The Network (1976) eng sub

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Network.1976.DVDRip.XviD

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This story is about Howard Beale,
the "Network News" anchorman on UBS TV.

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In his time, Howard Beale had been
a mandarin of television...

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the grand old man of news...

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with a HUT rating of 16
and a 28 audience share.

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In 1969, however, his fortunes
began to decline.

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He fell to a 22 share.

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The following year, his wife died,
and he was left a childless widower...

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with an 8 rating
and a 12 share.

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He became morose and isolated,
began to drink heavily.

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On September 22, 1975,
he was fired...

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effective in two weeks.

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The news was broken to him
by Max Schumacher...

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who was the president
of the News Division at UBS.

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The two old friends
got properly pissed.

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I was at CBS
with Ed Murrow in 1951.

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Must've been 1950.

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I was at NBC.
Associate producer.

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Morning news.
I was just a kid... 26 years old.

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Anyway, they were building the lower
level of the George Washington Bridge.

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We were doing a remote from there.

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And nobody told me.

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7:00 a. m., I get a call.

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"Where are you? You're supposed to be
on the George Washington Bridge?"

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I jump out of bed,
throw my raincoat over my pajamas.

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I run downstairs
and out into the street...

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hail a cab and say to the cabbie...

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"Take me to the middle
of the George Washington Bridge. "

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The cabbie turns around and says...

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He says, "Don't do it, buddy.

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You're a young man. You've got
your whole life ahead of you. "

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Didn't I tell you that before?

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I'm gonna kill myself.

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Shit, Howard.

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I'm gonna blow my brains out
right on the air...

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right in the middle
of the seven o'clock news.

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You'll get a hell of a rating,
I'll guarantee that.

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Fifty share easy.

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- You think so?
- Sure.

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We could make a series out of it.
"Suicide of the Week. "

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Why limit ourselves?
"Execution of the Week. "

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"Terrorist of the Week. "

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They'll love it.

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Suicides. Assassinations.

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Mad bombers.

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Mafia hit men.

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Automobile smashups.

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"The Death Hour. "

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"A great Sunday night show
for the whole family. "

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Lt'd put fucking Disney
right off the air.

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Let's do the Lenin deportation
at the end of three.

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- Strong enough to bump?
- At one, then.

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I'll do a lead on Sarah Jane Moore
to May Berry in San Francisco.

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The film I saw
was of the chief of detectives.

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I think we've got ten seconds
on the shooting itself.

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The whole thing is 1:25.

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- What does that come out?
- About 4:50.

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- Can we use Squeaky Fromme?
- Let's do that at two.

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Squeaky boarded the airport bus.

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You using a map on him
for San Francisco?

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I'd prefer newspapers.

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What've we got left?

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Gun control.
Patty Hearst affidavit.

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Guerillas in Chad.
OPEC in Guiana.

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Hello, Howard.
How are you?

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Don't forget, Howard,
we're not using the 16.

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The first attempt on President Ford's
life was 18 days ago...

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and again yesterday in San Francisco.

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In spite of the two attempts,
Mr. Ford says...

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he will not become a prisoner
of the Oval Office...

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a hostage
of would-be assassins.

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The American people
are good people.

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Democrats, Independents,
Republicans and others.

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- How do you get mixed up that type?
- I don't know.

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If you're so hot, why go to strangers?
What's wrong with me?

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Ready two.

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Two. Cue Howard.

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Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like at this moment...

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to announce that I will be retiring
from this program in two weeks' time...

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because of poor ratings.

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Since this show is the only thing
I had going for me in my life...

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I have decided to kill myself.

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I'm going to blow my brains out
on this program a week from today.

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Ten seconds to commercial.

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Tune in next Tuesday.

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That should give the public relations
people a week to promote the show.

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We oughta get a hell of a rating
out of that.

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Fifty share easy.

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- Listen. Did you hear that?
- What was that about?

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Howard said he was going
to blow his brains out next Tuesday.

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- What are you talking about?
- Didn't you hear him?

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Howard said he was going
to kill himself next Tuesday.

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What do you mean Howard said he
was going to kill himself next Tuesday?

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He was supposed to do a tag.

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He said, "Tune in next Tuesday.
I'm going to shoot myself. "

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What's going on?

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He just said he was going
to blow his brains out.

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What the fuck's going on?

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- They wanna know what's going on.
- I can't hear you.

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- Turn the studio mike on.
- We're on in 11 seconds.

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- Ten seconds.
- What are you doing? Have you flipped?

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- We better get him off.
- Get him off.

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- Get your fucking hands off me!
- Turn the sound off!

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He's going on live!

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- Key two.
- We're in trouble down here.

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Go to standby!

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Lou, can't we clear out the lobby?
There must be 100 people there.

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- How am I gonna clear 'em out?
- Every TV station and wire service!

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I could barely get in.

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- Arthur, anything?
- Not so far.

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Frank Hackett just walked in.
We had to abort the show.

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So far over 900
fucking phone calls...

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complaining about the foul language.

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- What page are you putting it on?
- Hackett just walked in.

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- ABC again.
- Tell 'em to go fuck themselves.

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That goes for you, too, Marty.

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You're off the air.

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- He wants to talk to you.
- Who's replacing Beale?

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- We're flying Snowden up.
- Everybody hold it.

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Let's see how the other networks
handle this.

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- The ten o'clock news opened with it.
- Good evening. Howard Beale...

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They'll all make it
their lead story.

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Howard Beale interrupted
his "Network News" program tonight...

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to announce he was going
to kill himself.

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An unusual thing happened
at a sister network...

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UBS, this evening.

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- How are we handling it?
- Halloway will make a statement...

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at the end of the show that Howard's
been under great personal stress.

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We've got a stockholders' meeting
tomorrow...

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at which we will announce
the restructuring of management plan.

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I don't want this grotesque incident
to interfere with that.

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I'll suggest Mr. Ruddy open with a short
statement washing this whole thing off.

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You, Max, better have answers for those
nuts that always come to the meetings.

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Mr. Beale has been under great
professional and personal strain.

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I've got surprises for you, too!

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I've had it up to here
with your division...

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and it's annual
$33 million deficit!

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Keep your hands off
my News Division, Frank.

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We're responsible to corporate level,
not you.

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We'll goddamn well see about that.

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All right, take it easy.
How do we get Beale out of here?

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I understand there are reporters
and camera crews in the lobby.

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We've got a limo at the freight exit.

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Howard, you'll spend the night at my
place. There'll be press around yours.

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I want Snowden here by noon...

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have Lester
cover the CIA hearings...

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and give the White House
to Doris.

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You're late for your screening, Max.

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Right. Okay.

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If John Wheeler calls,
switch him to projection room 7.

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- I'm sorry, Bill. This Beale business.
- It's all right. Sit down.

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Diana asked if she could sit in on this.

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Fine. How's it going?

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You'll like this footage better than
the stuff I showed you last time.

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Max Schumacher.

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Goddamn it! When?

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Did he say anything?

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All right, thank you.

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The Communist Party believes the most
pressing political necessity today...

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is the consolidation
of the revolutionary...

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radical and democratic movements...

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Harry, Howard Beale left my house
20 minutes ago.

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Has he come in yet?

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Let me know when he arrives.

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- That's Laureen Hobbs, isn't it?
- Yeah.

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This is from a David Susskind thing
a while back.

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I think we can use some of this stuff.

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What we're going to see now
is something really sensational.

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The Flagstaff Independent Bank
of Arizona was ripped off last week...

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by a terrorist group called
the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

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They themselves took movies of the
rip-off while they were ripping it off.

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The Ecumenical Liberation Army is not
the one that kidnapped Patty Hearst?

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No, that's the Symbionese
Liberation Army.

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This is the Ecumenical
Liberation Army.

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They're the ones who kidnapped
Mary Ann Gifford three weeks ago.

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There's a lot of liberation armies
in the revolutionary underground...

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and a lot of kidnapped heiresses.

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This is Mary Ann Gifford.

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That's the Great Ahmed Khan.
He's their leader.

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They actually shot this film
while they were ripping off the bank?

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Wait till you see it.

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I don't know whether to edit
or leave it raw like this.

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This is terrific stuff!
Where did you get it?

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I got everything
through Laureen Hobbs.

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She's my contact
for all this stuff.

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- I've got Howard on the other line.
- Put him on.

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I've got Max on four. Pick up.

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I'd like another shot.

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- Come on, Howard.
- I don't mean the whole show.

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I'd like to come on,
make some brief farewell statement...

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and then turn the show over
to Jack Snowden.

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I have 11 years at this network.
I have some standing in the industry.

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I just don't want to go out
like a clown.

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It'll be simple, dignified.
You and Harry can check the copy.

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I think it'll take the strain
off the show.

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- What do you think?
- Well, okay.

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And no booze today, Howard!

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00:13:01,079 --> 00:13:02,539
No booze.

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George, can you come into my office
for a minute?

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00:13:17,766 --> 00:13:22,188
Barbara, is Tommy around?
I'd like to see the two of you.

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This is Bill Herron from our West Coast
Special Programs Department.

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00:13:33,952 --> 00:13:37,039
George Bosch. Barbara Schlesinger.
Tommy Pellegrino.

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I just saw footage of a special Bill's
doing on the revolutionary underground.

