NationStates Jolt Archive

Someone brought up the movie Network in as a passing reference to make a point in another thread and, looking at it and the other films in its 'family' (Face in the Crowd and Bamboozled) I started to wonder about the relevance of those films in todays media, how predictive they are and how the actions of the characters might be recieved in todays age.

For those who haven't seen these movies...what the hell is wrong with you?...Alright, it's not that bad by a long shot, but you should see them.

The moment on which Network pivots is Howard Beale's speech on live television after he has announced that he will kill himself on the broadcast. Instead, he launches into this:
I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression. Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's work, banks are going bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.' Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,

'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!... You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
This makes him a cult figure, and a circus is built around him. The news slowly ceases to be the news and becomes a side show (there is even a psychic news, the news of tommorrow, today). Now, when I saw it I did think it became a bit of a characature as it was obviously a part of the battle between film and television that had been fought since the father of this film, Face in the Crowd. (Andy Griffith becomes a homespun hero with his 'no nonsense talk,' who also becomes eventually corrupted. Worth it for Walter Mathau's speech and to watch Andy Griffith be a dick. It's where the cliche of the person mouthing off to his fans without realizing that the camera is on comes from, making the fact that Reagan, an actor, did the same thing kinda funny-though he just mouthed off to Russia...)

My friend argues, and I have to agree to an extent, that in some degree we have achieved what is predicted in Network where specticle rules over actual news, the Bill O'Rielly's and the now defunct 'Crossfire's. The "Shut up" shows, where yelling and outragious statements pass as analysis.

What would become of Beale in todays world? Would he be a footnote? Or even that? Would he get traction or drowned out by the talking point repeating robots that make up the White Noise Machine?

Would anyone shout from their windows? Did anyone when Jon Stewart asked us to shout, "Be reasonable!!!"?

I haven't seen the movies, nor will I be able to for sometime, but, I will be thinking about this. However, I will be looking for ways to view them. I don't know what the hell is wrong with me either, but my guess is that I haven't heard of them.

My friend argues, and I have to agree to an extent, that in some degree we have achieved what is predicted in Network where specticle rules over actual news, the Bill O'Rielly's and the now defunct 'Crossfire's. The "Shut up" shows, where yelling and outragious statements pass as analysis.
I agree with you, and your friend, to some extent.
Until I post again, weighing words here.

DONE! COMMENTS WELCOME!

Disclaimer: These quotes are all from Howard Beale (HB) unless otherwise stated. Only the exact words within the quotes are commented on. Things have been removed due to irrelvance to opinions I hold, and I hope that makes my commentary easier to follow.

I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad...Everybody's...scared of losing their job...and there's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.
The general feeling in the United States, especially Michigan, the floor of the economic pit. Granholm is doing her best, but she is getting pinned for all of the things the previous governor did wrong. Nationally, nothing is really being done about it by the current administration, which is, their stance on the subject. Jobs are leaving, the dollar is falling, and people are feeling generally disinfranchised. Especially the latter end of the baby boomers, that are too young to recieve full social security benefits, and too old to prepare. No politician has a viable answer, mainly due to lack of will to approach many matters bilaterally in time, and thus, have a "purple" America so to say.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that's the way it's supposed to be. We know things are bad - worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don't go out anymore.
Air is not the cleanest. Food isn't the healthest. But that's not really the point here.

About the newscaster and how crazy is normal, that is so true. But finally, people are waking up about things like this. There have been many converstaions on, "Is there any good news in the paper today?" where I come from. Generally, the answer is no. Its as if the only thing that is newsworthy is, in one word, bad. Bad or the extreme of things. Bin Laden. Bush & Co. Kerry. And anyone who doesn't stay true to the party's motto and tries to follow their own thoughts and ideas, is labled by negative connotations.

I don't want to be sheparded around my whole life, I want to be me!

