I recently rewatched this movie I've seen at least a dozen times and capture something new every time. It's a complete no holds barred hollowing out of the television industry, and, while television isn't the all looming force it once was (500 channels as opposed to around 7 including PBS and VHF and UHF at the time of this movie, depending on location), it still has much to say about the dissociation from reality that viewing things on a screen can create, especially when what you're witnessing is designed for the most craven response.
Plot is quite simple: long time news anchor (Howard Beale) has breakdown after being fired and loses it on air, bigwigs (Diana Christensen) notice said breakdown brought in more ratings than ever before and nurture this tendency until a monster is created that is against their best interests ($$) and now must destroy this monster. All in the way this is portrayed is what makes it so much more.
This is a deeply cynical movie, and quite prescient. A few years after this movie, the TV world was going to experience crudity on levels it had never imagined before. Morton Downey Jr. to Geraldo would usher in an age of the normalization of TV as spectacle, prurience and depravity we are very much still engaged in today. The kernel of the idea of capturing eyeballs with such content has simply been even more economically fine-tuned by other mediums, especially the Internet. Want to see beheadings, torture porn or video of people being shot to death? Sure you do. Diana predicted it. The natural progression of major character Diana's ideas are present for all to see. Only, it may not have been cynical enough in some ways. Could they have predicted reality TV? Or the endless line of meaninglessly competitive shows like Cupcake Wars? Jackass? At the beginning, it even toys with the idea of 'The Death Hour', filled with suicides and assassinations and car wrecks. We haven't seen anyone purposely killed on live TV to get ratings by a network, to my knowledge, but I doubt that is far away based on current trajectory.
Not to mention the brilliant critique of business by Arthur Jensen's (Ned Beatty) epic speech to Howard Beale. We are all just a subsidiary to business interests, AS IT SHOULD BE. The richest 1% own half the world's wealth. This was not an accident or survival of the fittest in a meritocracy, this was planned from the inception.
While the dialogue is brilliant, this dialogue is meant to convey ideas, not especially to capture how people really talk in various situations. It is more theatric than realistic. That brings us to probably the weakest part of the movie, the romantic aspect. It plays a parallel plot to the main one, and while it does serve to show that Diana is a 'Humanoid' in Beale's terms-seemingly human, but not really-it's also the weakest element. Hence, the lack of one star.
A point must be made about Faye Dunaway. This is her greatest movie. Bonnie and Clyde may have opened the door, but this broke it down. She encapsulates the inherent cynicism and calculating nature of Diana Chirstensen (play on offspring of Christ?) with near perfection. Her sheer physical presence is something to behold as well. From her impossibly high cheekbones to her lithe figure wrapped in chic 70's elegance, she steals every scene she's in. Just do yourself a favor and don't look up her more recent pics, plastic surgery is not her friend.
Will young people like this movie? Not if they want a fist bumping silly night, but if they sense they are being manipulated and want to know why, this is one place that was at ground zero.
Plot is quite simple: long time news anchor (Howard Beale) has breakdown after being fired and loses it on air, bigwigs (Diana Christensen) notice said breakdown brought in more ratings than ever before and nurture this tendency until a monster is created that is against their best interests ($$) and now must destroy this monster. All in the way this is portrayed is what makes it so much more.
This is a deeply cynical movie, and quite prescient. A few years after this movie, the TV world was going to experience crudity on levels it had never imagined before. Morton Downey Jr. to Geraldo would usher in an age of the normalization of TV as spectacle, prurience and depravity we are very much still engaged in today. The kernel of the idea of capturing eyeballs with such content has simply been even more economically fine-tuned by other mediums, especially the Internet. Want to see beheadings, torture porn or video of people being shot to death? Sure you do. Diana predicted it. The natural progression of major character Diana's ideas are present for all to see. Only, it may not have been cynical enough in some ways. Could they have predicted reality TV? Or the endless line of meaninglessly competitive shows like Cupcake Wars? Jackass? At the beginning, it even toys with the idea of 'The Death Hour', filled with suicides and assassinations and car wrecks. We haven't seen anyone purposely killed on live TV to get ratings by a network, to my knowledge, but I doubt that is far away based on current trajectory.
Not to mention the brilliant critique of business by Arthur Jensen's (Ned Beatty) epic speech to Howard Beale. We are all just a subsidiary to business interests, AS IT SHOULD BE. The richest 1% own half the world's wealth. This was not an accident or survival of the fittest in a meritocracy, this was planned from the inception.
While the dialogue is brilliant, this dialogue is meant to convey ideas, not especially to capture how people really talk in various situations. It is more theatric than realistic. That brings us to probably the weakest part of the movie, the romantic aspect. It plays a parallel plot to the main one, and while it does serve to show that Diana is a 'Humanoid' in Beale's terms-seemingly human, but not really-it's also the weakest element. Hence, the lack of one star.
A point must be made about Faye Dunaway. This is her greatest movie. Bonnie and Clyde may have opened the door, but this broke it down. She encapsulates the inherent cynicism and calculating nature of Diana Chirstensen (play on offspring of Christ?) with near perfection. Her sheer physical presence is something to behold as well. From her impossibly high cheekbones to her lithe figure wrapped in chic 70's elegance, she steals every scene she's in. Just do yourself a favor and don't look up her more recent pics, plastic surgery is not her friend.
Will young people like this movie? Not if they want a fist bumping silly night, but if they sense they are being manipulated and want to know why, this is one place that was at ground zero.