Posted on 06/16/2010 10:33:40 AM PDT by Bokababe
The other day I ran across a clip from the 1976 film "Network" -- of course, the "Mad As Hell" speech which is a perfect match for the political mood of the country today.
But then I remembered there were some other great speeches & scenes, and when I reviewed them again, sure enough -- it right on the money for today!
No, I am not saying that a writer in 1976 had some magical powers to predict the future, but yesterday's hyperbola is today's reality. How weird is that?
The World is a Corporate Holding Company
Freedom Ping!
Great scene, but terrible movie overall.
You can also make the case that Beale was the fanatic set up by the Powers That Be to create the impression that the fed up people are absolutely nuts.
It has been awhile since I watched Network, so I may be making a bad comparison.
I’ve heard both Glenn Beck fans and haters compare him to Beale.....both as the real voice of the disgruntled to the man set up to make us disgruntled look nuts to middle of the road people.
Interesting psychology either way.
Well, don't know about you all but I am definitely "Mad as Hell, and I'm not gonna take it any more!"
Paddy Chayefsky was a visionary. “Network” is one his finest scripts and one of the greatest films ever made.
Funny......I was just thinking about that movie in regards to how prophetic Paddy Cheyevsky had been ;-)
Chayefsky was a prophet.
Ned Beatty was perfect.
“Chayefsky was a prophet.”
Well, at least you could spell it (or looked it up) ;-)
I might also add a lot of movies are uncanny at their ability to show a future.
You can chalk it up to the law of averages, or perhaps an ability of creative people to view a version of the future that is accurate, or even the way out there thought that it is predictive programming or a riddle to the upcoming events.
People talked bout how “no one saw 9 11 coming” but in a little watched X FILES spin off called the Lone Gunmen, in early 2001, there is an uncanny plotline involving flying a hijacked plane into the WTC. They even show the plane about to impact right before the Lone Gunmen guys take the plane back from remote control and miss the WTC.
I’m not saying anything about that one way or another, but it is certainly bizarre.
The movie Knowing last year had an oil rig explosion in the gulf with oil spill that look remarkably like what happened just a few months later.
A book manuscript was written by the brother of the Oklahoma Gov Frank Keating BEFORE the Oklahoma City Bombing with an uncanny similarity of the event, right down to how the bomber was caught on the interstate. The character was named Tom McVey and blew up the building in OKC..it was written two years before the OK City bombing took place. Final Jihad by Martin Keating. Tom McVey was caught in the book on the interstate with a broken tail light, Tim McVeigh was caught on the interstate with because of the license plate. They have actually published the book and used it’s “prophetic nature” to sell it. Mentions a TWA flight and WTC in it as well.
Body Scanners at the airport showed up in Total Recall...on and on and on.
Coincidences happen.....
Mr. Jensen. The best monologue in the movie.
Probably cause Jimmy Carter, the 2nd worst President in 150 years, was President then.
To me O'Reilly is Beale, and Rupert Murdoch is Arthur Jensen.
I have to take issue with this. Network is a GREAT movie. It was way ahead of its time. It does require a full, uniterrupted viewing.
Paddy Chayefsky (politics nonwithstanding) wrote some of the great movies and teleplays of his time. Marty and The Hospital are great. But in my mind, Network was completely prophetic.
Demise of network news? Check. Entertainment taking over the news division? Check. Media driven by ratings and mo ney? Double check. Corporate interests trumpeting overall? Yup. And I actually see a little bit of Howard Beale in Glenn Beck. Ned Beatty has a great monologue in the film.
For those of you not familiar with it, Netflix it. Make up your own mind.
I thinks most Americans are going to eventually have their Howard Beale moment if they haven’t already. Hopefully sooner rather than later. I know I’ve had mine.
And some sources get it exactly wrong. I remember listening to an NPR panel discussion in the afternoon. The given was that the United States, the sole remaining super power, was an empire. The question was whether the U.S. should explicitly admit it and openly throw its weight around accordingly? That discussion took place on 9/10/2001.
The final insult by the media is its ability to sell the people the fraud that the media should be beyond control.
Yeah Bill O plays more to the man of the people regular guy in the middle than Beck does...so I can definitely see that.
Yes, Cheyefsky was an incredible genius, intellectually and emotionally. He had the ability to tell an "every man story" with incredible elegance.
But when Murdoch tells O’Reilly to jump, O’Reilly says “How High?”
Any man who lived under Communism, like Chayefsky, will have insight the average American can never have.
I’m existentially mad as hell.
Kill your television.
It was a prescient movie for sure. Finch was amazing. Bobby Duval is always great, and Faye Dunaway was still hot back then. But I don’t like old William Holden.
In general I just don’t like movies from the 70’s, with the exception of the Godfathers and Outlaw Josey Wales. Overall it was a pointless decade, particularly for Hollywood.
French Connection won best picture and in 72 and I thought that movie sucked.
Just my opinion. I have a friend who says Network is his favorite movie. So I guess everyone is different.
Ned’s Atomic Dustbin were visionaries, too.
Actually I loved many of the 1970's films & TV shows, because in many cases it was the last time we ever got to see some of the old 30's, 40's and 50's stars in acting roles.
And, while maybe they thought wrong, the 70's was still an era when people thought about their lives and what mattered to them. There were some really powerful films -- The Godfather, The Deerhunter (that literally left me speechless) & some real brilliant pieces.
The 80's on, was mostly decadence and fluff in film & TV. Lowest common denominator pleasers.
But maybe that's just my take on it, too.
I loved the scene with all the hippies and flower children pondering over the linear programming results designed to maximize their own monetary returns.
The story was great, chillingly prophetic.
I only wish they wouldn’t have used all the foul language - it seemed that every other word was an f-bomb. Except for that, I’d watch it with a teenager.
You are right about the old stars fading away in the 70’s. I’m not sure I enjoyed watching them all get old.
The yuppie 80’s gave us a lot of movies about misunderstood teens. John Hughes, etc. The children of baby boomers, gen X. So spoiled, but in a different way than boomers.
Movies became more fun in the 80’s. Back to the Future and Indiana Jones.
Hollywood’s evolution has been interesting.
My favorite channel is TCM
“Paddy Chayefsky was a visionary. “Network” is one his finest scripts and one of the greatest films ever made.”
Agreed.
Which is why you will almost never see it shown on television.
Too bad that Peter Finch had to be awarded his Oscar posthumously.
You know, I watch the DVD so often (at least once a year) that I never noticed, but you’re right... I don’t think I’ve ever seen it television.
Agreed, except most teenagers I know could beat me at a swearing contest, even though they don't do it around me out of respect.
Frankly, if it were me, I tell the teenager, "Look, I don't like the swearing in this film, but otherwise the film's main message is something I think that you should see. This is in my opinion -- to a large extent -- what the world looks like today. The question is, how we fix it". Kids get it, often better than we think they do.
But that's just my two cents on the issue.
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