About going out? Many people here on the forums have quoted that a very small percentage of Americans own a passport. That can be interpreted as that, but it can also mean that we don't go out and have a good time anymore, be healthy, excercise, and get some different air (something I usually say because no air can really be clean these days). As an American, I think I go out and do fun things. But my parents, and my grandparents, really don't. And not too many people their age either. "I don't want to drive in this weather," or "Work was real rough today, I'll just stay home and take it easy," or "My, this is a really bad headache [and other bodily pains]." But, when people go out and do things, its escaping from reality for a little while. I know a 50 year old that does karate everyday. He's healthy and is feeling fine, because he says, "I hurt anyhow. Might as well have a reason." Anyhow, we end up in own little twisted corner, filled with strange perceptions of how the really world is, which isn't just in America. But that's from my narrow expierence.

We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'
Already addressed. I'm ahead of myself! *look above, last paragraph, in case your are just skimming*

Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad! I don't want you to protest. I don't want you to riot - I don't want you to write to your congressman because I wouldn't know what to tell you to write. I don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you've got to get mad.
Getting mad? That's good! Its a way of overcomming things. Don't know what to write, or even tell people write about Mr. Beale? Me either! Depressions? Those happen. Inflation? That happens as well. Russians? Now its the Arabs, the gays, the Latinos, globalization, the Iraq insurgency and countless other things. Crime in the street? It will always be, but we need to do our best to keep things relatively calm.

You've got to say, 'I'm a HUMAN BEING, Goddamnit! My life has VALUE!' So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell,'I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!' I want you to get up right now, sit up, go to your windows, open them and stick your head out and yell - 'I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Things have got to change. But first, you've gotta get mad!...
Are we valuable just because of the basic principal we are humans? Doesn't it really go: are we valueable for the different talents we have, for all the things we do and how we do them, for the different perspectives we bring? Its not the humans that have value, its actually what concrete things they do. Its what talents they use that go into what they are doing. Its not them. Its their assets.

To put it simply: no. And I agree with this Mr. Baele. I'm sick of feeling like some corporate tool! I'm sick of feeling like a rat in a race! I'm sick of just being someone that has something to give! I'm a person, I'm special, I'm unique! I'M AS MAD AS HELL!

But...what can I do about it? Riot like angry drunks after a Michigan State basketball game? Tear up Lansing? Tear up Helsinki? Tear up Washington D.C.? No. There's something uncivilized about that. But are the current circumstances so dire, that that is reqired, like the forefathers of America felt? Like millions of other people have felt around the world, to gain their indepence? Do I want to rage against the feudal corporate order? Yes. But, just quietly. I'm quite comfortable as I am, you see, when I'm not caught up in ideological stuggles. I like my life. I'm quite satisfied. The point is, I'd like to see my grandchildren.

Human beings are valuable. Should we rise up and waste them? We don't even know what we're doing yet:
You've got to say, 'I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!' Then we'll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it:
"I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!"
End Rant.

Now, commenting on the actual questions at hand.

Would anyone shout from their windows? Did anyone when Jon Stewart asked us to shout, "Be reasonable!!!"?
First, this point. I actually though about yelling out the window. I really did! But, I didn't think it would do anything, and starting a revolution, right here, right now just isn't a great time. I don't watch Jon Stweart, but I think I'm reasonable enough. Its just my own brand, that's all.

What would become of Beale in todays world? Would he be a footnote? Or even that? Would he get traction or drowned out by the talking point repeating robots that make up the White Noise Machine?
Mr. Beale, in todays world, would, at most, be on the news. I feel that he'd be recieved as a crazy lunatic, angry and mad, but with no plan. He wouldn't recieve any serious thought, due to the fact that people like plans. Moses had a plan. It wasn't his own, but it was a plan none the less. Bush "had" a plan when he charged into Iraq. He made it look that way. Kerry wasn't able to get across his plan, if he had one, and thus he didn't get the popular vote.

But the Pope and the Dahli Llama, there in the zone when it comes to plans! Those guys got answers to everything!
Churchill had a plan and Hitler had a plan as well, its not just relgious folk. People followed them.

But Mr. Beale does provoke us to look at our lives, even that little quote that you included. If he got enough people together, he said, "we'll" figure it out then. Total democracy is good, but in most cases, some form of leadership needs to be taken as far as moderation and laying down a solid starting ground. I've never seen two people actually agree on what to have on pizza, what to listen to for music, what movie to watch, every single time. Someone always eventually decides. The resturant with menues, the person dialing up the number, popping in the CD or DVD. If all people were to able to freely have what they decided and wanted, everything would get really clogged up.

