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Jimmy Breslin had been assigned to cover a meeting of politicians.
Breslin looked around, disgusted.
Thats no way to live!
The film is overstuffed with colorful anecdotes about the two men.
More important, it is suffused with the restless spirit that animated Breslin and Hamills writing.
Both found their way into newspaper jobs more or less by accident, and quickly showed off their gifts.
Stories that made them famous get rich backstories.
Five years after JFKs death, Hamill encouraged his friend Robert F. Kennedy to run for president.
Their glory days were hardly idyllic, though.
Yet the film is a powerful reminder of core journalistic values.
Its not just going your own way and finding the fresh angle the way Jimmy did with the gravedigger.
Its being willing to really go against the tide of opinion.
Theres a problem with that.
That also applies to what Hamill wrote in 1989.
Hate was just another luxury.
And Trump stood naked, revealed as the spokesman for that tiny minority of Americans who live well-defended lives.
Forget poverty and its causes.
Forget the degradation and squalor of millions.
Fry them into passivity.
Deadline Artistsarrives as newspapers are dying and local coverage is shriveling.
The most poignant interviews in the film are with its gray and frail subjects.Breslin died nearly two years ago.
Hamill, 83, is working on his 14th book.
One example: In 1980, Hamill hired an assistant, Peter Blauner.
Using those tips, Blauner became first an accomplishedNew YorkMagazine writer and then an award-winning novelist.
