Mike Wallace Is Here (2019)

Mike Wallace Is Here review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

This Mike Wallace documentary plays as both a bio on such a prolific reporter as well as a best-of hits of his best interviews. It’s perfectly suited for those craving both a biography on one of the best news men to ever grace television as well as a highlight reel of his piercing exchanges with figures like Larry King and Putin. Where other interviewers may fear to tread, Wallace finds a way to extract something more, displaying a fearlessness with any person he interviews.

The film chooses a very interesting interview to open with. Wallace finds himself interviewing Bill O’Reilly, the big blowhard of Fox News who has long since been dethroned for being a sexually harassing creep. During the interview, Wallace brings up the outbursts and childish behavior that Bill has often been known for on his Fox News program The O’Reilly Factor. He plays a smash cut of familiar clips that most know him well for; arguing to cut off a mic, shouting down his interviewees, and saying really awful and incendiary things about politics. But then O’Reilly surprises Wallace by saying he learned everything about his level of journalism from him. It makes one question just what kinda legacy Wallace has left.

To find out what led to this point, the film divulges back in time to Wallace’s early days of television. And I do mean the early days, where television was still a new and experimental medium. He took gigs as an announcer on various programs and would soon ascend into the world of news. This would eventually lead to him developing one of the most powerful news programs ever made, 60 Minutes.

Wallace’s personal life also comes in the crosshairs as well. Amid his many interviews, he deals with the death of his son and it is not something he moves from well. During one very revealing interview, he is asked if he had suicidal thoughts after such a loss. “Of course,” he admits. Who wouldn’t feel that way after such a tragedy? And yet Wallace continues onward. We can see that it did affect his behavior to a degree, as seen in some unseen deleted bits of footage where he is constantly cursing at the director for shots or cursing himself for flubbing lines.

The interviews are just so fascinating to watch, especially for the unseen footage before and after setting up for filming. One of the spiciest happens to be the interview with Barbara Streisand, where she admits she hates Wallace with every fiber of her being. “I think that’s a good part to stop at,” admits Wallace right before the cameras turn off at the end of the interview. Of course, how could Wallace’s classic interview with Donald Trump not be included, held during the 1980s? When Wallace brings up the topic of politics, Trump says he’s not interested in politics at all, a clip that was circulated quite a bit during his presidency.

There are simply too many great interviews of a revealing nature to mention in this review. I’ll just state that the highlights of the program include Larry King, Oprah Winfrey, Ruhollah Khomeini, and Vladimir Putin. There’s also a lot of smaller interviews that showcase how Wallace was able to challenge his subjects on topic of racism and American imperialism. One of the most shocking happens to be an interview he had with a soldier who spoke far too calmly about his unit killing civilian families, including babies. Wallace was brave enough to take the interview a step further by asking how one could kill a baby. The soldier gives the response of a damaged man who describes the horrors of war with an uneasy calmness.

Mike Wallace is Here jumps a bit all over the place but it’s still an incredibly important piece of journalism history well worth the watch. It’s a strong reminder of what gutsy journalism used to be and something we should hope for in the future. Hopefully, another Wallace will come about to cut through the BS of those decrying fake news, a catchphrase that hopefully dies with the conservative fascist movement being slowly eroded.