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Most of it's tedious stuff of
Laureen Hobbs and two fatigue jackets...

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muttering mutilated Marxism...

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but he's got eight minutes
of a bank robbery...

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that is sensational!

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Authentic stuff shot
while the robbery was going on.

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Remember the Mary Ann Gifford
kidnapping?

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It's that bunch of nuts. She's in
the movie shooting off machine guns.

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00:14:03,154 --> 00:14:05,449
This is really terrific footage.

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00:14:05,490 --> 00:14:09,036
We can get a movie of the week
out of it, maybe even a series.

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00:14:10,621 --> 00:14:12,540
A series?
What are we talking about?

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00:14:12,624 --> 00:14:17,129
We've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals,
the Ecumenical Liberation Army...

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who go around taking home movies
of themselves robbing banks.

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00:14:20,467 --> 00:14:23,929
Maybe they'll take movies of themselves
kidnapping heiresses...

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00:14:24,013 --> 00:14:25,973
hijacking 747 s...

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bombing bridges,
assassinating ambassadors.

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We'd open each week's segment
with their authentic footage...

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hire writers to write a story behind
that footage, and we've got a series.

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00:14:37,946 --> 00:14:41,951
A series about a bunch
of bank-robbing guerrillas?

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00:14:43,203 --> 00:14:46,081
What will we call it,
the "Mao Tse-Tung Hour"?

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Why not?

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They've got "Strike Force,"
"Task Force," "SWAT."

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00:14:50,128 --> 00:14:53,256
Why not Che Guevara
and his own little "Mod Squad"?

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I sent you all a concept analysis report
yesterday. Did any of you read it?

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00:14:58,846 --> 00:15:02,017
Well, in a nutshell it said...

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00:15:02,100 --> 00:15:04,144
"The American people
are turning sullen. "

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00:15:04,228 --> 00:15:07,982
They've been clobbered on all sides
by Vietnam, Watergate, inflation.

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They've turned off, shot up, fucked
themselves limp, and nothing helps.

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00:15:11,362 --> 00:15:14,908
So this concept analysis report
concludes...

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the American people want somebody
to articulate their rage for them.

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00:15:19,788 --> 00:15:25,212
I've told you since I took this job
six months ago that I want angry shows.

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00:15:25,253 --> 00:15:27,423
I don't want conventional programming.

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00:15:27,506 --> 00:15:30,176
I want counterculture.
I want antiestablishment.

236
00:15:33,263 --> 00:15:37,226
I don't want to play butch boss
with you people...

237
00:15:37,268 --> 00:15:39,354
but when I took over
this department...

238
00:15:39,437 --> 00:15:42,024
it had the worst programming record
in television history.

239
00:15:42,107 --> 00:15:44,902
This network hasn't one show
in the top 20.

240
00:15:44,944 --> 00:15:47,030
This network is an industry joke.

241
00:15:47,113 --> 00:15:50,409
We better start putting together
one winner for next September.

242
00:15:50,450 --> 00:15:52,411
I want a show developed...

243
00:15:52,453 --> 00:15:56,082
based on the activities
of a terrorist group.

244
00:15:56,124 --> 00:15:58,544
"Joseph Stalin and His Merry Band
of Bolsheviks. "

245
00:15:58,627 --> 00:16:01,964
I want ideas from you.
That is what you're paid for.

246
00:16:02,048 --> 00:16:05,802
By the way, the next time I send
an audience research report around...

247
00:16:05,886 --> 00:16:08,305
you'd better read it,
or I'll sack the lot of you.

248
00:16:08,389 --> 00:16:10,016
Is that clear?

249
00:16:10,099 --> 00:16:15,773
I'll be on the coast in four weeks. Can
you set up a meeting with Laureen Hobbs?

250
00:16:15,814 --> 00:16:19,444
The business of management
is management.

251
00:16:19,486 --> 00:16:22,865
At the time CCA took control,
the UBS TV network was foundering...

252
00:16:22,948 --> 00:16:26,452
with less than seven percent
of national television revenues...

253
00:16:26,536 --> 00:16:29,414
most network programs being sold
at station rates.

254
00:16:29,498 --> 00:16:33,085
I am pleased to announce I am submitting
to the board of directors a plan...

255
00:16:33,169 --> 00:16:35,880
for the coordination
of the main profit centers...

256
00:16:35,964 --> 00:16:38,926
and with the specific intention
of making each division...

257
00:16:39,009 --> 00:16:41,804
more responsive to management.

258
00:16:41,846 --> 00:16:43,306
Point one.

259
00:16:44,683 --> 00:16:48,187
"The division producing the lowest rate
of return has been the News Division...

260
00:16:48,270 --> 00:16:53,819
with its $98 million budget and its
average annual deficit of $32 million. "

261
00:16:55,029 --> 00:16:58,324
I know, historically, news divisions
are expected to lose money.

262
00:16:58,408 --> 00:17:01,244
To our minds, this philosophy
is a wanton fiscal affront...

263
00:17:01,328 --> 00:17:04,999
to be resolutely resisted.

264
00:17:05,082 --> 00:17:10,547
The new plan calls for local news to be
transferred to Owned Stations Divisions.

265
00:17:10,631 --> 00:17:14,135
News Radio would be transferred to
the UBS Radio Division...

266
00:17:14,218 --> 00:17:18,307
and the News Division would be reduced
from an independent division...

267
00:17:18,390 --> 00:17:22,896
to a department accountable
to network.

268
00:17:27,818 --> 00:17:31,281
- What was that all about, Ed?
- This is not the time.

269
00:17:31,364 --> 00:17:33,283
Why wasn't I told about this?

270
00:17:33,367 --> 00:17:37,663
Why was I led up onto that podium and
humiliated in front of the stockholders?

271
00:17:37,747 --> 00:17:40,166
Goddamn it! I spoke to John Wheeler
this morning...

272
00:17:40,250 --> 00:17:42,878
and he assured me
that the News Division was safe.

273
00:17:42,920 --> 00:17:45,172
If you want me to resign,
that's a bad way to do it.

274
00:17:45,256 --> 00:17:48,134
We'll talk about this tomorrow
at our regular morning meeting.

275
00:18:00,274 --> 00:18:02,235
Roll VTA.

276
00:18:02,276 --> 00:18:04,529
Bring it up on one.
Ready now.

277
00:18:05,405 --> 00:18:09,368
In five, four, three, two...

278
00:18:09,452 --> 00:18:11,621
- One.
- One TVA.

279
00:18:13,081 --> 00:18:14,500
And...

280
00:18:16,335 --> 00:18:17,754
cue announcer.

281
00:18:17,837 --> 00:18:19,798
The "UBS Evening News"...

282
00:18:21,007 --> 00:18:23,052
with Howard Beale.

283
00:18:23,135 --> 00:18:25,012
Ready two.

284
00:18:25,096 --> 00:18:26,598
Two. Cue power.

285
00:18:26,681 --> 00:18:30,728
Good evening.
Today is Wednesday, September 24...

286
00:18:30,811 --> 00:18:32,730
and this is my last broadcast.

287
00:18:34,148 --> 00:18:36,109
Yesterday I announced
on this program...

288
00:18:36,151 --> 00:18:39,154
that I was going to commit
public suicide...

289
00:18:39,196 --> 00:18:41,741
admittedly an act of madness.

290
00:18:41,824 --> 00:18:44,953
I'll tell you what happened.
I just ran out of bullshit.

291
00:18:44,995 --> 00:18:47,289
- Cut him off.
- Leave him on.

292
00:18:48,749 --> 00:18:50,168
Am I still on?

293
00:18:50,251 --> 00:18:53,338
If this is how he wants to go out,
this is how he goes out.

294
00:18:53,422 --> 00:18:55,674
I just ran out of bullshit.

295
00:18:55,758 --> 00:18:58,219
Mr. Schumacher's here.
Do you want to talk to him?

296
00:18:58,303 --> 00:19:00,222
Bullshit is all the reasons
we give for living.

297
00:19:00,305 --> 00:19:04,602
If we can't think up reasons of our own,
we always have the God bullshit.

298
00:19:04,685 --> 00:19:06,521
- We don't know why we go through...
- What is it?

299
00:19:06,604 --> 00:19:09,066
Pointless pain,
humiliation and decay.

300
00:19:09,149 --> 00:19:13,070
There better be someone, somewhere
who does know. That's the God bullshit.

301
00:19:13,154 --> 00:19:16,575
He's saying that life is bullshit.
It is. What are you screaming about?

302
00:19:16,658 --> 00:19:20,079
Man is a noble creature who can order
his own world. Who needs God?

303
00:19:21,289 --> 00:19:25,168
If there's anybody who can look around
this demented world we live in...

304
00:19:25,210 --> 00:19:28,255
and tell me man
is a noble creature...

305
00:19:28,339 --> 00:19:30,633
believe me,
that man is full of bullshit.

306
00:19:31,718 --> 00:19:35,347
- What's so goddamn funny?
- I can't help it. It's funny.

307
00:19:37,099 --> 00:19:40,061
This is going out live
to 67 affiliates.

308
00:19:40,145 --> 00:19:41,563
Leave him on.

309
00:19:41,647 --> 00:19:46,152
And I was married for 33 years
of shrill, shrieking fraud.

