Mike Wallace Is Here

The suspicious look Bette Davis gave Wallace in the image IMDb uses for this documentary drives it home. In the early days of television, Mike Wallace was a provocateur, always asking the questions that other formally trained journalists like Cronkite and Murrow (labeled "Ivy League journalists" in the film) would not ask. And in the early days of TV, right up to the mid 1990s (before gossip, sensationalism, and then the Telecom Act of 1996 would forever change the landscape of "news networks"), Americans had a hunger for the truth. And 60 Minutes was at its best setting its sites on corrupt businesses, real estate deals, environmental destruction, and even American warmongering and its blunders, particularly in Vietnam. All of this made 60 Minutes the top rated show in the country week after week during the 1970s and to the mid '80s.

Then the elimination of the Fairness Doctrine came along in 1987, and news made a hard turn. News had to be sensationalistic, entertaining, and as "payback" for Watergate, bring down Democrats whenever possible. And all of this should be done with loud voices. And here we are now. The son of Mike Wallace is the occasional voice of reason on a network that is so right wing it doesn't even claim to be "fair and balanced" anymore.

The documentary opens with Bill O'Reilly interviewing Wallace. O'Reilly admits that Wallace was his inspiration to become a "journalist," and he simply upped the ante that Wallace started with his shouting "oh shut up!" over guests on his old show. O'Reilly isn't wrong. He's just delivering what nearly half of the American population wants--porn for audiences conditioned for decades into believing the "old" news media was, as the elder Wallace says to his own son during an interview, "socialist" and "liberal."

The documentary delves into the loss of Wallace's son Peter, his struggle with depression, the lawsuit General Westmoreland brought against CBS (stemming from his interview with Wallace), the Jeffrey Wigand saga (the story that was depicted in the 1999 film The Insider). Clips of many of his interviews are shown, and in most cases, the interviewees look nervous and even spiteful. Exposing the truth hurts.

It's a sad time in 2021 when there are no legitimate news outlets out there to do this, because doing so would upset the corporations and special interest groups which own and control all major antenna, and cable, networks. Heck, even PBS and NPR now tip toe around their quests for the truth, worried that their corporate-controlled counterparts will tag them as "socialist," or even "communist." Storming the U. S. Capitol to overturn the results of a fair election? "Just patriotic Americans tired of their votes being stolen from them" (actually, no....more like those Americans can't bear the thought that more Americans voted against their candidate in 2020). But Occupy Wall Street protests? "Rapists and murderers!" (as even CNN speculated).

Wallace saw all of this coming, and it's conveyed in this fine, but too short, documentary.

The New Documentary Film " Mike Wallace Is Here" is pretty good. Deep look back at his work with CBS and intimate background about his personal Life. If you are old enough to have watched 60 Minutes for multiple years ? Really cool archived footage of his work over a 50 year career on TV and Radio. His Interviews were Ground breaking but may have fueled the current glut of News shows some of which are very Controversial and Shady. Great job on the research for Film

"That's not an interview, that's a lecture!" Mike Wallace analyzing a Bill-O'Reilly interview as they watch a tape of it together.

Mike Wallace's entrance into a room would be announced as if he were a rock star; and indeed, he was one as a hard-boiled broadcast journalist, as well known as some of the well-known figures he toughly interviewed like Salvatore Dali, Betty Davis, and Vladimir Putin, to name only a few. He set the standard in the twentieth century for asking the questions others were afraid to ask.

Although the informative and entertaining Mike Wallace is Here could be judged a puff-piece of celebration, like its subject, the documentary regularly looks at the underside: for a high-profile interview, it was discovered a producer had provided him with most of the questions; during a severe bout of depression, he tried suicide; Morley Safer called him a "prick" at his interview with Wallace; and much more.

This documentary does a credible job of taking us through his early years as a pitchman for Parliament Cigarettes and other commercials that eventually prepared him for serious broadcasting, most of its groundbreaking honesty married to savvy production, to the point that 60 Minutes became the most-watched news magazine in the world. When he asked Larry King why he had a reputation as a patsy, no one should have been surprised at Wallace's candor. That's who he was.

Sometimes this uncompromising doc has moments of soap-opera sentimentality as when star Wallace disagrees with his legendary producer and CBS about not publishing their candid interview with Jeffrey Wigand, the tobacco whistleblower. Hero Wallace refuses to buy into the network's caving into fear of litigation.

If you are looking for a contemporary hero with Greek-tragic properties, then see this expertly-edited song of praise for a broadcaster who deserves his place next to Walter Cronkite for integrity and charisma.

I'm a big fan of, a practitioner of, and now a researcher of journalism and its impact on the world -- but did not grow up knowing who Mike Wallace was, until I was a young adult. I've read his biography, seen clips, and have followed the history of 60 minutes as an important institution among American Journalism -- so, I had high hopes for the documentary "Mike Wallace is Here". However, what I walked away with was the feeling that Mr. Wallace's film library is a treasure to delve into, I did feel like this film doesn't really do justice to who Mike Wallace was, and the legacy he left behind. The technique of splicing a bunch of footage, while certainly compelling, both of interviews done by and of Mike Wallace just didn't really congeal very well into a coherent story, and I ultimately was disappointed at the end.

I think that the filmmaker not only wanted to show who Mike Wallace was, but also what impact his style of journalism left on the profession, with some nods to our current post-fact world. Any of these topics on their own would have worked well, but putting them all together, makes the film somewhat incoherent.

By far this was one of 2019's best doc's as it showcased and highlighted the 50 years of investigative reporting from legendary newsman Mike Wallace. The film begins with Wallace's humble upbringing and how radio influenced him. And how he broke into the business he started with advertising and doing commercials which lead to the Mike Wallace interview hour. Yet in a tragedy when his son died it caused Mike to take a leap to network news as at "CBS" it's where his found his gem and bread and butter special that was being a reporter on the news magazine hour "60 minutes". Wallace known for his direct and tough questions lead the way combined with the programs hard hitting investigative look at issues and many 20th century leaders. This would become a broadcast staple despite controversy and law suits from companies, still Mike was a leader as the evolution of broadcast TV began with him! Never before scene footage and the interviews are revealing and eye opening as many well known people were featured and it highlights Wallace's bout with depression. Overall well done doc of the investigative legend which was a killer strong self portrait.