keyboard note maintains a brisk pace through Wallace’s early insecurities about acne and his time spent assuring viewers about the wonders of Revlon, Parliament cigarettes, and something called Fluffo. According to Belkin, it appears Mike Wallace was the first confrontational interviewer with his show “Night Beat”. His subject, often sweating and ensconced in billowing clouds of cigarette smoke, endured the harsh claps from an interviewer incredulous his questions are being dodged and demanding satisfaction.
Larry King, whom Wallace accuses of being a pushover, juxtaposes their two styles. While Wallace pokes his finger at someone accused of wrongdoing; King will slowly nibble the edges and allude to scandal, he won’t come right out and shame via interrogatives. Belkin is adept at showing a hypocritical question lobber. Wallace will ask how many times one has been married, but God forbid someone asks him the same question. “What does that have to do with anything?” he scolds. Morley Safer, one of many 60 Minutes alums who interview Wallace at various points comes right out and asks, “Why are you such a prick?” Wallace does not take umbrage or offer evidence to counter the verbal thrust, perhaps the facade was really a show.
During what was at the time a high profile legal saga when General Westmoreland sued CBS and Mike Wallace for libel, it emerged producers wrote most of Wallace’s questions. Perhaps the man with the microphone was merely an actor playing a part. This uncertain persona also affected Wallace’s personal life and was an integral facet of his long battle with depression. He was ashamed of his depression - the sense of being "wrapped up in your own petty self-absorption.” His feeling of being a fake and a fraud were strong, but Wallace maintained he was an authentic journalist, even though he did not emerge from the traditional wellsprings of reporters - he hopped over from the show business side and was determined to prove himself.
Wallace did not seem to examine investigative journalism’s power and consequences and the people’s trust in the enterprise until his later years. He was ashamed when CBS caved to Big Tobacco during an exposé on how industry scientists knew of the addictive qualities of nicotine but then comes off as an ambulance chaser when the idea of interviewing Ayatollah Khomeini dangles in front of him. He innocently cages his question to the Ayatollah about Anwar Sadat’s insults with, “In all due respect, not my words,” but then seems to have nothing to offer when Sadat is subsequently assassinated. Belkin includes the interview clips which will convince even the most uninitiated viewer that Wallace was the leading questioner of the late 20th century - there is Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, young Oprah, old Bette Davis, the reclusive Streisand, and a smirking Vladimir Putin. Mike Wallace only glimpsed the consequences of the option to pick and choose one’s news media by who agrees with them. He did not live to see fake news accusations, state-backed information operations target the essence of free and fair elections, and a nation’s most visible ego label the news media the enemy of the people. This film makes us ponder how much responsibility Mike Wallace would feel for today’s vitriolic landscape.
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