Tom McCarthy on Ultimate Takeaway of "Spotlight": "Film Is About Personal Accountability and Responsibility, and Not Just Institutionally, but in Terms of the Ctizenry"

Tom McCarthy says, 

I think ultimately the film is about personal accountability and responsibility, and not just institutionally, but in terms of the citizenry. And asking ourselves, "What was my part in this? What can I do to make it better?," and I think that's something we should all be doing more often instead of just pointing fingers and saying, "This is bad, this is wrong, they're bad, they're wrong." I think we can all have some impact in that way.

Two points: 

1. As Leah Mickens points out in her stellar essay on "Spotlight," one of the key points of this film was to make us begin to think about how more of us are complicit in the moral misbehavior of institutions and cultures than finger-pointing analysis permits us to recognize. We are part of the problem, insofar as we go along with the system, refuse to see, refuse to open our mouths.

2. And so the solution to situations in which institutions engage in moral misbehavior involves us. It's not just about them and how evil they are. It's also about us and our obligation to act.

It's about how the easy finger-pointing and name-calling let us off the hook.

Thanks to Chris Morley for providing a link to the Guardian article by Henry Barnes and Jonross Swaby featuring this video.