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Spotlight (film)

Spotlight is a 2015 American biographical drama film directed by Tom McCarthy and written by McCarthy and Josh Singer.[4][5] The film follows The Boston Globe's "Spotlight" team, the oldest continuously operating newspaper investigative journalist unit in the United States,[6] and its investigation into a decades-long coverup of widespread and systemic child sex abuse by numerous priests of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston. Although the plot was original, it is loosely based on a series of stories by the Spotlight team that earned The Globe the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.[7] The film features an ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, Stanley Tucci, Brian d'Arcy James, Liev Schreiber, and Billy Crudup.[8]

This article is about the 2015 film. For the 1927 film, see The Spotlight (film).

Spotlight

  • September 3, 2015 (2015-09-03) (Venice)
  • November 6, 2015 (2015-11-06) (United States)

129 minutes[1]

United States

English

$20 million[2]

$98.7 million[3]

Spotlight was shown in the Out of Competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival,[9] the Telluride Film Festival and the Special Presentations section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.[10] It was released on November 6, 2015, by Open Road Films and grossed $98 million worldwide.[3] It received widespread critical praise, with critics lauding the performances of the cast, historical accuracy and screenplay; it won numerous guilds' and critics' association awards, and was named one of the best films of 2015 by various publications. Spotlight won the Academy Award for Best Picture, along with Best Original Screenplay, from six total nominations, making it the first Best Picture winner since The Greatest Show on Earth (1952) to win only one other Oscar. The film also won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture.

Plot[edit]

In 1976, at a Boston Police station, two policemen discuss the arrest of Fr. John Geoghan for child molestation. A high-ranking cleric talks to the mother of the victimized children. An assistant district attorney then enters the precinct and tells the policemen not to let the press learn what has happened. The arrest is not publicized and Geoghan is released.


In 2001, Marty Baron, the new managing editor of The Boston Globe, meets Walter "Robby" Robinson, the editor of the newspaper's "Spotlight" investigative team. After Baron reads a Globe article about a lawyer, Mitchell Garabedian, charging that Cardinal Bernard Law, the Archbishop of Boston, knew about Geoghan's sexual abuse of children and did nothing to stop it, Baron urges the Spotlight team to investigate. Journalist Michael Rezendes contacts Garabedian, who initially declines to be interviewed. Though he is told not to, Rezendes reveals that he is on the Spotlight team and convinces Garabedian to talk.


Initially believing that they are following the story of one priest who was moved to new assignments several times, the Spotlight team begin to uncover a pattern of sexual abuse by other priests in Massachusetts and an ongoing cover-up by the Boston Archdiocese. Through Phil Saviano, who heads the victims' rights group Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), the team is led to widen their search to thirteen priests. Richard Sipe, a former priest who worked to rehabilitate sexually abusive priests, tells them that his studies suggest that there are approximately 90 abusive priests in Boston (6% of priests). Through their research, the team develops a list of 87 names and begin to find victims to back up their suspicions.


As the team realizes the sheer scale of the investigation, it begins to take a toll on their lives: reporter Matt Carroll learns one of the priest rehabilitation centers is on the same block as his family's home but cannot tell his children or his neighbors to avoid spoiling the story; reporter Sacha Pfeiffer finds herself unable to attend church with her grandmother; Rezendes pushes to get the story out quickly to prevent further abuse; and Robinson faces pushback from some of his close friends who he learns were complicit in covering up the abuse.


When the September 11 attacks occur, the team is forced to de-prioritize the story. They regain momentum when Rezendes learns from Garabedian that there are publicly available documents that confirm Cardinal Law was made aware of the abuse and ignored it. Although Rezendes argues vociferously to run the story immediately, before more victims suffer and rival newspapers publish comparable articles, Robinson steadfastly refuses, arguing the team needs to research further so that the systemic problem can be more fully exposed. After the Globe wins a case to have even more legal documents unsealed that provide the evidence of that larger picture, the Spotlight team finally begins to write the story and plan to publish their findings in early 2002.


As they are about to go to print, Robinson admits that he learned during the investigation that he was sent a list of 20 sexually abusive priests by lawyer Eric MacLeish in 1993, on which Robinson never followed up. Baron still commends Robinson and the Spotlight team's efforts to expose the crimes now. The story goes to print with a weblink to the documents that expose Law's inaction and a phone number for victims of abusive priests. The next morning, the team is inundated with calls from victims coming forward to tell their stories.


A textual epilogue notes that Law resigned in December 2002 and was eventually promoted to the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, and presents a list of 105 U.S. communities and 101 others around the world where major scandals involving abuse by priests have taken place.

as Michael Rezendes[11][12]

Mark Ruffalo

as Walter "Robby" Robinson[13]

Michael Keaton

as Sacha Pfeiffer[11]

Rachel McAdams

as Matt Carroll[14]

Brian d'Arcy James

as Marty Baron[13]

Liev Schreiber

as Ben Bradlee Jr.[5]

John Slattery

as Mitchell Garabedian, an attorney representing victims of sexual abuse[13]

Stanley Tucci

Gene Amoroso as , Boston Globe general investigative reporter[15]

Stephen Kurkjian

as Jim Sullivan, an attorney representing the Church[5][16]

Jamey Sheridan

as Eric MacLeish, an attorney representing victims of sexual abuse[13][16]

Billy Crudup

Maureen Keiller as , Boston Globe columnist[17]

Eileen McNamara

as Richard Sipe, psychotherapist (telephone voice, uncredited)[18]

Richard Jenkins

as Peter Conley

Paul Guilfoyle

as Phil Saviano of SNAP[19]

Neal Huff

Michael Countryman as Richard Gilman, publisher of the Boston Globe

as Joe Crowley

Michael Cyril Creighton

as Judge Constance Sweeney

Laurie Heineman

David Fraser as John Albano

[20]

as Principal Bill Kemeza

Tim Progosh

as Patrick McSorley[21]

Jimmy LeBlanc

Production[edit]

Writing[edit]

The film was written by Tom McCarthy and co-writer Josh Singer. When McCarthy was asked how he and his co-author tackled the research and writing process, he said:

Reception[edit]

Box office[edit]

Spotlight grossed $45.1 million in the United States and Canada and $53.2 million in other countries for a worldwide total of $98.3 million, against a production budget of $20 million.[3] The Hollywood Reporter calculated the film made a net profit of up to $10 million.[40]


In the opening weekend of its limited release, the film grossed $295,009 from five theaters ($59,002 average), one of the highest per-screen averages of any release of 2015.[41] The film grossed $4.4 million in the first weekend during its wide release, finishing 8th at the box office.[42]

Catholic Archdiocese of Boston sex abuse scandal

Catholic Church sexual abuse cases

, a 2019 French-Belgian film about three victims of clerical sexual abuse

By the Grace of God

Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP)

, a 1976 film portraying the Washington Post investigation into the Watergate scandal; the overseer of the Post investigation, Ben Bradlee, is the father of Ben Bradlee Jr., the overseer of the Globe investigation

All the President's Men

Post-assault treatment of sexual assault victims

Official website

at IMDb

Spotlight

at AllMovie

Spotlight

at Rotten Tomatoes

Spotlight

from The Boston Globe

"The story behind the Spotlight movie"