Topical and Current even though it's a movie review

[Gdjjr]

I've not seen the movie. No particular reason I recall, it was just never on my radar of movies to see- this review is timely and makes me wish I had seen it-

I'll use this last paragraph sentence as a teaser- hopefully, you'll be interllectually honest enough to read the whole review. But, I'll not hold my breath.

"One has to give them credit for all the truths that they did put on screen, but it was clearly dishonest of them to omit their own ethnic group’s presiding role in the corruption and degeneracy of American television. There’s a lesson in that too."

NETWORK: A Populist Classic

An excerpt for those who haven't seen the movie.
This is after the rants of the anchor man have sent the network (UBS) ratings through the roof.

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal—that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no Third Worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichsmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic, subatomic, and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one-inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state—Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality—one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

 

[DOTR]

I've not seen the movie. No particular reason I recall, it was just never on my radar of movies to see- this review is timely and makes me wish I had seen it-

I'll use this last paragraph sentence as a teaser- hopefully, you'll be interllectually honest enough to read the whole review. But, I'll not hold my breath.

"One has to give them credit for all the truths that they did put on screen, but it was clearly dishonest of them to omit their own ethnic group’s presiding role in the corruption and degeneracy of American television. There’s a lesson in that too."

NETWORK: A Populist Classic

An excerpt for those who haven't seen the movie.
This is after the rants of the anchor man have sent the network (UBS) ratings through the roof.

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it, is that clear?! You think you have merely stopped a business deal—that is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back. It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity, it is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations! There are no peoples! There are no Russians. There are no Arabs! There are no Third Worlds! There is no West! There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars! petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars!, Reichsmarks, rubles, rin, pounds and shekels! It is the international system of currency that determines the totality of life on this planet! That is the natural order of things today! That is the atomic, subatomic, and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and you will atone!
Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one-inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state—Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale! It has been since man crawled out of the slime, and our children, Mr. Beale, will live to see that perfect world in which there is no war and famine, oppression and brutality—one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

I read it. Maybe Ill check it out. But of course there will always be one group which is above criticism. And they control this industry. Now you *know* Saudis arent really the boogeymen in real life otherwise they would do the same and keep themselves from being criticized in these shows. But they make a convenient enemy...especially given that they are an ally of the US which makes them even more hated.

Might I suggest "Idiocracy"?