Review of Anchorman: The Legend Of Ron Burgundy

Introduction

Ron Burgundy (Will Ferrell) is the number one news anchorman in 1970`s San Diego, a period where `men were men` and Burgundy was more man than most. He seems to have everything: a huge audience who believes everything he says, invitations to parties populated by beautiful women, a successful career and co-workers who hang on his every word. This is all threatened when a beautiful and talented journalist, Veronica Corningstone (Christina Applegate), comes to work at the TV station with ambitions of anchoring the news herself, upsetting the balance of the newsroom.

Burgundy works for Channel Four News along with reporter and ladies` man Brian Fantana (Paul Rudd), sports reporter and sexist Champ Kind (David Koechner) and "mentally retarded" weatherman Brick Tamland (Steve Carell) who, incidentally, has the best lines in the film.

Predictably enough, Burgundy and his team all fall for Corningstone, who rebuffs their pathetic advances before falling in love and sleeping with Burgundy. In an altercation with Jack Black (in a cameo role), Burgundy loses his beloved dog Baxter and in his distress fails to reach the station in time for the news, so Corningstone assumes the anchor role in his absence and impresses to the point where she and Burgundy become `co-anchors`. Ron and his team are not happy with this arrangement and try to sabotage Corningstone whose response leads Burgundy to commit a major (and hilarious) faux pas on-air for which he is sacked. Corningstone then assumes sole responsibilities as the anchor and Burgundy falls to pieces.

From there, it is a story of how Burgundy redeems himself with the station and his audience, resolves his relationship with Veronica and is reunited with Baxter.

Video

Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen, Anchorman has been given a decent transfer which copes with the sometimes garish colours of the seventies wardrobe. There are subtitles for both the film and the commentary.

Audio

Anchorman is a dialogue dominated film which is crisply presented by the Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix which uses the rear speakers for both the action scenes and the music.

Features

The audio commentary publicised as delivered by Will Ferrell and Adam McKay is a complete waste of time as they begin talking about prostitutes and making crystal meth but after about 11 minutes start to joke about and are joined by, amongst others, Kyle Gas, Lou Rawls (who have no apparent connection with the film) and Paul Rudd; they tell you nothing about the making of the film and seem content to sit there and complain about making the commentary. An irritating and depressing waste of time.

The `bloopers` are an extension of the outtakes which accompany (and sometimes repeat) those seen during the end credits and are very funny.

The `Making of Anchorman` featurette is not exactly a detailed behind the scenes documentary as it only lasts 9 minutes, but rather a jokey compilation of behind the scenes footage and audition tapes.

The `Afternoon Delight` music video is probably the highlight of the extra features as it is specifically made as a separate video rather than the song against a background of scenes from the film.

The deleted scenes package contains longer versions of scenes from the film and scenes in the bloopers but it runs longer (over 27 minutes). It seems that this shows the many different avenues the film could have taken before they decided on the final one during editing. You can watch the 41 deleted scenes individually or in one go using the `Play All` function.

The option of `Trailers` is a bit of a misnomer as the only trailer is for `Meet the Fokkers`.

Conclusion

Films or TV shows about news stations or the celebrity of news personalities is nothing new viz. Citizen Kane, Network and Drop the Dead Donkey. Network provides an interesting counterpoint to Anchorman as there was no evidence of institutional or overt sexism or outlandish outfits in the 1976 satire. I also found that Fred Willard`s distant relationship with his son to be almost identical to that of George Dent and his daughter in Drop the Dead Donkey.

`Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy` is intermittently funny with a `scattergun` approach to the humour, the gags fly thick and fast - some falling flat but those that work are very funny and are sometimes hilarious. I have a suspicion that they shot without a finished script and made dialogue and scenes up as they went along, only deciding what should feature in the theatrical release when it came to editing. From what I remember, the trailer for the film contains scenes which are not included in the finished product. There is also a Region 1 release containing an unrated version of this film plus a new film (`Anchorman: Wake Up Ron Burgundy`) made entirely from footage not included in Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy. Its quite probable that at least three hours of footage was shot and a final storyline was only decided on during editing when they saw what worked and what didn`t, so its a wonder that there aren`t more problems with the narrative than there already are.

Will Ferrell made his name on Saturday Night Live and this is very much a `Frat Pack` movie with cameos from many of its` `members`; this is both a strength and weakness of the film. It leads to many of the biggest laughs but also a sense that the film is nothing more than an extended sketch from Saturday Night Live and that the material has been spread too thinly.