Banks are failing, the dollar buys a nickel's worth of goods, the price of
oil is skyrocketing, the Saudis own everything, our food and air have gone bad.
No, this isn't a contemporary documentary, but Sidney Lumet's Oscar-winning social
... more satire, now 32
years old. Superannuated news anchor Howard Beale hits the nail on the head:
"It's a demented slaughterhouse of a world." Not to worry, lies and bulls---,
fake news and "reality TV" keep the masses in a happy haze. Screenwriter Paddy
Chayefsky and director Lumet fail to dramatically supercharge their boob tube
satire, but these veteran moralists certainly deliver a viper-tongued, often
surprisingly prescient jeremiad. There's gray dignity to Beale's despair; he
projects the pain of being an invisible man, a mere demographic datum.
Repetition may have turned Beale's rant into cliché, but when he taps into
authentic metaphysical rage, he gives voice to that which simmers in all us
sheep: "I'm a human being, Goddamnit!! My life has value. I'm mad as hell ...
and I'm not going to take it anymore!" (Everett
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