Page 30 - ARUBA TODAY

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Wednesday 19 april 2017
In ‘The Promise,’ Christian Bale stars as an AP reporter

JAKE COYLE out by Ottoman Empire.
AP Film Writer He’s not the central figure
NEW YORK (AP) — The life in the movie; that’s Oscar
of the wire service scribe Isaac’s Armenian medi-
has, traditionally, been to cal student. But as a brash
toil in anonymity. Christian speak-truth-to-power jour-
Bale, however, is far from nalist firing out powerfully
anonymous. worded dispatches, he’s
In “The Promise,” Bale stars pivotal in bringing attention
as an Associated Press re- to the atrocities against the
porter in Constantinople in Armenians.
the early days of World War The killings of up to 1.5 mil-
I, and at the onset of the lion Armenians in Ottoman
mass killings and deporta- Turkey during and after
tions of Armenians carried World War I is considered

This image released by Open Road Films shows Charlotte Le Bon, right, and Christian Bale in a
scene from “The Promise.”
Associated Press

by genocide scholars to nalists.” Promise,” it’s a moment in
have been the first geno- Though the AP had a firm journalism that holds les-
cide of the 20th century. no-byline policy until 1921, sons — the need for a full-
Turkey denies a genocide its Constantinople corre- throated press — for today.
occurred and argues that spondent in 1915 — the “Like climate change,” said
the death toll among Ar- time of the film — was J. Da- Bale. “There’s this distrac-
menians was more limited mon Theron. His dispatches tion where there’s people
in scale and resulted from from that era (two years trying to pretend there re-
civil unrest and war, not de- before the U.S. entered ally is some debate about
liberate policy. World War I) are still strik- it still, as if there is some val-
Bale’s portrayal in the mov- ing for their forcefulness. In id other point of view that
ie is almost certainly the April 1915, the AP reported hasn’t been completely
most starry, most heroic on the massacre of 800 of discredited. ‘Oh, no, we
and most hard-drinking big- the villagers in one Turkish must consider both sides.’
screen depiction of the AP region and 720 in another. I’m sure for most stories, it’s
in its 171-year history. But if June brought a report on absolutely correct to show
the AP has seldom received the increased presence of both sides, or more, to the
its silver-screen close-up, it German officers. story.” Bale met with schol-
has at least struck the jack- And in September 1915 ars and studied journalists
pot in the Oscar-winner came an especially from the time, narrowing in
Bale. Not only is he one of strongly worded story that on Lincoln Steffens, a cele-
the most respected actors opened: “By virtue of a to- brated muckraker (the Pro-
in film, he’s just a touch tal suppression of all news gressive Era journalists who
more glamorous than most on the subject, the Turkish advocated against corrup-
in the AP newsroom. Government has succeed- tion). Director Terry George
His character is a compos- ed in throwing an impen- also encouraged Bale to
ite but it has roots in real his- etrable wall over its actions look to Christopher Hitch-
tory — a history the makers toward all Armenians.” The ens to capture a reporter’s
of “The Promise” were well report later noted that cen- “strong appetites.”
acquainted with. sors were prohibiting dis- “The Armenian genocide
“The Associated Press was patches. and what went on was
extremely active during the “The tendency of the Otto- one of the most heavily re-
period of genocide and man government either to ported events of World War
much of what Americans deny altogether that the I in the United States,” said
knew of what was happen- Armenians are being per- George. “It came at a cru-
ing was due to the reporting secuted, or give its acts a cial moment in journalism
of brave Associated Press too obviously artificial ba- when it switched from sec-
journalists,” said producer sis and character, would ond-hand, staccato-style
Eric Esrailian. “You hear have but one result, name- reporting to the muckruck-
about all this stuff about ly, to indicate that it is both er movement, which was a
fake news and people ma- ashamed and afraid to let movement into commen-
ligning journalists. Then you the truth be known,” read tary.”
go back to this era where the report, which ran in the The movie, George added,
what we knew about World New York Times. “is a salute to the AP for
War I was because of jour- For the filmmakers of “The sure.”q