310
00:19:46,236 --> 00:19:49,823
- Mr. Hackett's trying to reach you.
- Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself.

311
00:19:49,907 --> 00:19:52,869
So I don't have any bullshit left.

312
00:19:54,037 --> 00:19:56,999
I just ran out of it, you see.

313
00:20:02,755 --> 00:20:05,217
Mr. Ruddy, could we have
one statement, please?

314
00:20:05,259 --> 00:20:07,386
Sorry, I don't have
all the information yet.

315
00:20:10,849 --> 00:20:14,770
If we could just have one statement
about Mr. Beale.

316
00:20:24,782 --> 00:20:26,242
Max?

317
00:20:35,045 --> 00:20:36,963
I'll want to see Mr. Beale
after this.

318
00:20:39,508 --> 00:20:42,095
The way I hear it,
you were primarily responsible...

319
00:20:42,178 --> 00:20:44,514
for this colossally
stupid prank.

320
00:20:45,265 --> 00:20:47,560
- Is that the fact?
- That's the fact.

321
00:20:47,643 --> 00:20:50,188
It was unconscionable.

322
00:20:53,567 --> 00:20:56,988
- There is nothing more to say.
- I have something to say.

323
00:20:58,156 --> 00:21:00,993
I want to know why that debasement
of the News Division...

324
00:21:01,076 --> 00:21:04,705
announced at the meeting this afternoon
was kept secret from me?

325
00:21:05,957 --> 00:21:08,293
You and I go back 20 years.

326
00:21:08,335 --> 00:21:10,879
I took this job
with your personal assurance...

327
00:21:10,963 --> 00:21:14,717
that you'd back my autonomy
against any encroachment.

328
00:21:14,801 --> 00:21:19,515
But ever since CCA acquired control
of UBS Systems ten months ago...

329
00:21:19,598 --> 00:21:21,935
Hackett's been taking over everything.

330
00:21:22,018 --> 00:21:26,190
Who is running this network?
You or some conglomerate called CCA?

331
00:21:26,273 --> 00:21:29,068
You're president
of the Systems Group.

332
00:21:29,152 --> 00:21:32,698
Hackett's nothing
but a hatchet man for CCA.

333
00:21:32,781 --> 00:21:35,451
Nelson here,
president of the network...

334
00:21:35,534 --> 00:21:38,288
and he hasn't a damned thing to say
about anything anymore.

335
00:21:38,371 --> 00:21:40,958
I told you
at the stockholders' meeting...

336
00:21:41,041 --> 00:21:44,837
that we would discuss all that
at our regular meeting tomorrow morning.

337
00:21:44,921 --> 00:21:47,257
If you had been patient,
I would have explained...

338
00:21:47,340 --> 00:21:49,885
that I, too, thought
Frank Hackett precipitate...

339
00:21:49,968 --> 00:21:52,847
and that the reorganization of the
News Division would not be executed...

340
00:21:52,930 --> 00:21:55,475
until everyone,
specifically you, Max...

341
00:21:55,559 --> 00:21:58,479
had been consulted and satisfied.

342
00:21:59,438 --> 00:22:01,357
Instead, you sulked off
like a child...

343
00:22:01,441 --> 00:22:04,486
and engaged this network
in a shocking and disgraceful episode.

344
00:22:04,569 --> 00:22:06,530
Your position
is no longer tenable...

345
00:22:06,614 --> 00:22:08,950
regardless of how management
is restructured.

346
00:22:11,036 --> 00:22:13,247
I will expect your resignation
at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

347
00:22:13,330 --> 00:22:17,043
We will coordinate our statements
to the least detriment of everyone.

348
00:22:19,212 --> 00:22:22,675
Bob McDonough will take over the News
Division until we sort all this out.

349
00:22:24,760 --> 00:22:27,556
I'd like to see Mr. Beale now.

350
00:22:27,597 --> 00:22:30,392
They're looking for him.
They don't know where he is.

351
00:22:31,727 --> 00:22:35,398
Well, every day, five days a week
for 15 years...

352
00:22:35,482 --> 00:22:39,028
I've been sitting behind that desk,
the dispassionate pundit...

353
00:22:39,111 --> 00:22:42,115
reporting with seemly detachment...

354
00:22:42,198 --> 00:22:45,786
the daily parade of lunacies
that constitute the news.

355
00:22:45,869 --> 00:22:47,288
Just once...

356
00:22:47,371 --> 00:22:49,374
I wanted to say
what I really felt.

357
00:22:49,457 --> 00:22:51,084
Knock it off.

358
00:22:51,126 --> 00:22:53,003
It was, after all, my last one.

359
00:23:10,065 --> 00:23:12,735
- Have the overnight ratings come in?
- They're on your desk.

360
00:23:12,819 --> 00:23:14,738
Have you got
yesterday's overnights?

361
00:23:14,821 --> 00:23:17,032
- Shall I bring them in?
- Yeah.

362
00:23:22,747 --> 00:23:25,834
These are the outlines submitted
by Universal for an hour series.

363
00:23:25,918 --> 00:23:28,963
You needn't bother to read them.
I'll tell them to you.

364
00:23:29,047 --> 00:23:33,635
The first one is set in an eastern
law school, presumably Harvard.

365
00:23:33,719 --> 00:23:36,848
The series is irresistibly entitled
"The New Lawyers. "

366
00:23:36,931 --> 00:23:40,310
The running characters are: A crusty
but benign ex-Supreme Court justice...

367
00:23:40,352 --> 00:23:43,814
presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes
by way of Dr. Zorba...

368
00:23:43,856 --> 00:23:47,319
a beautiful girl graduate student,
and the local district attorney...

369
00:23:47,360 --> 00:23:49,321
who is brilliant
and sometimes cuts corners.

370
00:23:49,363 --> 00:23:51,282
Next one.

371
00:23:51,365 --> 00:23:53,326
The second one's called
"The Amazon Squad. "

372
00:23:53,409 --> 00:23:54,953
Lady cops.

373
00:23:55,036 --> 00:23:57,873
Running characters include a crusty
but benign police lieutenant...

374
00:23:57,956 --> 00:24:00,251
who's always getting heat
from the commissioner...

375
00:24:00,334 --> 00:24:04,047
a tough, hard-drinking detective who
thinks women belong in the kitchen...

376
00:24:04,131 --> 00:24:07,843
and a brilliant, beautiful young cop
who's fighting the feminist battle.

377
00:24:07,885 --> 00:24:09,971
We're up to our ears in lady cops.

378
00:24:10,054 --> 00:24:13,141
Next is another one of those
investigative reporter shows.

379
00:24:13,225 --> 00:24:15,853
A crusty but benign managing editor
who's always getting...

380
00:24:15,895 --> 00:24:18,022
You know, Barbara...

381
00:24:18,064 --> 00:24:22,361
the Arabs have decided to jack up
the price of oil another 20 percent.

382
00:24:23,362 --> 00:24:27,158
The CIA has been caught opening
Senator Humphrey's mail.

383
00:24:27,242 --> 00:24:31,163
There's a civil war in Angola.
Another one in Beirut.

384
00:24:32,457 --> 00:24:35,001
New York City's still facing default.

385
00:24:35,085 --> 00:24:37,921
They finally caught up
with Patricia Hearst.

386
00:24:38,005 --> 00:24:41,718
And the whole front page
of the Daily News is Howard Beale.

387
00:24:42,844 --> 00:24:46,807
There's also a two-column story
on page one of the Times.

388
00:24:49,602 --> 00:24:51,938
Helen?
Call Mr. Hackett's office.

389
00:24:52,022 --> 00:24:54,441
See if he can give me
a few minutes this morning.

390
00:25:01,074 --> 00:25:05,413
KTNS Kansas City refuses to carry
our "Network News Show" anymore...

391
00:25:05,496 --> 00:25:07,457
unless Beale is taken off the air.

392
00:25:07,499 --> 00:25:09,626
Did you see the overnights
on the "Network News"?

393
00:25:09,710 --> 00:25:12,421
It has an 8 in New York,
a 9 in L. A...

394
00:25:12,505 --> 00:25:14,925
and a 27 share in both cities.

395
00:25:15,008 --> 00:25:18,220
Last night, Howard Beale went on the air
and yelled "bullshit" for two minutes.

396
00:25:18,304 --> 00:25:22,517
I can tell you tonight's show
will get a 30 share at least.

397
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:25,813
- I think we've lucked into something.
- For God sakes, Diana!

398
00:25:25,896 --> 00:25:29,108
Are you suggesting we put that lunatic
back on the air yelling "bullshit"?

399
00:25:29,150 --> 00:25:32,654
Yes, I think we should put Beale back
on the air tonight and keep him on.

400
00:25:32,738 --> 00:25:35,533
Did you see the news this morning?
Did you see the Times?

401
00:25:35,616 --> 00:25:38,244
We got press coverage on this
you couldn't buy for a million dollars.

402
00:25:38,328 --> 00:25:44,252
That show jumped 5 points in one night.
Tonight's show will be at least 15.

403
00:25:44,335 --> 00:25:48,882
We've just increased our audience by
20 or 30 million people in one night!

404
00:25:48,966 --> 00:25:51,719
You won't get something like this dumped
into your lap the rest of your days.

405
00:25:51,802 --> 00:25:55,932
You can't piss it away. Howard said
last night what every American feels.

