Flickers in Time

All the President’s Men
Directed by Alan J. Pakula
Written by William Goldman from a book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

John Mitchell: [on phone] All that crap you’re putting in the paper? It’s all been denied. You tell your publisher, tell Katie Graham she’s gonna get her tit caught in a big wringer if that’s published. Good Christ, that’s the most sickening thing I ever heard.

A true story that is as suspenseful as any thriller even when you know the ending.

The film begins when a security guard detects a break-in at the headquarters of the Democratic National Party at the Watergate complex in Washington, D.C.  He calls the police and five burglars are apprehended.  Papers on the burglars led to the arrests of Howard Hunt and G. Gordon Liddy both of whom had connections to the White House and the Committee to Re-Elect the President.

Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) and Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) are rookie reporters for The Washington Post.  Woodward is assigned to cover the arraignment of the men and discovers that high-powered attorneys are interested in the case.  This arouses his suspicions and he follows up.  Eventually Bernstein is assigned to partner with Woodward on the story.

The two form a powerhouse team after some initial friction.  They are getting nowhere when Woodward contacts an official that comes to be known as “Deep Throat” (Hal Holbrook). He speaks to him only on the condition that he is not quoted even as an anonymous source.  His advice is to “follow the money”.  This the two reporters do.  It is a frustrating but fascinating journey through Washington bureaucracy.  Most people are unwilling to talk but unwittingly make the reporters even more suspicious.

Eventually, the story gets so big that Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards) is encouraged to put somebody more seasoned on the case.  He declines to do so.  In the end, a couple of honest insiders speak up and their info leads all the way to the top. The rest is history.  With Jane Alexander as a bookkeeper and Jack Warden and Martin Balsam as editiors.

I saw this in the theater when it came out.  It holds up beautifully all these years later.  It was so interesting to see all the location shots of Washington, D.C. where I was to work many years later.  The thoroughly engrossing screenplay is aided by a wonderful cast and meticulous production design.  Recommended.

All the President’s Men won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Supporting Actor (Robards); Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Art Direction-Set Decoration; and Best Sound. It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Supporting Actress (Alexander); Best Director; and Best Film Editing.

Network
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Paddy Chayefsky
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Howard Beale: Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!”

In 2021, this scathing critique of the TV ratings game seems less outrageous than prescient.

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has been the evening news anchor at UBS (the “fourth network”) for eleven years.  The network is under new ownership by Communications Corporation of America (CCA).  CCA executive Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) will no longer tolerate low ratings for any program, including the news.  News Bureau Chief Max Schumacher (William Holden) has the task of giving Howard, an old friend, two weeks notice.  The next night Howard gets on the air and announces his retirement and his intention of committing suicide on the air a week later.  He is summarily fired but soft-hearted Max allows him to make a formal farewell to his audience.  Howard, who has been hearing voices, takes advantage of this opportunity to launch into his famous populist rant and urge his audience to express their pent-up rage audibly.  When shouts are heard coming from windows all over America, the executives know they have a hit on their hands.  Max is disgusted.

In the meantime, a new ratings-obsessed entertainment programmer, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway), is in town.  She successfully pitches the idea of having a part reality TV, part drama called the “Mao Tse Tung Hour”.  A domestic terrorist organization will stage a real “happening” and the network will create a drama based on the event.  Diana also manages to move Howard from the news division to the entertainment division to capitalize on his rabid following.   He is now billed as the mad prophet of the airways.

Despite his contempt for Diana’s ideas about television, Max cannot escape his attraction to the much younger woman.  For Diana, the affair is strictly sexual.  She is all business all the time.  Meanwhile, Howard’s madness intensifies.  When he protests CCA’s acquisition by the Saudis, the management tries a couple of different tactics to stop him. With Beatrice Straight as Max’s wife and Ned Beatty as the CEO of CCA.

Network looked into the future, a future that looked far-fetched at the time but seems increasingly realistic as the years have gone on.  Paddy Chayefsky’s brilliant script anticipated both reality TV and sensationalist, politicized news programming.  Are we but one step away from the Q-Anon Show?  All the components of filmmaking come together to create something that perfectly achieves its intentions.  Highly recommended.

Network won Academy Awards in the Categories of Best Actor (Finch); Best Actress (Dunaway); Best Supporting Actress (Straight); and Best Original Screenplay.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor (Holden); Best Supporting Actor (Beatty); Best Director; Best Cinematography; and Best Film Editing.

Taxi Driver
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Paul Schrader
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Travis Bickle: You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talking… you talking to me? Well I’m the only one here. Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? Oh yeah? OK.

