User reviews

My mom read Jessica Savitch's bio and claimed it was nothing like this film. Like all life histories put on film, this one jumped around too fast, left out too much, then added a lot of entertaining fiction. If this woman acted in her life like she did in this picture, she certainly got just what she wanted. What a manipulative monster - arrogant, egotistical, cranky, power hungry, and for what? Adulation? From who? This was an entertaining movie with good acting and an interesting story; I just didn't take it too seriously.

Sela Ward was outstanding in this movie and deserved her award for Best Actress. She publicly thanked the screenwriter, Linda Bergman, for such a compelling script. The movie remains one of the highest rated TV movies made for cable and is a must-see for those who followed Jessica's meteoric career.

ALMOST GOLDEN: THE JESSICA SAVITCH STORY

Aspect ratio: 1.33:1

Sound format: Stereo

Bland, soap-opera dramatisation of the rise and fall of America's first female TV news anchor. With a tighter script and direction - and a better cast - this might have passed muster, but the flimsy story really wasn't worth the effort. A good documentary on the subject might have been the best way to go. Typically strong production values in the TV movie conveyor-belt manner, but it's all as superficial as old fluff, and just as engaging.

This was a very sketchy and vague account of Jessica Savitch's life. If not for the outstanding performance by Sela Ward and Ron Silver, I think this film would have done much worse in ratings. We are given no background of this character and why she is so aggressive and driven to succeed as a newswoman. You only see a highly successful, celebrity type of anchorwoman who outshines many of her peers, but her personal life and relationships are disastrous. With Ron Kershaw, she has a stormy and tumultuous relationship. Still they do love each other and cannot seem to go very long without getting back together. Her first assignment was in Houston and then moved onto Philadelphia where she landed her first big assignment. Being very demanding and temperamental though, she is hard to work with and earns a bad reputation. Ultimately this will lead to her famous Meltdown video which was copied and sent to networks throughout the country.

Sadly she was plagued by tragedy both in marriage and in personal relationships. Both of her marriages failed, one from suicide of her spouse, who had been heavily into drugs. Then becoming pregnant, she suffered a miscarriage, which she was slow to recover from. Then cocaine became a problem for her later in her career which may have led to her professional downfall.

Still Jessica Savitch was a brilliant anchorwoman who gained a celebrity status. She was well known throughout our country and very popular too. Her legacy will live on as the first woman anchor in news and as a role model for many up and coming newswomen. For this alone she will be remembered.

There are some people that can have a film made about their life and some just can't. The late NBC TV News woman Jessica Savitch is one of them. Her life might be very interesting to watch as a Bio on A&E's Biography but as a movie even a made for TV film it just isn't there. This film just rambled on without point showing Savitch and her rise and eventual fall and ultimate death. Having watched her when she did the news on NBC it was sad to see this film do her or her memory no justice.