406
00:25:56,016 --> 00:26:01,064
He's tired of all the bullshit!
He's articulating the popular rage!

407
00:26:01,147 --> 00:26:03,149
I want that show, Frank.

408
00:26:03,233 --> 00:26:05,444
I can turn that show
into the biggest smash on TV.

409
00:26:05,527 --> 00:26:08,489
It's a news show.
It's not your department.

410
00:26:08,573 --> 00:26:11,326
I see Howard Beale
as a latter-day prophet...

411
00:26:11,368 --> 00:26:15,498
a messianic figure inveighing
against the hypocrisies of our times!

412
00:26:15,539 --> 00:26:18,126
A strip Savonarola
Monday through Friday...

413
00:26:18,209 --> 00:26:20,546
that will just go through the roof!

414
00:26:20,629 --> 00:26:24,592
And I'm talking about
a six-dollar cost per thousand show.

415
00:26:24,676 --> 00:26:27,721
I'm talking about
130,000 dollar minutes.

416
00:26:27,804 --> 00:26:31,559
Figure out the revenues of a strip show
that sells for $100,000 a minute!

417
00:26:31,642 --> 00:26:35,397
One show like that could pull
this network out of the hole!

418
00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:38,692
It's being handed to us on a plate.
Let's not blow it.

419
00:26:40,069 --> 00:26:41,988
Yes.

420
00:26:42,072 --> 00:26:44,241
Tell him I'll be a few minutes.

421
00:26:46,827 --> 00:26:50,040
- Let me think it over.
- Let's not go to committee on this.

422
00:26:50,081 --> 00:26:53,919
It's 10:20. We want Beale in the studio
by 6:30. We don't want to lose momentum.

423
00:26:54,003 --> 00:26:58,091
For God sakes, we're talking about
putting an irresponsible man...

424
00:26:58,174 --> 00:27:00,677
on national television.

425
00:27:10,439 --> 00:27:13,192
I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs,
Herb Thackery...

426
00:27:13,276 --> 00:27:15,862
and Joe Donnelly
in Standards and Practices.

427
00:27:17,531 --> 00:27:20,743
You know I'll be eyeball to eyeball
with Mr. Ruddy on this.

428
00:27:20,785 --> 00:27:23,997
If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy,
I want to be sure of my ground.

429
00:27:24,081 --> 00:27:26,292
My ass is going on the line.

430
00:27:29,712 --> 00:27:31,631
I'll get back to you.

431
00:27:35,386 --> 00:27:37,388
I don't believe the top brass...

432
00:27:37,472 --> 00:27:41,518
of a national television network
is sitting around their Caesar salads...

433
00:27:41,602 --> 00:27:43,938
Top brass of a bankrupt
national television network...

434
00:27:43,980 --> 00:27:46,650
with projected losses
of $150 million.

435
00:27:46,733 --> 00:27:48,151
I don't care!

436
00:27:49,612 --> 00:27:53,533
You can't be seriously proposing,
and the rest of us considering...

437
00:27:53,616 --> 00:27:56,119
putting on a pornographic
network news show.

438
00:27:56,203 --> 00:27:58,456
- The FCC would kill us.
- Sit down, Nelson.

439
00:27:58,497 --> 00:28:01,459
The FCC can't do anything
except rap our knuckles.

440
00:28:01,543 --> 00:28:04,713
I don't even want to think about
the litigious possibilities.

441
00:28:04,797 --> 00:28:08,092
- We could be up to our ears in lawsuits.
- The affiliates won't carry it.

442
00:28:08,176 --> 00:28:11,179
The affiliates will kiss your ass
if you can hand them a hit show.

443
00:28:11,263 --> 00:28:13,515
- But popular reaction...
- We don't know the popular reaction.

444
00:28:13,599 --> 00:28:16,811
- That's what we have to find out.
- The New York Times...

445
00:28:16,853 --> 00:28:20,315
The New York Times doesn't advertise
on our network.

446
00:28:22,234 --> 00:28:26,573
All I know is, this violates
every canon of respectable broadcasting.

447
00:28:26,656 --> 00:28:29,869
We're not a respectable network.
We're a whorehouse network.

448
00:28:29,952 --> 00:28:32,121
We have to take whatever we can get.

449
00:28:33,540 --> 00:28:35,500
I don't want any part of it.

450
00:28:35,584 --> 00:28:38,045
I don't fancy myself
the president of a whorehouse.

451
00:28:38,129 --> 00:28:40,924
That's commendable of you, Nelson.
Now sit down.

452
00:28:42,050 --> 00:28:44,011
Your indignation
has been duly recorded.

453
00:28:44,052 --> 00:28:46,013
You can always resign tomorrow.

454
00:28:48,266 --> 00:28:52,187
What in substance are we proposing?

455
00:28:52,229 --> 00:28:56,192
Merely to add editorial comment
to our network news show.

456
00:28:56,275 --> 00:29:00,030
Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner
all have their comments.

457
00:29:00,113 --> 00:29:02,199
Now Howard Beale will have his.

458
00:29:02,283 --> 00:29:06,329
I think we ought to give it a shot,
see what happens tonight. Telephone.

459
00:29:06,413 --> 00:29:09,875
I don't want to be the messenger
who has to tell Schumacher about this.

460
00:29:09,959 --> 00:29:13,713
He doesn't work at this network anymore.
Mr. Ruddy fired him last night.

461
00:29:13,797 --> 00:29:16,759
Bob McDonough is running
the News Division now.

462
00:29:18,177 --> 00:29:20,179
Bob McDonough in News, please.

463
00:29:21,681 --> 00:29:23,809
I don't know.

464
00:29:23,892 --> 00:29:26,353
I may teach or write a book...

465
00:29:26,437 --> 00:29:30,525
whatever the hell one does when one
approaches the autumn of one's years.

466
00:29:33,320 --> 00:29:35,239
My God! Is that me?

467
00:29:36,032 --> 00:29:38,535
Was I ever that young?

468
00:29:38,618 --> 00:29:41,038
No, Howard brought in a picture
of Ed Murrow...

469
00:29:41,121 --> 00:29:43,583
and the CBS gang
when we were there.

470
00:29:43,666 --> 00:29:45,210
You wouldn't believe it!

471
00:29:45,293 --> 00:29:47,421
Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner...

472
00:29:47,462 --> 00:29:49,506
Hollenbeck, Bob Trout.

473
00:29:49,590 --> 00:29:51,509
Is that you?

474
00:29:52,677 --> 00:29:56,431
Yeah. Okay, Dick,
we'll be in touch.

475
00:29:56,515 --> 00:30:00,937
Remember this kid you sent to interview
Cleveland Amory on vivisection?

476
00:30:04,650 --> 00:30:06,902
What's so funny?

477
00:30:09,489 --> 00:30:13,035
I jump out of bed in my pajamas,
I grab my raincoat, I run downstairs.

478
00:30:13,118 --> 00:30:15,747
I run out to the street
and hail a cab.

479
00:30:15,830 --> 00:30:20,836
I yell at the driver, "Take me to the
middle of the George Washington Bridge. "

480
00:30:22,964 --> 00:30:26,635
And the driver says,
"Don't do it, buddy. Don't do it!

481
00:30:26,718 --> 00:30:29,221
You're young. You've got
your whole life ahead of you. "

482
00:30:30,181 --> 00:30:32,517
Wait a minute.

483
00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:37,106
If you think that's funny,
wait till you hear this.

484
00:30:37,189 --> 00:30:39,150
I've come from Hackett's office.

485
00:30:39,192 --> 00:30:41,987
He wants to put Howard
back on the air tonight.

486
00:30:42,028 --> 00:30:45,115
Apparently the ratings went up
five points last night...

487
00:30:45,199 --> 00:30:48,494
and he wants Howard to go back on
and do his "angry man" thing.

488
00:30:48,536 --> 00:30:50,664
What are you talking about?

489
00:30:50,705 --> 00:30:53,793
They want Howard to go back on
and yell "bullshit. "

490
00:30:56,379 --> 00:30:58,340
They want Howard to go on...

491
00:30:58,381 --> 00:31:00,384
spontaneously letting out
his anger.

492
00:31:00,467 --> 00:31:03,429
A latter-day prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

493
00:31:03,513 --> 00:31:05,724
That sounds pretty good!

494
00:31:06,641 --> 00:31:08,060
Who's "they"?

495
00:31:08,143 --> 00:31:10,813
Hackett. Chaney was there.

496
00:31:10,897 --> 00:31:14,025
The Legal Affairs guy.
Oh, and that girl from programming.

497
00:31:14,067 --> 00:31:16,528
Christensen?
What's she got to do with this?

498
00:31:16,570 --> 00:31:19,365
- Are you kidding?
- I'm not kidding.

499
00:31:19,407 --> 00:31:23,161
I said, "We're running
a news department here, not a circus.

500
00:31:23,245 --> 00:31:25,790
And Howard Beale's
not a bearded lady.

501
00:31:25,873 --> 00:31:28,501
If you think I'll go along with
this bastardization of the news...

502
00:31:28,585 --> 00:31:32,005
you can have my resignation
along with Max Schumacher's.

503
00:31:32,089 --> 00:31:37,887
- I'm speaking for Howard Beale and... "
- That's my job you're turning down.