Martin Scorsese’s first masterpiece is as relevant now as it was then, sad to say.

Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) is a lonely Vietnam veteran who can’t sleep at night.  So he gets a job driving a cab for 12 hours a night.  Already preoccupied with the sin and corruption of New York City, his job as cabbie just provides him with more evidence that some kind of avenging rain should come and wash the trash, human and otherwise, off the streets.  Despite his hatred for vice, he spends much of his time in porno theaters, where he does not seem to be watching the movies.

His one vision of innocence comes when he sees Betsy (Cybill Shepherd) walking down the street in a white dress.  Betsy is a campaign worker for Senator Charles Palantine who is running in the primary for the Presidential nomination (party unstated).  Travis drops into NYC campaign headquarters and chats Betsy up.  Intrigued by his crazy adoration, she agrees to have coffee with him.  Then she agrees to a date.  He takes her to a porno movie and she drops him like a hot potato.

Travis gradually becomes more unhinged.  He decides it is he that has the mission to clean up the dirty city,  He encounters Iris (Jodie Foster),  a twelve-year-old prostitute, and it becomes his mission to save her as well.  The only way he can get to her is to pay so he does and gives her a lecture on how she should go home and have a normal teenage life.  Iris agrees to meet Travis for coffee and a conversation in which it is clear that the teenage hooker has it way more together than Travis does.

As part of his mission, Travis acquires an arsenal of weapons.  He spends much of his off-time at shooting ranges or at home practicing his draw.  He continues on his downwards spiral.  I will stop here except to note we get a bloody climax and a very interesting denoument.  With Albert Brooks in his film debut as a campaign worker; Harvey Keitel as a pimp; and Peter Boyle as a fellow cabbie.

This has it all: brilliant acting; a scathing and powerful script; stunning visuals; and a fantastic score by Bernard Herrmann. Ticks all the buttons for a time not so unlike our own: loneliness, isolation, paranoia, demagogues, ideological violence, political violence,  angry white men; etc., etc.  Not for the faint of heart but highly recommended.

Taxi Driver was nominated in the categories of Best Picture; Best Actor; Best Supporting Actress (Foster); and Best Music, Original Score.

Trailer

Rocky
Directed by John G. Avildsen
Written by Sylvester Stallone
1976/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Apollo’s Trainer: He doesn’t know it’s a damn show! He thinks it’s a damn fight!

Americans have always loved a good rags-to-riches story.  Sylvester Stallone came up with a perfect one to celebrate the country’s 200th birthday.

Rocky Balboa (Stallone) is a small-time boxer on the Philadelphia scene.  He wins a few and he loses a few.  His day job is as a collection agent for a loan shark. He is scary enough physically to coerce payment but at heart he is a softie.  He has a crush on mousey pet store salesgirl Adrian (Thalia Shire).  He tries to chat her up but she is too shy to respond.  Rocky is also friends with her loser brother Paulie (Burt Young).  His trainer Mickey (Burgess Meredith) throws the clothes from his locker at the gym out into the street to give the locker to a better prospect.

Concurrently, heavyweight champion Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) is determined to have a championship bout in Philadelphia on July 4, 1976 as a kind of bicentennial celebration. His intended opponent is injured and his management is unable to find a worthy opponent for that date.  Undeterred, Apollo flips through some photos and decides that Rocky “The Italian Stallion” would make an appealing underdog for the fight.  Apollo is basically Mr. Show Business and figures he will not even have to go into training.

Rocky, on the other hand, takes the matter deadly seriously.  Mickey is suddenly anxious to train him once again.  We watch as Rocky trains and visibly becomes more and more fit.  He also wins the heart of Adrian.  Paulie, feeling threatened with the loss of his live-in housekeeper, thinks this is his opportunity to cash in.  He provides access to the carcasses in the meat packing establishment he works at for use as punching bags and brings in the press.

The climactic fight is thrilling and unforgettable.  Well, actually I did forget the result, so I won’t spoil it here.  When I left the theater on original release, I felt pumped up with victory.

Rocky is a simple story that has been told umpteen times throughout film history.  Between the writing, directing, and acting, it works and it works perfectly.  And that music! Highly recommended.

Rocky won Academy Awards in the categories of Best Picture; Best Director; and Best Film Editing.  It was nominated in the categories of Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Supporting Actor (Meredith); Best Supporting Actor (Young); Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen (Stallone); Best Sound; and Best Music, Original Song (“Gonna Fly Now”).

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