From “the angry man bit” by Peter Finch playing Howard Beale, the suicidal anchorman from the movie “Network:”
“I would like at this moment to announce that I will be retiring from this program in two weeks time because of poor ratings. Since this show is the only thing I had going for me in my life, I’ve decided to kill myself. I’m going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today. So tune in next Tuesday. That should give the public relations people a week to promote the show. You ought to get a hell of a rating out of that. Fifty share, easy.”
“Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide. Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I’ll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit.”
“All human beings are becoming humanoids. All over the world, not just in America. We’re just getting there faster since we’re the most advanced country.”
“We’ll tell you anything you want to hear, we lie like hell.”
“You’re beginning to believe the illusions we’re spinning here, you’re beginning to believe that the tube is reality and your own lives are unreal! You do! Why, whatever the tube tells you: you dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube, you even think like the tube! This is mass madness, you maniacs! In God’s name, you people are the real thing, WE are the illusion!”
“Television is not the truth! Television is a goddamned amusement park!”
“Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn’t come out of this tube! This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents, popes, prime ministers; this tube is the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people, and that’s why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communications Corporation of America; there’s a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett, sitting in Mr. Ruddy’s office on the twentieth floor. And when the 12th largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this network!?”
“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad… Everybody’s out of work, or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth, 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.”
“All I know is, you’ve got to get mad! You’ve got to say, ‘I’m a human being, goddamn it! My life has value!’”
“I want you to go to the window, open it, stick your head out and yell: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’”
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
That was scary. I was sitting at my desk watching it with headphones and I was like scared! I never heard of that movie but it is filmed so cool. The silence surrounding his diatribe was haunting, you know? And the camera movement. It was like, whenever it went to Faye Dunaway it was kind of a relief, but at the same time, unfortunate. I didn’t read those words after. Maybe you’re not looking for a movie critique, but man I’m psyched to get turned on to something new, like this. Thanks.
I discovered the clip over on http://memes.org and loved it! Whenever I heard about people talking about a movie called “Network” I thought they were talking about “Network News” — and I was wrong — I am totally going to rent the movie, that’s for sure. Looks like an amazing film.
The more things change the more they stay the same.
This was a time when we were very passionate about the environment and we were totally committed to changing the world on the momentum of the Vietnam War — it was impossible, pre-Reagan, to ever consider what happened under Reagan and now George W Bush to ever happen.
When Ronald Reagan tore down the solar panels that Jimmy Carter had put up on the White House, it was surely a harbinger of things to come.