504
00:31:37,971 --> 00:31:40,808
I'd go nuts
without some kind of work.

505
00:31:40,891 --> 00:31:44,896
What's wrong with being an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

506
00:31:44,979 --> 00:31:46,690
What do you think, Max?

507
00:31:46,773 --> 00:31:50,987
Do you want to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

508
00:31:51,070 --> 00:31:55,534
Yeah, I'd like to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

509
00:31:56,827 --> 00:31:58,829
Then grab it!

510
00:32:05,296 --> 00:32:07,256
- Afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.
- Afternoon.

511
00:32:07,298 --> 00:32:09,259
Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.

512
00:32:12,388 --> 00:32:14,724
- He's waiting for you.
- Thank you.

513
00:32:21,023 --> 00:32:24,402
Nelson Chaney tells me Beale
may actually go on the air this evening.

514
00:32:26,196 --> 00:32:28,532
As far as I know,
Howard's going to do it.

515
00:32:31,160 --> 00:32:33,872
- Are you gonna sit still for this?
- Yes.

516
00:32:33,955 --> 00:32:36,667
I think Hackett's overstepped himself.

517
00:32:36,750 --> 00:32:39,295
There's some kind of
corporate maneuvering going on.

518
00:32:39,378 --> 00:32:41,923
Hackett is clearly forcing
a confrontation.

519
00:32:42,007 --> 00:32:44,176
That would account for his behavior
at the stockholders' meeting.

520
00:32:44,259 --> 00:32:48,848
However, I think he's making a serious
mistake with this Beale business.

521
00:32:48,932 --> 00:32:52,060
I suspect CCA will be upset...

522
00:32:52,144 --> 00:32:54,105
at Hackett's presumptuousness.

523
00:32:54,188 --> 00:32:56,316
Certainly Mr. Jensen will.

524
00:32:56,399 --> 00:32:59,945
So I'm going to let Hackett
have his head for a while.

525
00:33:00,028 --> 00:33:02,698
He just might lose it
over this Beale business.

526
00:33:06,912 --> 00:33:09,707
I'd like you to reconsider
your resignation.

527
00:33:09,790 --> 00:33:12,293
I assume Hackett
wouldn't take such steps...

528
00:33:12,377 --> 00:33:14,671
without some support
on the CCA board.

529
00:33:14,713 --> 00:33:17,591
I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen.

530
00:33:17,675 --> 00:33:20,887
When that happens, I'm going to need
every friend I've got...

531
00:33:20,970 --> 00:33:24,683
and I don't want Hackett's people
in all the divisional positions.

532
00:33:24,725 --> 00:33:26,936
So I'd like you to stay on.

533
00:33:31,483 --> 00:33:32,902
Of course.

534
00:33:34,612 --> 00:33:37,365
Thank you, Max.

535
00:33:37,407 --> 00:33:39,868
This has been
the "UBS Evening News"...

536
00:33:39,952 --> 00:33:42,371
with Howard Beale.

537
00:33:42,455 --> 00:33:45,083
The initial response to the new
"Howard Beale Show"...

538
00:33:45,166 --> 00:33:47,210
was not auspicatory.

539
00:33:47,294 --> 00:33:49,338
The press was,
without exception, hostile...

540
00:33:49,421 --> 00:33:51,591
and industry reaction negative.

541
00:33:51,674 --> 00:33:54,010
The ratings for the Thursday
and Friday shows...

542
00:33:54,094 --> 00:33:56,597
were both 14,
but Monday's rating dropped a point...

543
00:33:56,680 --> 00:33:59,934
clearly suggesting the novelty
was wearing off.

544
00:34:01,770 --> 00:34:03,939
Did you know there are
a number of psychics...

545
00:34:04,022 --> 00:34:06,943
working as licensed brokers
on Wall Street?

546
00:34:07,026 --> 00:34:09,446
Some counsel their clients
by use of tarot cards.

547
00:34:09,529 --> 00:34:13,242
They're all pretty successful,
even in a bear market and selling short.

548
00:34:13,325 --> 00:34:16,913
I met one of them last week
and thought of doing a show around her.

549
00:34:16,996 --> 00:34:19,625
"The Wayward Witch of Wall Street. "
Something like that.

550
00:34:19,708 --> 00:34:22,211
But if her tips were any good,
she could wreck the market.

551
00:34:22,295 --> 00:34:27,843
I called her this morning and asked her
how she was on predicting the future.

552
00:34:27,926 --> 00:34:30,596
She said she was
occasionally prescient.

553
00:34:30,680 --> 00:34:35,310
"For example," she said,
"I just had a vision of you...

554
00:34:35,394 --> 00:34:38,397
sitting in an office
with a craggy, middle-aged man...

555
00:34:38,481 --> 00:34:41,902
with whom you are
or will be emotionally involved. "

556
00:34:41,985 --> 00:34:43,570
And here I am.

557
00:34:46,032 --> 00:34:48,576
She does all this with tarot cards?

558
00:34:48,660 --> 00:34:51,538
This one operates
on parapsychology.

559
00:34:51,622 --> 00:34:55,919
She has trance-like episodes
and feels things in her energy field.

560
00:34:56,878 --> 00:35:00,591
- This lady could be very useful to you.
- In what way?

561
00:35:00,633 --> 00:35:03,261
You put on a news show.

562
00:35:03,344 --> 00:35:06,556
And here's somebody who can predict
tomorrow's news for you.

563
00:35:06,640 --> 00:35:08,976
Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl.

564
00:35:09,018 --> 00:35:10,978
Sibyl the Soothsayer.

565
00:35:11,020 --> 00:35:13,607
You could give her
two minutes of trance...

566
00:35:13,690 --> 00:35:16,318
at the end of the "Howard Beale Show,"
say once a week, Friday...

567
00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,821
which is suggestively occult,
and she could oraculate.

568
00:35:20,031 --> 00:35:22,993
Then next week everyone tunes in to see
how good her predictions were.

569
00:35:24,119 --> 00:35:26,122
Maybe she could do the weather.

570
00:35:28,458 --> 00:35:31,420
Your "Network News Show" will need help
if it's going to hold.

571
00:35:31,503 --> 00:35:33,965
Beale doesn't do the "angry man" thing
well at all.

572
00:35:34,048 --> 00:35:36,092
He's too kvetchy.
He's being irascible.

573
00:35:36,176 --> 00:35:39,346
We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon.
He should do more apocalyptic doom.

574
00:35:39,388 --> 00:35:43,226
I think you should have some writers
write some jeremiads for him.

575
00:35:44,602 --> 00:35:46,855
I see you don't fancy my suggestions.

576
00:35:49,066 --> 00:35:50,902
You're not serious?

577
00:35:50,985 --> 00:35:52,696
I'm serious.

578
00:35:54,239 --> 00:35:56,742
The fact is, I could make
your Beale show...

579
00:35:56,826 --> 00:36:00,789
the highest-rated news show in TV
if you'd let me have a crack at it.

580
00:36:01,748 --> 00:36:04,001
What do you mean,
"have a crack at it"?

581
00:36:04,084 --> 00:36:05,920
I'd like to program it for you.

582
00:36:06,003 --> 00:36:07,589
Develop it.

583
00:36:07,672 --> 00:36:12,386
I wouldn't interfere with
the news itself, but TV is show biz...

584
00:36:12,428 --> 00:36:16,391
and even the news has to have
a little showmanship.

585
00:36:16,433 --> 00:36:18,727
My God, you are serious.

586
00:36:18,769 --> 00:36:22,940
I watched your six o'clock news today.
It's straight tabloid.

587
00:36:23,024 --> 00:36:26,528
You had a minute and a half of that lady
riding naked in Central Park...

588
00:36:26,612 --> 00:36:29,699
but you had less than a minute
of hard national and international news.

589
00:36:29,782 --> 00:36:32,494
It was all sex, scandal,
brutal crime, sports...

590
00:36:32,577 --> 00:36:35,914
children with incurable diseases
and lost puppies.

591
00:36:35,956 --> 00:36:39,377
So I won't listen to protestations
of high standards of journalism...

592
00:36:39,460 --> 00:36:42,297
when you're on the streets, soliciting
audiences like the rest of us.

593
00:36:42,381 --> 00:36:46,385
All I'm saying is, if you're going
to hustle, at least do it right.

594
00:36:46,469 --> 00:36:49,556
I'm going to bring this up at tomorrow's
meeting, but I don't like hassles.

595
00:36:49,639 --> 00:36:53,018
I was hoping we could work this out
between us. That's why I'm here.

596
00:36:54,562 --> 00:36:57,941
And I was hoping you were looking for
an emotional involvement...

597
00:36:57,983 --> 00:37:00,194
with a craggy, middle-aged man.

598
00:37:01,737 --> 00:37:03,740
I wouldn't rule that out entirely.

599
00:37:07,161 --> 00:37:09,497
All right, Diana...

600
00:37:09,580 --> 00:37:13,293
bring up all your ideas at the meeting,
because if you don't, I will.

601
00:37:14,795 --> 00:37:17,298
I think Howard's making
a goddamn fool of himself...

602
00:37:17,340 --> 00:37:21,470
and so does everybody that Howard
and I know in this industry.

603
00:37:21,553 --> 00:37:23,931
It was a fluke.
Didn't work.

