Shattered Glass

If there was one thing that struck me about this movie it was the sheer arrogance of the main character Stephen Glass. At the very beginning of the movie he starts by saying “There are so many show-offs in journalism. So many braggarts and jerks. They are always selling, always working the room, always trying to make themselves look hotter than they actually are. The good news is, reporters like that make it easy to distinguish yourself. If you're even a little bit humble, a little self-effacing or solicitous, you stand out.” Now while this makes him a hypocrite due to just how audacious of an act publishing fake articles is. I see this in another way. In my opinion this is sound advice coming from one of the greatest actors of all time. Stephan Glass and I mean the real one at least in my opinion does not see that he ever did anything wrong. You can call him prideful however this does not even begin to scratch the surface of what he is. Years after it was brought to light that he fabricated parts or entire stories in order to make them seem more interesting he published a fictional book about the events that this movie is showing. I can tell you that if this act doesn’t show what he truly is than nothing will. He went on television and talked about how he thought that he must stop doing this every time but didn’t. However can we believe anything that comes out of his mouth? I know this is supposed to be a review of the movie however I think that the actions in the life of the person on which it was based almost speak louder. In any event what I got out of this is that we should watch our pride so that it does not turn into an arrogance that believes that anything it does is right and while he may be an amazing liar, actor, and hypocrite I think the advice that his character gives us at the beginning of the movie still stands. We can distinguish ourselves through our humility but in our case we should not let the merely be a ruse but how we live our lives.