Network
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!
So in case you hear that anywhere this is the movie that is from. I have seen it a few times before and it is a favorite clip on news shows when they want a quick soundbite. I think the last time I saw it was on the Glen Beck show which is funny because the guy who said it was very anti-democracy and anti-nationalism. I think its an especially sweet irony when lips like this or songs are used by the Republican Party to promote their events when the really meaning behind them have the exact opposite significance, but I digress.
So the movie really didn’t catch my attention at first. It starts off fairly slow and is very reminiscent to the opening scenes of Dawn of the Dead in the newsroom scenes. I think this is was what was turning me off because I was hoping that any second it would start showing footage of zombies and shit would really start going down.
The movie starts off with the news anchor and the center of the story breaking down on air and saying that with the recent cancellation of his show that he has nothing more to live for and will kill himself on air in a week. Well needless to say the network freaks the fuck out and wants him off air and are trying to run damage control. While this happens a few people on the network decide that they should actually put him on the air more and people will tune in if they think hes going to have a break down ever episode. Well low and behold it works and the network gets amazing ratings and make a full show out of this guys rantings and ravings. This turns they’re legitimate news show into a sort of side show of psychics and end of the world predictions.
The premise for all this pretty interesting and you would think that the rantings of the crazy newsman would be what holds your attention but it is really the network it self that is the star here. You really get a glimpse of how cold and heartless they are to exploit what ever cause it is in order to get more ratings. They wind up working directly with a terrorist organization to make a action show out of their plight and allow the newsman to all but loose his mind after his stress break down. All this made for a compelling movie but I wasn’t really drawn into it until about halfway through. Somewhere during the movie it turns from a regular drama to more of a I Heart Huckabees sort of discussion on the human condition sort of movie. My favorite parts were a couple of the newsman rants and the interactions of an older member of the network who is having an affair. Together the drama and social commentary make for a good movie but I feel like something is lost in the movie and it can’t decide what it wants to be. I couldn’t really get into the drama parts of the movie because the of the intellectual breakdowns (the I Heart Huckabees like parts) made me feel that the movie was too unrealistic and then the drama lost it’s importance. At the same time the main characters all but dismiss the new mans rants so even when watching it and I felt like he was spitting some real shit out there I got the sense the audience wasn’t suppose to really care and were just watching him to see what he did next. In the end I didn’t get the same feeling of profoundness I got when I saw I Heart Huckabees and I didn’t really wind up caring about any of the characters as I would in a normal drama because they were too over the top.
The Bottom Line
It was a good movie but if you want to watch movies off this list I say watch some of the other ones first. I don’t see what aspect of this movie really made it one of the best movies of all time other than the line “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more!” gets used frequently in pop culture. I mean seeing this movie will help you in trivial pursuit or in a family guy episode some day but it won’t make it to your favorite movie list. Again, not bad and if you don’t have anything else to watch do it but don’t go out of your way for this one.