604
00:37:25,182 --> 00:37:28,269
So tomorrow, Howard goes back
to the old format...

605
00:37:28,353 --> 00:37:32,233
and all of this gutter depravity
comes to an end.

606
00:37:43,913 --> 00:37:45,791
I don't get it.

607
00:37:47,251 --> 00:37:50,254
You hung around until 7:30
and then came down here...

608
00:37:50,338 --> 00:37:53,258
just to pitch a couple
of loony show-biz ideas...

609
00:37:53,341 --> 00:37:57,221
when you knew goddamn well
I'd laugh you right out of the office.

610
00:37:57,304 --> 00:37:59,682
I don't get it.

611
00:37:59,766 --> 00:38:02,603
What's your scam in this?

612
00:38:02,686 --> 00:38:08,067
My visit here tonight was a gesture made
out of your stature in the industry...

613
00:38:09,402 --> 00:38:12,072
and because I personally admired you
since I was a kid...

614
00:38:12,156 --> 00:38:14,659
majoring in speech
at the University of Missouri.

615
00:38:15,952 --> 00:38:19,707
Sooner or later, with or without you,
I'm going to take over your news show.

616
00:38:19,790 --> 00:38:22,335
I figured I might as well start tonight.

617
00:38:23,586 --> 00:38:26,298
I think I once gave a lecture...

618
00:38:26,381 --> 00:38:29,635
at the University of Missouri.

619
00:38:29,719 --> 00:38:34,391
I was in the audience. I had
a schoolgirl crush on you for months.

620
00:38:36,018 --> 00:38:39,397
If we could get back for a moment
to that gypsy who predicted...

621
00:38:39,439 --> 00:38:43,694
all that about emotional involvements
and middle-aged men...

622
00:38:44,904 --> 00:38:47,323
what are you doing
for dinner tonight?

623
00:38:56,626 --> 00:38:59,338
I can't make it tonight.
Call me tomorrow.

624
00:39:01,841 --> 00:39:05,011
- Do you have a favorite restaurant?
- I eat anything.

625
00:39:06,388 --> 00:39:08,599
I get a feeling I'm being made.

626
00:39:08,641 --> 00:39:10,101
You are.

627
00:39:11,269 --> 00:39:14,439
I've got to warn you.
I don't do anything on my first date.

628
00:39:14,481 --> 00:39:15,941
We'll see.

629
00:39:21,948 --> 00:39:24,201
Schmuck, what are you getting into?

630
00:39:45,686 --> 00:39:49,732
I was married for four years
and pretended to be happy.

631
00:39:49,816 --> 00:39:52,444
I had six years of analysis
and pretended to be sane.

632
00:39:54,238 --> 00:39:56,907
My husband ran off
with his boyfriend...

633
00:39:56,991 --> 00:40:01,580
and I had an affair with my analyst who
told me I was the worst lay he ever had.

634
00:40:02,873 --> 00:40:05,751
I can't tell you how many men
have told me what a lousy lay I am.

635
00:40:06,627 --> 00:40:09,047
I apparently have
a masculine temperament.

636
00:40:09,131 --> 00:40:13,010
I arouse quickly,
consummate prematurely...

637
00:40:13,052 --> 00:40:16,139
and I can't wait to get my clothes
back on and get out of that bedroom.

638
00:40:17,349 --> 00:40:21,312
I seem to be inept at everything
except my work.

639
00:40:22,188 --> 00:40:24,441
I'm good at my work.

640
00:40:24,524 --> 00:40:27,069
So I confine myself to that.

641
00:40:27,152 --> 00:40:30,615
All I want out of life
is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

642
00:40:32,200 --> 00:40:34,328
You're married, surely?

643
00:40:35,913 --> 00:40:37,331
Twenty-five years.

644
00:40:38,374 --> 00:40:41,670
I have a married daughter in Seattle
who's six months pregnant...

645
00:40:41,753 --> 00:40:46,884
and a younger girl who's starting
at Northwestern in January.

646
00:40:49,763 --> 00:40:51,682
Well, Max, here we are.

647
00:40:53,768 --> 00:40:56,521
Middle-aged man reaffirming
his middle-aged manhood...

648
00:40:56,605 --> 00:40:59,566
and a terrified young woman
with a father complex.

649
00:40:59,650 --> 00:41:02,153
What sort of script
can we make out of this?

650
00:41:04,239 --> 00:41:08,619
Corridor gossip says that you're
Frank Hackett's backstage girl.

651
00:41:09,662 --> 00:41:11,080
I'm not.

652
00:41:12,791 --> 00:41:16,128
Frank's a corporation man,
body and soul.

653
00:41:16,212 --> 00:41:18,214
He has no loves, lusts
or allegiances...

654
00:41:18,256 --> 00:41:21,718
that are not consummately directed
toward becoming a CCA board member.

655
00:41:21,802 --> 00:41:24,638
Why should he bother with me?
I'm not even a stockholder.

656
00:41:26,516 --> 00:41:30,771
What about your loves,
lusts and allegiances?

657
00:41:30,854 --> 00:41:33,024
Is your wife in town?

658
00:41:33,107 --> 00:41:34,525
Yes.

659
00:41:35,819 --> 00:41:38,280
Then we better go to my place.

660
00:41:39,657 --> 00:41:42,619
I can't hear you.
You'll have to talk a little louder.

661
00:41:49,335 --> 00:41:52,380
Yes, I hear you.

662
00:41:55,968 --> 00:41:57,386
Yes.

663
00:42:00,181 --> 00:42:01,642
Yes.

664
00:42:07,565 --> 00:42:09,025
Why me?

665
00:42:10,986 --> 00:42:13,197
I said, "Why me?"

666
00:42:33,555 --> 00:42:35,516
Howard in his office?

667
00:42:36,684 --> 00:42:41,732
I'm killing this whole screwball
"angry prophet" thing.

668
00:42:41,815 --> 00:42:44,026
Tonight we go back to straight news.

669
00:42:50,909 --> 00:42:54,497
Yeah? Max, I'm telling you he's fine.

670
00:42:54,539 --> 00:42:57,626
He's been sharp all day.
He's been as funny as hell.

671
00:42:57,709 --> 00:42:59,920
Had everybody cracking up
at the rundown meeting.

672
00:43:00,004 --> 00:43:02,006
I told him!

673
00:43:02,799 --> 00:43:04,217
Cue VTA.

674
00:43:05,010 --> 00:43:06,428
Ready two.

675
00:43:08,723 --> 00:43:12,018
- Cue announcer.
- The "UBS Evening News"...

676
00:43:12,102 --> 00:43:14,104
with Howard Beale.

677
00:43:15,105 --> 00:43:18,943
Last night I was awakened
from a fitful sleep...

678
00:43:19,027 --> 00:43:21,697
shortly after 2:00 in the morning...

679
00:43:21,738 --> 00:43:24,825
by a shrill, sibilant,
faceless voice.

680
00:43:24,909 --> 00:43:28,538
I couldn't make it out at first
in the dark bedroom.

681
00:43:30,082 --> 00:43:32,710
I said, "I'm sorry.
You'll have to talk a little louder. "

682
00:43:32,752 --> 00:43:36,464
- What do you want me to do?
- Nothing.

683
00:43:36,548 --> 00:43:39,844
The voice said to me,
"I want you to tell the truth.

684
00:43:39,927 --> 00:43:42,764
Not easy to do, because the people
don't want to know the truth. "

685
00:43:42,847 --> 00:43:45,601
I said, "You're kidding?

686
00:43:45,642 --> 00:43:47,603
What should I know about the truth?"

687
00:43:47,645 --> 00:43:52,234
But the voice said to me,
"Don't worry about the truth. "

688
00:43:52,275 --> 00:43:54,278
I will put the words in your mouth. "

689
00:43:55,321 --> 00:43:57,281
I said,
"Is this the burning bush?

690
00:43:57,323 --> 00:43:58,783
I'm not Moses. "

691
00:43:58,825 --> 00:44:02,121
The voice said, "I'm not God.
What has that got to do with it?"

692
00:44:02,162 --> 00:44:06,543
The voice said, "We're not talking
about eternal, absolute truth.

693
00:44:06,626 --> 00:44:09,338
We're talking about impermanent,
transient, human truth!

694
00:44:09,421 --> 00:44:12,299
I don't expect people
to be capable of truth...

695
00:44:12,383 --> 00:44:14,928
but at least you're capable
of self-preservation. "

696
00:44:16,012 --> 00:44:19,767
I said, "Why me?"

697
00:44:19,809 --> 00:44:22,562
The voice said, "Because you're
on television, dummy. "

698
00:44:22,645 --> 00:44:24,856
Beautiful.

699
00:44:24,940 --> 00:44:28,069
"Forty million Americans listen to you,
and after the show, maybe 50 million.

700
00:44:28,152 --> 00:44:32,365
I'm not asking you to walk the land
in sackcloth preaching the Armageddon.

701
00:44:32,449 --> 00:44:33,867
You're on TV."

702
00:44:34,618 --> 00:44:36,871
I thought about it for a moment.

703
00:44:38,331 --> 00:44:40,834
Then I said, "Okay. "

704
00:45:01,484 --> 00:45:03,403
Close the door, Harry.

705
00:45:06,865 --> 00:45:09,744
Howard, I'm taking you off the air.

