In one of his strongest performances, John Travolta plays Sam Baily, a museum security guard who holds visitors hostage in an attempt to win back his job when he falls foul of museum cutbacks. Dustin Hoffman co-stars as Max Brackett, a local news reporter who seizes the hostage situation as a chance to revive his flagging career and get back into the big time. Within minutes he is broadcasting liv... e, within hours the entire nation is watching with baited breath. A timely, poignant examination of the role that the media plays in day to day lives in contemporary America, director Costa Gavras' Mad City is truly engaging in its search for and manipulation of the truth. Unrelenting, the film will make the viewer re-examine the way they watch the news on television.
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waste of talent
This film didn't exactly set the world on fire at the box office and after recently viewing it is easy to see why. The plot is predictable and moves in a seemlessly straight line to a spectularly predictable conclusion only stopping to tick off all the obvious checkpoints one might expect. None of the actors distinguishes themselves being as leaden as the script. The directing seems slow paced and lacks the zip you would expect from a movie about a siege. Im sure the idea of combining dog day afternoon (desperate man takes desperate measures) and network (media exploitation, journalists will go to any ends for the story) seemed a fantastic idea, sadly this isn't a patch on either of ...
Intriguing failure
Mad City sets itself a mad, well nigh insurmountable challenge by inviting direct comparison with three of the greatest American films ever made: Billy Wilders Ace in The Hole in which Kirk Douglas plays an unscrupulous journalist exploiting a mining accident, and two Sidney Lumet dramas from the 1970s, Dog Day Afternoon in which a bungled robbery turns into a hostage drama, and Network about a TV stations manipulation of a reporters mental breakdown.
Costa-Gavras has made some memorable films notably Z, Missing and Music Box; this isnt in that league, but after a rather pedestrian opening half hour does offer some moments of sharp satire and bleak humou...
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