Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times (Peter Jones, 2009): USA

Reviewed by Collier Grimm. Viewed at The Santa Barbara Film Festival.

In 1884 Harrison Gray Otis bought the unsuccessful Los Angeles Times newspaper, became its publisher, and formed the Times-Mirror Company. Otis became the first of a four-generation dynasty that transformed the paper into the second largest Metropolitan newspaper and fourth-most widely distributed in the United States. In Inventing L.A.: The Chandlers and Their Times, director Peter Jones takes moviegoers on a History Channel-like exploration of the Chandler family reign at the Los Angeles Times. In fact, later this year, Jones’ film on the rise and fall of one of L.A.’s most influential families will be aired nationwide on PBS.

Otis, and his four-generation family of publishers to follow, was constantly criticized for unethical journalism; for a long time the paper was as close to being right-wing as Fox News. Otis and his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, fought against the organization of local unions, and supported efforts to expand L.A.’s water supply for their own gains. Roman Polanski directed the fictional version of this story in his 1974 film, Chinatown.

The film follows each Chandler’s time in power, and reveals the eventual end to their period of influence at the L.A. Times. Although the paper did experience a period of legitimate reporting and Pulitzer Prize winning journalism, family differences tore the paper–and it’s integrity–apart.

I highly recommend this film to anyone at the Santa Barbara Film Festival looking for a highly entertaining history lesson in less than two hours. The theme of finding moral credibility, even in the face of opposition, rings true for all of us during this time of social and political transformation.