706
00:45:10,995 --> 00:45:14,208
I think you're having a breakdown,
require treatment.

707
00:45:16,627 --> 00:45:19,881
This is not a psychotic episode.

708
00:45:19,923 --> 00:45:22,593
This is a cleansing moment of clarity.

709
00:45:26,973 --> 00:45:28,433
I'm imbued.

710
00:45:29,726 --> 00:45:33,815
I'm imbued with some special spirit.
It's not a religious feeling at all.

711
00:45:33,898 --> 00:45:37,528
It's a shocking eruption
of great electrical energy.

712
00:45:37,569 --> 00:45:40,031
I feel vivid and flashing...

713
00:45:40,072 --> 00:45:45,245
as if suddenly I'd been plugged
into a great electromagnetic field.

714
00:45:47,122 --> 00:45:49,834
I feel connected to all living things.

715
00:45:49,917 --> 00:45:53,046
To flowers, birds...

716
00:45:54,173 --> 00:45:56,175
all the animals of the world...

717
00:45:57,969 --> 00:46:03,434
and even to some great,
unseen living force...

718
00:46:03,517 --> 00:46:06,271
what I think the Hindus
call "prana. "

719
00:46:07,522 --> 00:46:09,733
But it's not a breakdown.

720
00:46:09,775 --> 00:46:12,528
I've never felt more orderly
in my life.

721
00:46:12,612 --> 00:46:16,825
It is a shattering
and beautiful sensation.

722
00:46:17,701 --> 00:46:21,456
It is the exalted flow
of the space-time continuum...

723
00:46:21,539 --> 00:46:24,793
save that it is spaceless
and timeless...

724
00:46:26,211 --> 00:46:28,130
and such loveliness.

725
00:46:29,632 --> 00:46:35,097
I feel on the verge
of some great ultimate truth.

726
00:46:39,978 --> 00:46:45,318
And you will not take me off the air
for now or any other spaceless time!

727
00:46:52,535 --> 00:46:54,704
- Is he okay?
- He's just fainted.

728
00:46:54,788 --> 00:46:57,791
I better get him back to my house
again tonight.

729
00:46:57,875 --> 00:46:59,960
Help me get him up.

730
00:47:20,694 --> 00:47:22,655
This is crazy.

731
00:47:24,073 --> 00:47:27,494
The whole place has gone crazy.
They just seem to hassle me.

732
00:48:47,883 --> 00:48:50,845
Wake up, Max,
because Howard's gone.

733
00:48:52,013 --> 00:48:55,100
I'll make you some coffee.

734
00:48:55,141 --> 00:48:57,269
You don't know where he is?
The son of a bitch is a hit!

735
00:48:57,352 --> 00:48:59,981
Goddamn it!
Over 2,000 phone calls!

736
00:49:00,064 --> 00:49:04,486
In the mail room, over 14,000 telegrams!
The response is sensational!

737
00:49:04,528 --> 00:49:06,780
Tell him.
Herb's phone hasn't stopped ringing.

738
00:49:06,822 --> 00:49:12,162
Every affiliate from Albuquerque
to Sandusky! Response is sensational!

739
00:49:12,204 --> 00:49:14,582
Yes. All right.

740
00:49:14,665 --> 00:49:16,959
For you, Herb.
Go to your office.

741
00:49:17,001 --> 00:49:20,464
Moldanian called me. Joe Donnelly
called me. We've got a goddamn hit!

742
00:49:20,547 --> 00:49:24,677
Show him the Times. We even got
an editorial in the New York Times.

743
00:49:24,761 --> 00:49:27,013
- "A Call to Morality. "
- I don't know where he is.

744
00:49:27,055 --> 00:49:30,100
That crazy Beale has caught on. Don't
tell me you don't know where he is.

745
00:49:30,184 --> 00:49:32,770
He could be jumping off a roof
for all I know!

746
00:49:32,854 --> 00:49:36,274
The man is insane!
He's not responsible for himself!

747
00:49:36,358 --> 00:49:38,319
He needs care and treatment.

748
00:49:38,402 --> 00:49:42,615
All you grave robbers think about
is that he's a hit.

749
00:49:42,699 --> 00:49:45,244
It's just possible
that he isn't insane...

750
00:49:45,327 --> 00:49:48,498
that he is, in fact,
imbued with some special spirit.

751
00:49:48,539 --> 00:49:52,127
I'm supposed to be the romantic!
You're the hard-bitten realist!

752
00:49:52,210 --> 00:49:55,256
All right. Howard Beale
obviously fills a void.

753
00:49:55,339 --> 00:49:57,300
The audience
obviously wants a prophet...

754
00:49:57,383 --> 00:50:00,220
even a manufactured one...
even if he's as mad as Moses.

755
00:50:00,262 --> 00:50:02,932
By tomorrow he'll have a 50 share,
maybe a 60.

756
00:50:03,015 --> 00:50:04,976
Howard Beale
is processed instant God.

757
00:50:05,059 --> 00:50:07,854
It looks like he may go over bigger
than Mary Tyler Moore.

758
00:50:07,896 --> 00:50:10,691
I am not putting Howard
back on the air!

759
00:50:10,733 --> 00:50:12,735
It's not your show anymore.
It's mine.

760
00:50:15,781 --> 00:50:17,366
I gave her the show.

761
00:50:17,408 --> 00:50:20,620
I'm putting the "Network News Show"
under programming.

762
00:50:20,703 --> 00:50:23,832
Mr. Ruddy had a heart attack
and is not taking calls.

763
00:50:23,915 --> 00:50:26,877
In his absence,
I'm making all network decisions...

764
00:50:26,919 --> 00:50:30,548
including one I've been wanting to make
a long time: You're fired.

765
00:50:31,341 --> 00:50:33,260
I want you out of this building
by noon.

766
00:50:33,343 --> 00:50:36,639
I'll call security and have you
thrown out if you're still here.

767
00:50:40,143 --> 00:50:41,895
Well, let's say
fuck you, Hackett.

768
00:50:41,937 --> 00:50:44,023
You want me out of here...

769
00:50:44,106 --> 00:50:47,986
you'll have to drag me and the whole
News Division out kicking and screaming.

770
00:50:48,070 --> 00:50:50,739
You think they'll quit their jobs
for you? Not in this recession.

771
00:50:50,781 --> 00:50:52,742
Ruddy will have your ass.

772
00:50:52,784 --> 00:50:56,288
I got a hit!
Ruddy doesn't count anymore!

773
00:50:56,371 --> 00:50:59,250
He was hoping I'd fall on my face
with this Beale show, but I didn't.

774
00:50:59,291 --> 00:51:02,295
It's a big, fat, big-titted hit...

775
00:51:02,379 --> 00:51:04,548
and I don't have to waffle around
with Ruddy anymore.

776
00:51:04,631 --> 00:51:06,926
If he wants to take me before
the CCA board, let him.

777
00:51:06,967 --> 00:51:09,888
Do you think Ruddy is stupid enough
to go to the CCA board and say...

778
00:51:09,971 --> 00:51:12,266
"I'm taking our one hit show
off the air. "

779
00:51:12,307 --> 00:51:17,105
Come November 14, I'll be at the annual
CCA Management Review Meeting...

780
00:51:17,146 --> 00:51:19,649
and I'll announce projected earnings
for this network...

781
00:51:19,733 --> 00:51:21,902
for the first time in five years!

782
00:51:21,986 --> 00:51:26,032
Believe me, Mr. Jensen will be
sitting there, rocking back and forth...

783
00:51:26,116 --> 00:51:30,579
and he'll say, "That's very good, Frank.
Keep it up. "

784
00:51:30,663 --> 00:51:34,125
So don't have illusions about who's
running this network. You're fired.

785
00:51:34,209 --> 00:51:37,922
I want you out of your office before
noon, or I'll have you thrown out.

786
00:51:42,177 --> 00:51:43,762
You go along with this?

787
00:51:45,139 --> 00:51:47,600
I told you I didn't want
a network hassle.

788
00:51:47,683 --> 00:51:51,271
I told you I'd much rather
work the Beale show out between us.

789
00:51:53,190 --> 00:51:55,526
Well, let's just say
fuck you, too, honey.

790
00:51:57,362 --> 00:51:59,698
Howard Beale may be my best friend.
I'll go to court.

791
00:51:59,781 --> 00:52:02,910
I'll put him in a hospital before I let
you exploit him like a carnival freak.

792
00:52:02,993 --> 00:52:04,829
You get your psychiatrist.
I'll get mine.

793
00:52:04,871 --> 00:52:08,333
I'm gonna spread this reeking business
in every newspaper...

794
00:52:08,375 --> 00:52:11,253
on every network, group and affiliate
in this country!

795
00:52:11,337 --> 00:52:13,506
I'm gonna make
a lot of noise about this!

796
00:52:13,548 --> 00:52:15,884
We need all the press we can get!

797
00:52:18,763 --> 00:52:20,848
Something going on
between you and Schumacher?

798
00:52:22,392 --> 00:52:24,019
Not anymore.

799
00:52:42,500 --> 00:52:44,752
- How do you do, Mr. Beale?
- I must make my witness.

800
00:52:44,836 --> 00:52:46,922
Sure thing, Mr. Beale.

