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.
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