From 1943 to 1947, English writer George Orwell wrote a regular column for the left-wing newspaper Tribune with the title “As I Please.” I liked the columns not just because they were by one of my favorite writers, but also because of their brevity. Being mini-essays or micro themes, they didn’t demand as much from the reader as his essays and reviews; you could dip in and out of them without feeling guilty. In that spirit, I inaugurate a regular column of my own bearing the same title as Mr. Orwell’s.

I use the word “I,” but I hope these columns will please readers too. They are meant to be short versions of what magazine editors used to call “brights”—upbeat, inspiring, or humorous articles to leaven the sober-minded and dreary articles in the rest of the publication.  They will be brief analyses and informed opinions about the nonfiction world, especially the narrative nonfiction world.

This inaugural column focuses on the most downbeat decade in the post-war American era: the 1970s. The decade is remembered for its infamous disasters, scandals, and tragedies, but American life wasn’t all gloom and doom. It was a halcyon decade for journalism and documentary-style filmmaking.

The Journalist Who Helped Expose a Corrupt Cult. When I broke into the newspaper business in the Bay Area in the mid-1990s, older colleagues mentioned the newspaper The Point Reyes Light in reverential tones like pious Catholics do before and after receiving Holy Communion. In this pre-internet era, they would say things like That was a great small-town newspaper and still might be! I never bothered to verify their claims, but I can see what the fuss was all about.

In the 1970s, their editor, David Mitchell, helped take down the Synanon cult and received a Pulitzer Prize along with the rest of his team. He died Oct. 26 at the age of 79.

Synanon, a group formed originally to treat drugs, has been forgotten today. This is a shame. At the group’s height in the mid-to-late 1970s, the group was so influential that the great labor leader Cesar Chavez used its technique called The Game to weed out disloyal staff of his National Farm Workers Association. The cult did not mess around. To threaten an opposing counsel, members put a rattlesnake in his mailbox. Investigating Synanon took guts, and former Stanford grad and literature teacher David Mitchell had them.

Even before the Synanon story broke, Mr. Mitchell and his wife sold their house to buy the newspaper. After their expose was published, he and his wife divorced. Synanon sued Mr. Mitchell for libel in a case that went all the way to the California Supreme Court. He paid a high price for his ideals. While he was divorced four times, he was one of the few newspaper editors to have won a Pulitzer Prize.

The Surprising Origin Story of Sylvester Stallone. Hollywood legend Sylvester Stallone is known as an actor, but it was his skill as a screenwriter that made his fame possible. Mr. Stallone wrote the screenplay for the 1976 movie “Rocky” in three and a half days. Technically, the movie was fiction, but Mr. Stallone was inspired by watching a former liquor salesman, Chuck Wepner, go nearly fifteen rounds against the great Muhammad Ali in 1975. Now that story and more will be told in “Sly,” a documentary biography.

I have not seen the film but plan to do so tonight. The trailer suggests the documentary will traffic in a theme like the original “Rocky”: personal relationships are more important than conventional definitions of success. Mr. Stallone had a, well, rocky relationship with his father growing up, and he struggled to come to terms with the neglect.

The Best Movie Based on a Nonfiction Book. My old New Republic colleague David Grann, as you may have heard, has not only a new book out but his 2017 book Killers of the Flower Moon was released in theaters nationwide last week. GC asked David to name his three favorite films based on nonfiction books. He picked “All the President’s Men,” “Zodiac,” and “Adaptation.” I agree wholeheartedly with his first two choices, but I disagree with the selection of the third. David, how could you forget “The French Connection”?

Not only did the 1971 movie win the Oscar for Best Picture, but the film has also inspired countless directors, not the least of which is Vince Gilligan, creator of “Breaking Bad” and “Better Call Saul.” Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. People love “The French Connection” for its jazzy cop score, first-rate acting, gritty setting, and unbelievable chase scene. I love those qualities of the film too, but I keep coming back to the film’s theme. Ruthlessness leaves you not happy but haunted.

What did everybody else think?