It is saddening to have to admit I have never seen this film in the 36 years it has been out. When it did hit the screens my life was so chaotic I didn’t even think about looking at a movie and the ones I did see at the Drive-In Theater were mostly because I was working there. That was true until about 1982 after I had settled into a good job. Within a year that all changed and it was chaos but no Agent 99. It stopped and started several times and I still didn’t see this film and no one mentioned it to me. Now I know why.
It isn’t as good as it could be, but some of Hollywood’s finest actors give it their best. Mr. Peter Finch is stellar as Howard Beale and Holden comes in second place. Dunaway holds her own amid these two well seasoned actors, this film not being one of her best. Duvall is quite convincing in his role, having topped himself since this film. Beatty’s role brought together the Beale character’s god delusion. Beatty is another fine actor having better roles and performances since this film. Ferrell and Warfield give talented supporting performances as well.
In this scene Beale orates his sentiments about the television and man’s demise because of it. Of course I think it is assuming most people have viewed The Woman in Green, and Stepford Wives and are peeved at what corporations are doing to people with it, so this film helps move this emotional repression along but creates another by its ending. In this dialogue we are confronted with the same I,me, you problem, ie, “we are the illusion”,directing the viewer’s attention to Beale and the news reporters, who actually aren’t illusions. They actually represent the projections of those ideas we repress and often hide even from ourselves, this film quite clearly being one of those ideas and the fear of being murdered by those in the industry, another. To do it any other way to correct the I, me, you would seem odd but I think it would be better received by the brain. The brain receives this as me the viewer being an illusion yet, from the film we also deduce this is how many corporations see viewers, as illusions, little robots to be manipulated, our every move directed, or even nonexistent. The illusions created by the film now become evident. Beale isn’t the one who loses his job and he doesn’t really get shot down but our brains receive the information this way. Schumacher’s illusion is an incestuous relationship acted out with a woman not much older than his pregnant daughter which is never mentioned in the film, while they do mention Diana’s father complex. Of course this likely never happens in reality. I wonder if this film is alluding to the Kay Francis film titled Illusions?
I don’t think this is as it sounds. I think it is in keeping with the ideas of Ernest Holmes and others who believe man has learned all he needs to learn. Of course this isn’t altogether true as man in his quest for more is always creating some problem to be overcome or some thing to be conquered, so we have to keep learning new things. And too, from my own experiential knowledge of consciousness, it has to be frequently reinforced from external sources, though sometimes human memory is enough. So the individual isn’t finished in that sense. We don’t all know everything nor do we have the capacity, unless we do develop larger brains. Of course the film presents this segment to the viewer, as man becoming less rather than more because of his television viewing. We do know what we see on television, to the brain, is like having experienced it in real life (wish I had seen Caged before I ended up in prison myself, not that I wanted to go to prison mind you…). With that in mind, more is not always better where it is concerned, but consider that not having experienced something at all might leave one vulnerable to some real life catastrophe.
I do think people are angry. I think we’ve been angry as children and we often stuff this anger for decades and we then hurt ourselves and others with it. So it is therapeutic when Beale gets riled up and gets everyone else to get riled up enough to confess they are even angry. Then the Ecumenical Army is breathing down Diana’s neck about their ratings because Beale has depressed his audience at this point. Unfortunately Beale hasn’t reached the people who employ him and in a shocking ending, on their course for wealth at the expense of others, they conspire to have him murdered. Beale is one of the illusions and joins the ranks of the viewer, one of the chess pieces in the game of life that fails to comply, memories of Kent State come to mind. The others are concerned about points and ratings and how that calculates into dollars. Of course this scares the hell out of the viewer who then becomes more compliant with the wishes and desires of the corporations using such tactics to manipulate behavior, which was to be the end result of Kent State. I received this as being an omen to giving over so much power to these kinds of bullies.
