My mom has been on me to see the movie "Network" for a while now. I am currently cat-sitting for her (interesting news: Felix and I are getting pretty chummy - who knew? he must sense that we are kindred and emotionally stunted spirits) and she left me a note that it was on Encore tonight at 8pm.
Well, my friends? If "Goodnight and Good Luck" blew your mind, and you're cacking for your mom to finish "Shock Doctrine" so you can storm through it, and you think the media is shit and that a handful of corporations control the world: watch "Network". Don't take my word for it, though. Wikipedia says "Network has continued to receive recognition, decades after its initial release. In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2002, it was inducted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame as a film that has "set an enduring standard for American entertainment." In 2006, Chayefsky's script was voted one of the top ten movie scripts of all-time by the Writers Guild of America, East. In 2007, the film was 64th among the Top 100 Greatest American Films as chosen by the American Film Institute". And it won four Academy Awards.
I get despondent about the state of the media today. I don't have cable. I believe that a right wing government with a corporatist agenda has high jacked our media to create a "dumbing down" effect on the general populace so that we will become stupid, complacent, subtly depressed and easily manipulated consumers that are too embroiled in whatever absolutely abhorrent reality tv show is currently being discussed at a water cooler near you that we fail to notice that the rug is being wrenched from beneath our feet.
Watch this movie.
6 comments:
Amen Sista!
Will definately have to watch this movie. Thanks
I'm sure you've read his work, but I recommend you read Noam Chompsky's "Manufacturing Consent". Dude really opened my eyes to the world of "american propaganda".
Yeah, movies don't get much better than Network.
Yeah. I do get really down about the media, but I take heart that there are people out there producing movies like "Network" and "Good Night and Good Luck" and "My Dinner with Andre" and "Idiocracy". So we're not alone...
Smallsteps - I'm about halfway through Chomsky's "Hegemony or Survival". It's hard to read because it enrages me so much!
That's pretty much all we watch around here is movies and we've gotten on a kick here recently to watch the classics (black and whites) on TCM. And I hear it from people all the time "we don't watch the news or read the paper anymore...." They either don't tell you anything about stuff you witness happening and think "oh we'll hear about that on the news" or they tell you crap. The only thing halfway decent on network TV is Two and a half Men, because One guy is a womanizing drunk and the kid farts all the time. Now that's true to life TV.
I think everyone should start using the "I'm mad as hell...." speech when it comes to spending money.
I just bought Hegemony last week, but I'm not ready to dive into the choas of global dominance just yet!!
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