Katherine Lanpher, The Takeaway: Listen to this. This is how the newspaper used to sound on the silver screen:

Sheriff: I’ve got the tickets for the hanging here boys.
Murphy: Why can’t you hang this guy at five o’clock instead of seven?
Bensinger: Sure, it won’t hurt you and we can make the city edition.
Sheriff: Oh well, that’s kind of raw, Roy. After all, I can’t hang a man in his sleep just to please a newspaper.
Newsman: No, but you can reprieve him twice so the hanging is three days before election, can’t you?

Katherine Lanpher: That’s His Girl Friday. Here’s how newspapers sound in the movies now:

Della Frye: Are you taking me off the story?
Cameron Lynne: Well watching seasoned reporters at work on a big story, being part of it all you’ll learn a lot. So, Ted Moody, what do you think?
Cal McAffrey [to Frye]: Don’t let her do it.
Cameron Lynne: Excuse me, you’re defending her now?
Cal McAffrey: She’s fine, I can work with her.
Cameron Lynne: But Cal, she’s inexperienced isn’t —
Della Frye: I’m not giving up the story.

Katherine Lanpher: Ah that’s a clip from a movie that’s in theaters right now? State Of Play with Russell Crowe as a hard-boiled investigative reporter in Washington. It’s just one of two movies out right now where the big stars are newspapers. The other is The Soloist, that tells the story, the true story, of an LA Times columnist — in the movie played by Robert Downey Jr. — who helps a homeless man, once a musical prodigy. Of course, these days, if you’re looking for a real weepy, just look at real newspapers. They’re dying, filing for bankruptcy, cutting back on pages and delivery, and in many cases they’re shutting down. So why are they showing up so healthy on the silver screen? Well, for the answer, we’re going to turn to A.O. Scott. He’s a movie critic at our partner,The New York Times, and we’re really happy to have him in here this morning.

A.O. Scott, The New York Times: It’s great to be here, thank you.

Katherine Lanpher: OK, State of Play and The Soloist: does this mean that the movie-going public is hungry for tales of newspaper derring-do?

A.O. Scott: Um. I don’t know. It certainly means that the Hollywood studios still believe that there’s some mileage in the image, in the heroic image of journalists and journalism and it’s sort of an interesting coincidence that these movies come out right at the time when anyone who is still reading the newspaper is seeing headlines about how the newspapers are all on the verge of collapse. I have to say that the very last?I didn’t think State of Play was a particularly good movie?but the very last image of it, over the closing credits, of the plates being set and the presses running and the you know these stacks…

Katherine Lanpher: Oh hang on, I’m getting excited just as you’re talking about it!

A.O. Scott: I was watching it in a screening room I think mostly full of print journalists and we were all just weeping at the end, but it’s an odd movie too because that movie I think seems particularly, curiously out of touch with the realities of the newspaper business. The Soloist is a little different, because it’s not centrally about the newspaper business. The main character’s a journalist, you do see the environment he works in, in fact, the Los Angeles Times allowed the film to be shot in their newsroom. But, it’s a somewhat more personal story about this writer and this musician.

Katherine Lanpher: I think one thing that’s intriguing is that in State of Play they do try to make some nod of the head to the changing face of journalism in that Russell Crowe portrays a print reporter and then Rachel McAdams, who we heard in that clip along with Helen Mirren, she is the feisty blogger.

A.O. Scott: She’s the blogger and what she does — she works for the paper but she writes the sort of politics/gossip blog, it’s a Washington paper and Helen Mirren, who is also in that clip, is the editor. And the interesting thing is that they have, Russell Crowe and Rachel McAdams have, I mean it’s completely without any sexual or romantic chemistry, but they have this kind of, you know, back and forth bantering relationship. But, and he sort of sees her as this young, upstart who’s totally irresponsible, just makes stuff up and puts gossip out there on the Web…

Todd Zwillich, The Takeaway: And he’s totally grizzled, and seasoned, and overweight and probably drinks too much.

A.O. Scott: Right, and he has this messy desk…

Katherine Lanpher: [sighs] Sorry, you’ve just described my perfect heartthrob.

A.O. Scott: At the end he gives her a necklace made out of pens because she doesn’t have any pens, she just uses her iPhone.

Katherine Lanpher: Oh you’re making me cry.

A.O. Scott: But the interesting thing about it is that the lessons they have to teach, it all goes one way. So, you would think — or it would be a more interesting story if he learned something about journalism in the new media environment, but it all goes — she learns the importance of a good solid story. He has some ethical problems of his own: He’s working on a story about his former college roommate whose wife he used to sleep with, but he can barely get through those with Rachel McAdams help. But, she says at one point, she has this line when they’re deep into the story and he says, well aren’t you going to put this up on the site and she says, no, some stories are so important they need to be on newsprint.

Katherine Lanpher: Well I’m shocked, shocked to hear that movies sometimes do not portray life realistically.

A.O. Scott: Well it’s a wonderful sentiment but perhaps if you want people actually to read the story in a timely way you might want to put it up on the Web.

Katherine Lanpher: You know, one thing that I can’t help but notice, and this is more common in journalism than it is on films about newspapers and that is, as newspaper journalists — as journalists in general — we’ve covered so many industries that have either had to have wrenching change or die, and yet when it’s our own industry…

A.O. Scott: Now it’s our turn, right.

Katherine Lanpher: Well then it is a tragedy. And I’m wondering if the way we’re looking at these two films doesn’t somehow relate to that.

A.O. Scott: Well I think there is a lot of sentimentality that journalists have about our own professiona dn our own jobs and I think that goes back even into, you know, flusher times. And I think some of that is reflected on screen. I mean, just as you were swooning over Russell Crowe, a lot of us over the years have seen…

Katherine Lanpher: And by the way, it wasn’t Russell Crowe…

A.O. Scott: I understand.

Katherine Lanpher: it was the image of him as a newspaper guy, all right? I just want to be clear there

A.O. Scott: Gotcha, gotcha. He’s looked better, I’ll say, than in this film. But, you know, this idea of us as sort of these hard-bitten, cynical but ultimately idealistic crusaders after the truth- we’re not in it for ourselves, but just we’re going after the story…

Katherine Lanpher: You’re making me cry.

A.O. Scott: Yeah, we get all choked up.

Katherine Lanpher: All right, quickly, for the non-newspaper people listening to this, State of Play, should you go or not?

A.O. Scott: No

Katherine Lanpher: Ok, The Soloist?

A.O. Scott: Sure.

Katherine Lanpher: That was a hands in the air. A.O. Scott, I hope you come back.

A.O. Scott: I hope so too.