This remains an interesting film.
Disgruntled newsman, Howard Beale (Peter Finch) states that he will kill himself on air and it takes a bit for those in the control room to pick up on this and then all hell breaks loose.
He's fired but he's not fired after the ratings significantly increase due to his madness and thus, he remains on the air and head of programming (but not news), Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway), a true vulture who is literally only passionate about work latches on to him and turns his show into a three-ring circus as Howard continues to descend into madness.
Diana is certainly the central star of this film and Dunaway does receive top billing. She's an unfeeling man-eater who stops at nothing to get what she wants, even mingling with international criminals and killing a man when the ratings drop precariously.
While it is a little more complicated than that, that's the basic jist of the film, an interesting satire and that William Holden's Max Schumaker is the only real character in the film, with actual human feelings while board director Ned Beatty's Arthur Jensen is using Howard to propagate his own, twisted and mildly unpopular agenda, so the acting is brilliant all-around with a tight screenplay and while the film is more than forty years old, it has held up well because who knows who truly controls the media and people remain mad as hell as they're not going to take it anymore. Grade: A-
Side Notes:
-Pay attention to Beatrice Straight's cameo as Max's wronged wife. Her brief but potent appearance earned her an Oscar for best supporting actress. I found Marlene Warfield's Laureen Hobbs just as effective though she works with criminals.
-Instead of applauding the essential workers, people threw up their shutters and shouted outside how mad they were.
-I wonder how all the obesities Howard shouted made it past the sensors as they weren't exactly family-friendly.
-Notice how all the shows pitched to Diana contain a crusty but benign character.
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