We’re mad as hell, and we’re not going to take it anymore! In this episode Nathan, Cal and Jenn review Paddy Chayefsky’s 1976 dark satire “Network,” the eerily-prophetic and highly prescient story of a down-and-out television news anchor named Howard Beale whose on-air descent into madness turns him into a populist icon that millions tune in to see. But when his pro-human spirit message runs afoul the agenda of the “corporate cosmology” of the infotainment industry, “the mad prophet of the airwaves” Beale changes course and begins preaching a new message: nihilism.
Links
IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074958/
Dave Itzkoff’s book-length analysis of the movie, mentioned by Nathan on this episode: https://www.amazon.com/Mad-Hell-Network-Fateful-Angriest/dp/0805095691
James Parker, “Madder Than Hell: How Network Anticipated Contemporary Media,” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/03/madder-than-hell/357572/