I’m Mad As Hell And I’m Not Going To Take This Anymore!
I recently re-watched Sydney Lumet’s masterpiece in cinematic satire, “Network” (1976). Rather than summarise the film myself, I’ll secede to a tight IMDB synopsis:
In 1975 terrorist violence is the stuff of network nightly news programming and the corporate structure of the UBS television network is changing. Meanwhile, Howard Beale, the aging UBS news anchor, has lost his once strong ratings share and so the network fires him. Beale reacts in an unexpected way. We then see how this affects the fortunes of Beale, his coworkers (Max Schumacher and Diana Christensen), and the network.
In a November 1976 review of the film for The New York Times, legendary film critic Vincent Canby called the film:
“outrageous…brilliantly, cruelly funny, a topical American comedy that confirms Paddy Chayefsky’s [script-writer] position as a major new American satirist” and a film whose “wickedly distorted views of the way television looks, sounds, and, indeed, is, are the satirist’s cardiogram of the hidden heart, not just of television but also of the society that supports it and is, in turn, supported.”
Like almost anyone else who has seen “Network”, my favourite part is when Howard Beale (Peter Finch), in an impassioned diatribe, galvanizes the American public with his rant, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” and persuades Americans to shout out of their windows during a lightning storm. That moment gives me shivers every time. It touches a chord. It makes me want to get up and shout the words. Instead, I wrote this little thought-piece (my neighbours get cranky).
It is a sad and poignant notion, that the core tennets of “Networks’” satire still apply as much in 2011 as they do today. The world, beautiful and majestic home though she is, is still plagued by the same issues. SPOILER: The following paragraph is utterly depressingly and unashamedly negative. It relishes in the use of scare tactics.
In the last decade we’ve still seen economic slumps, corporate bigotry, anxiety over terrorism and the perceived threat of fundamentalist extremism, an east-west divide with a different face, vastly wasteful wars, oil spills, a peaceless middle east, a panoply of natural disasters and media gone mad; with confusion over Ryan Giggs and the end of days being the most recent amusing example. There are still over half a billion lacking clean drinking water, still over two billion people lacking adequate sanitation, still widespread famine and poverty, and the inequality of a massive wealth divide. And all this made worse in the context of projections of a massive nine billion population by 2050. And since 1976, a whole new set of global dilemmas on the public awareness metre; with a warming planet, a changing atmosphere, a plastic garbage patch in the Pacific Ocean that’s larger than Texas, deforestation of rain forests, destroyed ecosystems across the planet, an increase in extinction rates, and diminishing and ever harder to mine energy resources. The world keeps turning, and every single second five people are born and two people die, but we’re still little closer to Utopia.
In a recent article, Urban Times author Emma Weitkamp spoke about how scare tactics are counterproductive, and how “the framing of information influences our willingness to act”. A typical Urban Times piece is optimistic and forward thinking. It looks at the world, acknowledges the flaws, but strives for solutions. But just this once, get angry. Get really mad. Repeat after me:
“I’m as mad as Hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!”
Again, from your windows!
Brilliant Alex! Unfortunately, it really has come to this. A shout is a first step to recognizing that solutions can be found. Together our voices are stronger.
that was actually a Great Read. thanx for writing it
I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!!
so true. well said Alex!
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