Rollicking new film Ink makes divisive media mogul Rupert Murdoch into a hero

Danny Boyle's high-energy drama about Murdoch's early years in UK newspapers has opened at the Venice Film Festival – and its flattering portrayal of the man himself is causing debate.

Rupert Murdoch is one of the most influential media figures of the last half-century. One of the inspirations for Logan Roy in the TV series Succession, the 95-year-old mogul has reshaped the modern media world via his ownership of countless newspapers and television channels, up to and including Fox News.

Whether he has reshaped it for better or worse is a matter of debate. To some, he is a visionary businessman and a champion of the free press. Others believe that certain harmful parts of that free press can be traced back to his door.

This debate is touched upon in Ink, a rollicking new drama about how Murdoch established himself in UK media in the 1960s and '70s. Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, Slumdog Millionaire) and adapted by James Graham from his own play, Ink opened yesterday at the Venice Film Festival to enthusiastic reviews – and some questions about whether it was too soft on the tycoon at its centre.

How the film frames Murdoch

Whereas a controversial recent dramatisation of Donald Trump's early years in business, The Apprentice, portrayed its protagonist in a less than flattering light, the Murdoch played by Guy Pearce in Ink is a plucky underdog: a fearless rebel who takes on the patronising snobs of England's outdated elite. In scene after scene, aristocratic bullies sneer at him just because he is Australian – so even when they make a fair point about the damage that he is doing, they're so loathsome that it's tempting to take his side.

Some critics in Venice were sceptical. John Bleasdale in Time Out called Ink "a toothless, apolitical film" with a "bizarrely moral" Murdoch. Boyle, for his part, has said that he sympathises with the anti-establishment Murdoch of 1969. At a press conference in Venice yesterday, the director stated that, at the time, Murdoch was "a breath of fresh air in what was a very rigid British society".

The time in question is 1969. Having made his mark in Australia, Murdoch moves to London, buys an ailing British daily tabloid newspaper, The Sun, and appoints a........

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