Friday, November 03, 2006
MAD AS HELL
Today's NYTimes Best 1176 Film was
Everyone else has seen this but me.
The part that is most quoted, Howard Beale's rant, is not the backbone of the film (Peter Finch).
William Holden's portrayal of an old guard TV newsman is front and center. His battle (including sex) with Faye Dunaway, the new teevee minded producer, is the most compelling part of the film.
William Holden was a great actor and this role provided him with a rare opportunity to shine in his post-matinee idol years; not that he was really that kind of actor. You get my drift.
He holds the screen in all his scenes. He is great. The old lion in winter.
It is a good movie. Some of it is anachronistic but the theme still holds thirty years later.
No one ever accused Paddy Chayevsky of understatement. There are lots of rants and diatribes.
That is OK. There is truth in all of it. Loud truth is important.
But the quiet drama with a man coming in touch with his mortality is the abiding image of the film.
Sidney Lumet directed. The thing looks almost documentary-ish. Very nicely done.
This is a classic and it holds the classification.
A 5 out of Netflix5.