Not that it isn't a good idea. It'd just take a rather long time.

But, over all, I think he'd get drowned out by the media and politicians saying the same things over and over. Think of all the times those religion threads pop up here. Its not like the topic gets old, there's always a good number of people attracted there for different reasons. People said the same things about the existence of God, the reasons why there is or isn't evolution, why Bush and America are all that is wrong with the world.

That's just oversimplifying everything. And Mr. Beale isn't offering something that is all that simple. He's presenting something that will take a lot of honest work. Something that will test my moral limits. If I say, "I am a HUMAN BEING! I am VALUABLE!" I can never say that someone is worthless again. If I am human, and they are human, they are enherintly valuable. Which is probably why I'm catious about opening my ear.

firstly i have to say that i agree with most of the points made so far, but i don't currently have the patience to go into a detailed analisys.

the only one of the films mentioned i've seen is the original 'Network', which seems to be the definitive film of it's type. one of the important points in the film is the end where the show's ratings begin to fall, and the network executives orchestrate the murder of Howard Beal by some kind of extremist group (it's been a while since i actually saw it). the show get's so ridiculous that the only way to sell it is with actual death.

I can't remember what point i was trying to make so feel free to disect what i've said and draw your own conclusions.

firstly i have to say that i agree with most of the points made so far, but i don't currently have the patience to go into a detailed analisys.

the only one of the films mentioned i've seen is the original 'Network', which seems to be the definitive film of it's type. one of the important points in the film is the end where the show's ratings begin to fall, and the network executives orchestrate the murder of Howard Beal by some kind of extremist group (it's been a while since i actually saw it). the show get's so ridiculous that the only way to sell it is with actual death.

I can't remember what point i was trying to make so feel free to disect what i've said and draw your own conclusions.
I actually hadn't thought of the conclusion-it is a prediction of its own kind and that's kind of interesting. Beale's anger is, in a way, common place on the shouting match news (though he's not cheerleading anything, he's actually saying, "No, this isn't right-this isn't the way things should be."), but if the circus preposed by the film exists in the talking point news, does the prediction-that the only way to maintain is to continue to up the ante, so to speak, how far will it go? What will be the point where we shoot Mr. Beale, or will things change direction before that happens (or will that cause it to happen...?)

Interesting addition, the discussion of the ending.

I actually hadn't thought of the conclusion-it is a prediction of its own kind and that's kind of interesting. Beale's anger is, in a way, common place on the shouting match news (though he's not cheerleading anything, he's actually saying, "No, this isn't right-this isn't the way things should be."), but if the circus preposed by the film exists in the talking point news, does the prediction-that the only way to maintain is to continue to up the ante, so to speak, how far will it go? What will be the point where we shoot Mr. Beale, or will things change direction before that happens (or will that cause it to happen...?)

Interesting addition, the discussion of the ending.
yes, that was my point!! thank you.:)

You're right, of course, that the film pivots on Beale's early rant, but it's Jensen's quotes that describe the world the best to me:
Arthur Jenses: It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today. THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today. And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature. And YOU WILL ATONE. Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy. There is no America; there is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.

Arthur Jensen: You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it. Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity. It is ecological balance. You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations; there are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems; one vast, interwoven, interacting, multivaried, multinational dominion of dollars.

Arthur Jensen: The world is a business, Mr. Beale; it has been since man crawled out of the slime. Our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality - one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock - all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

Howard Beale: Why me?

Arthur Jensen: Because you're on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday.

Howard Beale: I have seen the face of God.

Arthur Jensen: You just might be right, Mr. Beale. That's the piece that's the most prescient to my mind. Chayefsky was hardly the first to come up with the notion--Heinlein covered the same ground in "Friday" at the very least, and I wouldn't be surprised to find similar thoughts in ancient literature for that matter. But the world Jensen describes is certainly the world we live in today.