Comment by Magic Marmalade:
Rank this among the movies it's most important for you to see...
...Alongside the likes of 12 Angry Men etc.
I'd been meaning to see this for as long as I can remember, and it didn't let me down. In fact, it exceeded my expectations by a long chalk, and for one very odd, and specific reason:
Irony.
The irony here consists in the fact that for those, like me, who have long heard of it, but never seen it, it is notorious for the scene in which the ageing news anchor has an on air break-down, instructing the viewing populace to join him in screaming from their windows:
"I'M MAD AS HELL!!! - AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!!!!"
...But little else substantively about the film.... Which is, of course, kind of the satirical point of the movie, that only a sensationalised moment is able to break through to the general consciousness, and all else of substance goes by the wayside.
Indeed, when this was made, it was to be considered the most biting
satire, but only a few years later, might have been considered purely
cynical... Now, of course, it is sadly neither of these to any great degree, so much as it has become mere
observation.
Observation of an objective fact.
A demented, desperate, scurrilous "news" network breaking free form the high minded standards of reporting of the time...
(If you believe these ever really existed in this "profession" in the first place)
...In favour of playing on the most primal and primitive parts of the human consciousness: Primarily: FEAR. And so becoming the collection of crazed
Disaster Porn Junkies we know and love to despise today, and indeed, duping the populace into becoming such themselves.
After initially trying to push their beleaguered news anchor away from themselves like a turd on a stick, the psychopathic, and / or Sociopathic news director (Dunaway) determines how to employ it for the network's (her own, principally) advantage in the ratings war - she's practically having orgasms over stealing the numbers away based on her colleague's psychological, messiah based breakdown, and distress, while Holden, playing his friend watches on with dismay as he is made to become the hero to the masses / cult leader / prophet / seer, believing in his own righteousness.
On top of all this, we get to see the various machinations of the most Machiavellian variety of the network hierarchy in attempting to exploit the situation, each of the higher ups jockeying for position off the back of it.
What could possibly go wrong?
This movie was, at the technical level, most impressive to me for a couple of reasons, over and above each well defined character being played brilliantly by every actor, full of breath-taking monologues and set pieces, and all to a cinematic score of.... nothing. That's right, there's no music in this film, so you just lean right into the dialogue and the scenes unaided by musical manipulation.
It will shock any modern audience as to just how prescient it was, and how painfully accurate it's speculations were regarding this morally bankrupt industry.
A real eye opener!
