Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists

I didn't grow up or ever live in NYC. I only really knew Hamill for his memoir A Drinking Life and Breslin was just a name to me. But this documentary really moved me due to the two journalists' craft and humanity and the sweep of history that they covered. As the documentary covers towards the end, it's a type of journalism that no longer exists anymore because the business model has been permanently altered. It's beyond a shame - - communities deserve to have writers like them covering the stories of their time and place.

Greetings again from the darkness. From the department of 'The more things change, the more they stay the same' (a phrase attributed to French writer Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr), there is a segment in this documentary showing Nixon's Vice President Spiro Agnew comments on the "evil liberal media". The only thing missing is the now all-too-familiar catchphrase "fake news". If, as many believe, we are in a re-run of a political cycle from that era, we should be so fortunate to have the writers and journalists of that era ... specifically Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill.

Co-directors Jonathan Alter (political journalist and author), John Block, and Steve McCarthy are behind this HBO documentary that flashes back to a time when reading the morning newspaper was a ritual for much of the world. This was before the internet and certainly before Tweeters began presenting opinions as breaking news. At one point, the city of New York supported 7 different newspapers, and these two writers - very different in style - are forever linked to the city, to their 'street poetry' and to each other.

Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill were at various times co-workers and rivals, yet always friends ... a friendship based on mutual professional respect. Pete was the more likable one, while Jimmy was the brash New Yorker - a celebrity who admittedly had enemies. The filmmakers provide a background on each, often with the writers themselves providing color commentary. Specific events from certain years are used a story structure: 1984 and Bernhard Goetz, 1989 shows our current President (30 years younger) dishing racial divisiveness via an emotional reaction, the 1963 JFK assassination and how Breslin chose to interview the man digging the grave, Vietnam in 1966, 1976 when both were employed by The New York Daily News, the letter Breslin received from Son of Sam in 1977, the same year Hamill was editor of two newspapers simultaneously, the 1985 AIDS outbreak, and the 1991 Crown Heights riots.

We learn Breslin often held court at a local bar, and that Hamill dated Jackie Onassis. Breslin's baseball book "Can't Anybody Play this Game?" is discussed, as is what Hamill calls "the rhythm of writing". A 2015 interview with the two elderly men makes the bond quite obvious, and an emotional segment shows Pete and his wife recalling that tragic day on 9/11. The talking head interviews featured are many and impressive, including: the siblings, offspring and spouses of the two men; writers Tom Wolfe, Gay Talese, and Nicholas Pileggi ("Goodfellas"); performers Tony Bennett, Robert Deniro, and Shirley Maclaine (also a love interest); activist Gloria Steinem; cartoonist Gary Trudeau; and other historians, journalists, and writers.

Anne Marie is mentioned as the woman who sat between the two writers at the Daily News, and we can't help but think she deserves her own movie, given her connections (so to speak). Breslin and Hamill derived energy and were driven by passion for their causes and observations ... and their agenda was drawn from the need to get the truth told, not just the glory of a headline. The message is that local journalism is important, while today, we are allowing it fade away. Breslin is shown hunting and pecking until the end (in 2017), and it's likely Pete will as well.

I worked in New York television, just outside the professional circle loosely defined by Jimmy Breslin, Pete Hamill and the City's great newspapers and journalists of the 1980s. I did move through the worlds they each covered and read their columns. Like most New Yorkers, I appreciated their service to humankind. "Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists" is a top shelf production that weaves archival images, TV appearances and recent interviews and some of Jimmy's and Pete's best copy. The film's pulse and temperature matches its two different journalists, their respective sets of colleagues, and the poetry of their reporting and living style. We hear from Breslin's living sons; his surviving second wife and from Hamill's wife, co-workers and media pundits. Much of this is emotionally moving and fact-based and worth a watch - two or three times.

This was disappointing and really not so much about writing or Pete Hamill. It's about Breslin as a celebrity and liberal icon.

Thoroughly enjoyed this. Inspired me to read their books, which I found just as funny, articulate and thought-provoking.

Love how the film had them recite their own passages like spoken word poetry. Brilliant way to convey the music and magic domiciled in their writing.

That they covered (and were often present for) so many seismic events is remarkable. From the assassinations of Malcolm X, JFK and RFK, to the Vietnam war and the Son of Sam (who corresponded directly with Jimmy), to the subway vigilante, AIDS epidemic, Central Park 5, 9/11... the list goes on and on. Forget about being journalists or reporters; these two were bona fide historians.

I just thought the film captured their essence very well. As if that weren't enough, there are a plethora of celeb insights on their work to hold your attention, including from Jackie O, Shirley MacLaine, Colin Quinn, Spike Lee, Bob Costas, Robert De Niro, etc. You really can't overstate Pete Hamill and Jimmy Breslin's impact on life on New York, and on the craft of journalism more broadly. I'm glad this doc was made and I think you'll enjoy it too.

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"Hamill would give you the poetry of New York. He had sweep and majesty. It was like walking into a French novel."

"He knew about worlds I didn't know about, and made me feel like I understood them." Hamill on Breslin

(What was it like to be on Nixon's enemies list?) "Oh it was an honor! There were a lot of good people on that list." - Hamill

"I realized early that bad news was great, even if it involved me. I protected myself by writing about it." - Breslin.