Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything 

(dir. Jackie Jesko)

By: Adam Freed

If ever there were a member of the television media worthy of a documentary, that person would be Barbara Walters.  Director Jackie Jesko’s inspirational and celebratory film Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything illuminates the unmistakable impact that Barbara Walters made on the role of women in the workforce, in national television and in journalism.  Before Walters the list of women who had presented the nightly news on one of America’s 3 network stations totaled at zero.  She is a trailblazer in every sense of the word and Walters had to develop a rhino-skinned approach to dealing with the male dominated industry that hadn’t the time, respect or patience for a fresh faced young lady, no matter how crafty and gifted she may have been. No one would have suspected that in a very short amount of time the daughter of a Boston nightclub owner would one day go on to usurp even the great Walter Cronkite as the most viewed and trusted name in nightly news and entertainment.

According to Tell Me Everything, the springboard to unleashing Barbara Walters’ superpower, as a one on one interviewer occurred in 1977, only one year after signing a 5 year, 5 million dollar contract to co-host the ABC evening news with Harry Reasoner.  The jet fuel to Walters’ career thought was the pitching, organizing, and hosting of an exclusive interview with then Egyptian President Anwar El-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachim Begin.  The bad blood between the nations had been brewing from the long standing feud between Muslim and Jewish leadership.  It was Walters who sought the humanity in each of the powerful men, and allowed the world to see them side by side, regardless of their politics, as individuals acting, as they saw it, in the best interest of their countries, rather than as bloodthirsty villains hellbent on destruction.  No, Barbara Walters didn’t achieve Middle East peace, but she did cement herself as a powerhouse in the world of high voltage interviews.  This much deserved crown as queen of the interview afforded Walters with an endless list of fascinating subjects that included major newsmakers, world leaders and celebrities.  Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything presents the most fascinating of Walters’ interviews in abundance, including the Menendez Brothers, Michael Jackson, Bette Midler and a much sought after exclusive with then infamous White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

Jesko’s film only steps ankle deep into the pool of Walter’s flaws and regrets, most of which can be summarized in a sentence or two.  This aspect of Tell Me Everything views more as a “tell all” autobiography in which the true nature of a subject’s shortcomings are only alluded to, rather than revealed and embraced.  There is likely not an audience for a Barbara Walters takedown documentary, nor is there likely enough fodder to warrant such a film, but to glance over missteps like having her only child sent away to a remote boarding school for three years to dating infamous New York legal conman Roy Cohn, there is certainly more meat on the bone that Jackie Jesko’s film chooses to explore.  Walters, who passed away at the age of 93, left behind a legacy as one of the fiercest and most honest interviewers in television history.  Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything certainly captures the impact of her incredible legacy, only to shy away from some of the shadowy shortcomings the famed broadcaster may have held in pursuit of her legacy.

Target Score 6.5/10 - Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything is a fascinating documentary unearthing the life and career trajectory of one of television’s most influential people.  Although it doesn’t work very hard to unearth Walters’ faults, Jackie Jesko’s documentary is, like a Barbara Walters interview, captivating and infinitely watchable.

Barbara Walters: Tell Me Everything is included in Movie Archer's coverage of the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival