Mad City ««½
PG-13, 115m. 1997
Cast & Credits: Dustin Hoffman (Max Brackett), John Travolta (Sam Bailey), Alan Alda (Kevin Hollander), Robert Prosky (Lou Potts), Blythe Danner (Mrs. Banks). Screenplay by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams. Directed by Costa-Gavras.
Like the residents of Madeline, California who were so caught up in the day’s tragic events in Mad City, I, too, was enticed enough by director Costa-Gavras’ social commentary about the television news media that when I saw it last November, I ranked it ninth on my list of the ten best films of 1997.
I am a sucker for movies about the press. I especially love those films that deliver a message about how the media and society get caught up in the heat of the moment whenever a major story breaks. I didn’t realize it though until I saw Mad City again on video the film’s message is an all-too-familiar one and that unfortunately is the problem.
If nothing else, it was probably that rush of adrenaline I got watching the film. The same rush of adrenaline emotionally charged TV reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) gets when he sees a dim-witted, out-of-work, security guard and family man, Sam Bailey (John Travolta), go berserk and take his boss (Blythe Danner) and a group of grade school kids hostage in a museum. Brackett sees this as his ticket to becoming the nation’s next anchorman for the nightly news.
Ever since I saw Gavras’ heart wrenching film, Missing (1982), which also dealt with the press, I have been waiting for yet another emotional masterpiece to come from him. To an extent, Gavras reaches that in Mad City showing us how he has no respect for the network news media nor does he have any liking towards society who can’t bring themselves to turn the TV off.
Various scenes throughout the film remind us of certain news events of years past. When Bailey takes the kids hostage in the museum, the scene echoes the 1993 Branch Davidian Siege in Waco where cult leader David Koresh held a lot of the group’s children against their will.
Early on, Gravas does a facial profile on Alan Alda, who plays a Peter Jennings/Sam Donaldson look-a-like, who it seems has a big pointy nose. If this is Gavras’ clever way of telling us the anchors we watch nightly fabricate the stories they tell, we might as well be watching Pinnochio.
We see shots of spectators swarming the museum outside doing anything to become a part of television history. People doing anything to make a buck printing Sam Bailey iron-on shirts to singing rap songs. TV editors cut various lines out of interviews Brackett had done with Sam for the sole purpose to play on the viewer’s emotions. Tabloid press reporters offer the victims thousands of dollars for interviews while talk show host Jay Leno jokes about it on The Tonight Show.
What I will remember most though are those sequences like the humorous confrontation between Alda’s Kevin Hollander and Brackett shot a year before at the scene of the TWA Flight 800 air crash. All Hollander wants to know is if Brackett saw any floating body parts and verify reports of sharks being in the area. Of course, Hollander doesn’t mean to be grim.
“You sound ecstatic,” Brackett sarcastically says to him on network television. “But don’t let the fact the victim’s families are probably watching this hold you back there, Kev.”
Then there is the way Travolta’s Sam entertained the school kids making funny faces and unlocking the candy machine to feed them breakfast every morning. Yet, he can’t bring himself to say his employer’s name without gritting his teeth in anger.
Several films have provided different insights about the media. Broadcast News (1987) showed how the best looking news anchors aren’t really that bright. While Absence of Malice (1981) and Ron Howard’s The Paper (1994) warned people (at least those working in the journalism profession) what happens when over enthusiastic editors and reporters don’t check the facts.
Mad City’s message is, in light of such events as the death of Princess Diana and President Clinton’s sex scandal, the press is out of control and no one is watching over them. Society doesn’t care because they love watching this stuff and what matters most to the networks are the high ratings.
The problem is for two hours, Gavras was too busy telling me something I already knew. He should have been busy telling me something I don’t know.
©8/18/98
PG-13, 115m. 1997
Cast & Credits: Dustin Hoffman (Max Brackett), John Travolta (Sam Bailey), Alan Alda (Kevin Hollander), Robert Prosky (Lou Potts), Blythe Danner (Mrs. Banks). Screenplay by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams. Directed by Costa-Gavras.
I am a sucker for movies about the press. I especially love those films that deliver a message about how the media and society get caught up in the heat of the moment whenever a major story breaks. I didn’t realize it though until I saw Mad City again on video the film’s message is an all-too-familiar one and that unfortunately is the problem.
If nothing else, it was probably that rush of adrenaline I got watching the film. The same rush of adrenaline emotionally charged TV reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) gets when he sees a dim-witted, out-of-work, security guard and family man, Sam Bailey (John Travolta), go berserk and take his boss (Blythe Danner) and a group of grade school kids hostage in a museum. Brackett sees this as his ticket to becoming the nation’s next anchorman for the nightly news.
Ever since I saw Gavras’ heart wrenching film, Missing (1982), which also dealt with the press, I have been waiting for yet another emotional masterpiece to come from him. To an extent, Gavras reaches that in Mad City showing us how he has no respect for the network news media nor does he have any liking towards society who can’t bring themselves to turn the TV off.
Various scenes throughout the film remind us of certain news events of years past. When Bailey takes the kids hostage in the museum, the scene echoes the 1993 Branch Davidian Siege in Waco where cult leader David Koresh held a lot of the group’s children against their will.
Early on, Gravas does a facial profile on Alan Alda, who plays a Peter Jennings/Sam Donaldson look-a-like, who it seems has a big pointy nose. If this is Gavras’ clever way of telling us the anchors we watch nightly fabricate the stories they tell, we might as well be watching Pinnochio.
We see shots of spectators swarming the museum outside doing anything to become a part of television history. People doing anything to make a buck printing Sam Bailey iron-on shirts to singing rap songs. TV editors cut various lines out of interviews Brackett had done with Sam for the sole purpose to play on the viewer’s emotions. Tabloid press reporters offer the victims thousands of dollars for interviews while talk show host Jay Leno jokes about it on The Tonight Show.
What I will remember most though are those sequences like the humorous confrontation between Alda’s Kevin Hollander and Brackett shot a year before at the scene of the TWA Flight 800 air crash. All Hollander wants to know is if Brackett saw any floating body parts and verify reports of sharks being in the area. Of course, Hollander doesn’t mean to be grim.
“You sound ecstatic,” Brackett sarcastically says to him on network television. “But don’t let the fact the victim’s families are probably watching this hold you back there, Kev.”
Then there is the way Travolta’s Sam entertained the school kids making funny faces and unlocking the candy machine to feed them breakfast every morning. Yet, he can’t bring himself to say his employer’s name without gritting his teeth in anger.
Several films have provided different insights about the media. Broadcast News (1987) showed how the best looking news anchors aren’t really that bright. While Absence of Malice (1981) and Ron Howard’s The Paper (1994) warned people (at least those working in the journalism profession) what happens when over enthusiastic editors and reporters don’t check the facts.
Mad City’s message is, in light of such events as the death of Princess Diana and President Clinton’s sex scandal, the press is out of control and no one is watching over them. Society doesn’t care because they love watching this stuff and what matters most to the networks are the high ratings.
The problem is for two hours, Gavras was too busy telling me something I already knew. He should have been busy telling me something I don’t know.
©8/18/98
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