“Forgotten Hollywood”- Mad as Hell…
Manny P. here… 
“`A team of media brokers are contemplating ways to find a way around a political decision that sinks their future legacy. Losing is too awful to contemplate. Drastic (dare I mention), unlawful decisions are reached to save their collective butts. No, I am not referring to strategy applied to alter a recently decisive election. I am analyzing a visionary screenplay that predicted current ways we consume news and information. Network was released in 1976.
“`Paddy Chayefsky used his written words to draw lines in the sand about culture. A scathing look at broadcasting predicted the rise of reality television, live audiences that can embolden questionable behavior in front of a camera and the creation of the partisan twenty-four-hour news cycle.
“`Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Ned Beatty, and Robert Duvall were pitch-perfect as heathens to media ratings. As the narrative progresses, their decisions become more reprehensible as they develop programming featuring revolutionaries-as-stars, and an unbalanced mad as hell news anchor. An ultimate decision involves a live assassination on television during network sweeps. The moral compass of the film is played by the dependable William Holden.
“`Network is special for accuracy in its prediction that television is a sometimes reckless and even dangerous way to consume information. Plus, 1976 was a special year for movie making with productions, including All the Presidents Men, Bound for Glory, Taxi Driver, Carrie, Marathon Man, Silver Streak, The Shootist, and of course, Rocky. Adaptations of A Star is Born and King Kong were also released.
“`Satire remains a steadfast platform as a way to examine cracks to our democracy. Network is the reliable seed from films such as Citizen Kane, Ace in the Hole, A Face in the Crowd, among others. And this might be the finest of the bunch. It also served to inspire the creation of My Favorite Year, Broadcast News, Quiz Show, and The Social Network.
“`Well, that is all I have. Now, I am prepared to travel to a press conference in Pennsylvania at the Four Seasons something-or-other.
Until next time> “never forget”
This entry was posted on Thursday, November 12th, 2020 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Blog by Manny Pacheco. You can follow any comments to this post through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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