801
00:52:50,468 --> 00:52:53,179
Oil ministers of the OPEC nations
meeting in Vienna...

802
00:52:53,263 --> 00:52:57,643
still haven't decided how much
to increase the price of oil.

803
00:52:57,726 --> 00:53:00,855
Yeah? He came in the building
five minutes ago.

804
00:53:00,939 --> 00:53:03,692
Tell Snowden when he comes in
to let him go on.

805
00:53:03,775 --> 00:53:05,694
Did you get that, Paul?

806
00:53:06,946 --> 00:53:11,159
More on that story
from Edward Fletcher in Vienna.

807
00:53:11,243 --> 00:53:15,081
This has been the most divisive meeting
the oil states have ever had.

808
00:53:17,959 --> 00:53:20,504
The 13 nations of OPEC
have still not...

809
00:53:20,587 --> 00:53:23,716
been able to decide by how much
to increase the price of oil.

810
00:53:25,385 --> 00:53:27,345
How much time we got?

811
00:53:28,639 --> 00:53:30,599
We've got five seconds.
Hurry up.

812
00:53:35,105 --> 00:53:36,982
Take two. Cue Howard.

813
00:53:37,066 --> 00:53:40,612
I don't have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.

814
00:53:40,653 --> 00:53:42,614
It's a depression.

815
00:53:42,656 --> 00:53:46,994
Everybody's out of work
or scared of losing their job.

816
00:53:47,036 --> 00:53:50,040
The dollar buys a nickel's worth.
Banks are going bust.

817
00:53:50,123 --> 00:53:54,211
Shopkeepers keep guns under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street.

818
00:53:54,295 --> 00:53:57,090
Nobody anywhere seems to know
what to do, and there's no end to it.

819
00:53:58,508 --> 00:54:03,222
We know the air is unfit to breathe
and our food is unfit to eat.

820
00:54:03,306 --> 00:54:06,518
We sit watching our TVs
while some newscaster tells us...

821
00:54:06,601 --> 00:54:10,189
that today we had 15 homicides
and 63 violent crimes...

822
00:54:10,272 --> 00:54:12,191
as if that's the way
it's supposed to be!

823
00:54:12,275 --> 00:54:15,654
We know things are bad.
Worse than bad. They're crazy.

824
00:54:15,696 --> 00:54:19,033
Everything everywhere is going crazy,
so we don't go out anymore.

825
00:54:19,116 --> 00:54:22,537
We sit in the house. Slowly the world
we're living in is getting smaller.

826
00:54:22,579 --> 00:54:26,041
All we say is, "Please. At least
leave us alone in our living rooms.

827
00:54:26,083 --> 00:54:29,546
Let me have my toaster, my TV
my steel-belted radials.

828
00:54:29,629 --> 00:54:31,673
I won't say anything
Just leave us alone. "

829
00:54:31,757 --> 00:54:35,261
I'm not gonna leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!

830
00:54:36,346 --> 00:54:38,849
I don't want you to protest or riot.

831
00:54:38,932 --> 00:54:41,518
Don't write to your congressman.
I don't know what to tell you to write.

832
00:54:41,602 --> 00:54:44,147
I don't know what to do
about depression, inflation...

833
00:54:44,230 --> 00:54:46,191
the Russians,
the crime in the streets.

834
00:54:46,274 --> 00:54:49,236
All I know is that first
you've got to get mad!

835
00:54:49,320 --> 00:54:52,365
You've got to say,
"I'm a human being, goddamn it!

836
00:54:52,407 --> 00:54:54,451
My life has value!"

837
00:54:57,079 --> 00:55:01,543
So, I want you to get up now.

838
00:55:01,626 --> 00:55:05,005
I want all of you to get up
out of your chairs.

839
00:55:05,089 --> 00:55:08,426
I want you to get up now
and go to the window...

840
00:55:08,468 --> 00:55:11,763
open it,
stick your head out and yell...

841
00:55:11,805 --> 00:55:16,352
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take this anymore!"

842
00:55:16,436 --> 00:55:18,355
I want you to get up right now.

843
00:55:18,438 --> 00:55:21,066
- Stay with him.
- Sit up! Go to your windows.

844
00:55:21,108 --> 00:55:23,402
Open them,
stick your head out and yell...

845
00:55:23,444 --> 00:55:26,573
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take this anymore!"

846
00:55:27,616 --> 00:55:30,035
- How many stations does it go out live?
- Sixty-seven.

847
00:55:32,330 --> 00:55:34,291
"I'm not gonna take this anymore. "

848
00:55:34,332 --> 00:55:38,129
Then we'll figure out what to do
about the depression and the oil crisis.

849
00:55:38,170 --> 00:55:40,048
First, get out of your chairs...

850
00:55:40,131 --> 00:55:43,677
open the window,
stick your head out and yell...

851
00:55:43,760 --> 00:55:45,888
"I'm as mad as hell...

852
00:55:45,971 --> 00:55:48,308
and I'm not gonna
take this anymore!"

853
00:55:48,349 --> 00:55:50,560
- Who are you talking to?
- Atlanta.

854
00:55:50,644 --> 00:55:53,397
Are they yelling in Atlanta?

855
00:55:53,480 --> 00:55:55,441
But first you've gotta get mad.

856
00:55:55,483 --> 00:56:00,072
You've gotta say, "I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

857
00:56:00,155 --> 00:56:02,074
They're yelling in Baton Rouge.

858
00:56:03,326 --> 00:56:04,744
Get up!

859
00:56:04,828 --> 00:56:08,457
Son of a bitch!
We've struck the mother lode!

860
00:56:08,540 --> 00:56:12,503
Stick your head out of the window
and keep yelling.

861
00:56:12,587 --> 00:56:15,173
Yell, "I'm as mad as hell.

862
00:56:15,257 --> 00:56:17,009
I'm not gonna take this anymore. "

863
00:56:17,092 --> 00:56:19,637
Just get up from your chairs.

864
00:56:19,679 --> 00:56:21,932
- Where you going?
- I want to see if anybody's yelling.

865
00:56:22,015 --> 00:56:23,976
Open it and stick your head out.

866
00:56:24,059 --> 00:56:26,020
Yell and keep yelling...

867
00:56:27,355 --> 00:56:29,649
I'm mad as hell!

868
00:56:29,691 --> 00:56:31,777
I'm not gonna take this anymore!

869
00:56:36,741 --> 00:56:39,620
I'm mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take it anymore!

870
00:56:59,519 --> 00:57:04,233
I'm mad as hell, and I'm not
going to take this anymore!

871
00:57:39,192 --> 00:57:43,071
By mid-October, the "Howard Beale Show"
had settled in at a 42 share...

872
00:57:43,155 --> 00:57:47,160
more than equaling all the other
network news shows combined.

873
00:57:47,243 --> 00:57:49,704
In the Nielsen ratings,
the "Howard Beale Show"...

874
00:57:49,788 --> 00:57:52,124
was the fourth-highest-rated show
of the month...

875
00:57:52,207 --> 00:57:55,670
surpassed only by "The Six Million
Dollar Man," "All in the Family"...

876
00:57:55,753 --> 00:57:57,005
and "Phyllis"...

877
00:57:57,088 --> 00:57:59,842
a phenomenal state of affairs
for a news show.

878
00:57:59,883 --> 00:58:03,346
On October 15, Diana Christensen
flew to Los Angeles...

879
00:58:03,429 --> 00:58:05,807
for what the trade calls
powwows and confabs...

880
00:58:05,891 --> 00:58:08,268
with her West Coast
programming execs...

881
00:58:08,352 --> 00:58:11,564
and to get production rolling
on the shows for the coming season.

882
00:58:11,647 --> 00:58:16,695
Christ! You brought half the William
Morris West Coast Office along with you.

883
00:58:16,779 --> 00:58:21,576
I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey
of the imperialist ruling circles.

884
00:58:21,660 --> 00:58:24,371
I'm Laureen Hobbs,
a bad-ass commie nigger.

885
00:58:24,455 --> 00:58:27,083
Sounds like the basis
of a firm friendship.

886
00:58:27,166 --> 00:58:29,502
- We'll need more chairs.
- Anybody want coffee?

887
00:58:29,586 --> 00:58:31,880
I'd love some.

888
00:58:37,554 --> 00:58:41,100
This is my lawyer, Sam Haywood,
and his associate, Merrill Grant.

889
00:58:43,436 --> 00:58:48,067
Miss Christensen, just what the hell's
this all about?

890
00:58:48,150 --> 00:58:51,446
Because, when a national
television network...

891
00:58:51,529 --> 00:58:55,951
in the person of booby here
comes to me and says...

892
00:58:55,993 --> 00:58:59,163
they want to put the ongoing struggle
of the oppressed masses...

893
00:58:59,247 --> 00:59:01,207
on prime-time television...

894
00:59:01,291 --> 00:59:03,210
I have to regard this askance!

895
00:59:03,293 --> 00:59:08,216
Mr. Haywood was saying
that our client, Miss Hobbs...

896
00:59:08,299 --> 00:59:12,346
wants it up front that
the political content of the show...

897
00:59:12,429 --> 00:59:14,682
has to be in her control.

898
00:59:14,765 --> 00:59:18,311
She can have it. I don't give a damn
about the political content.

899
00:59:19,271 --> 00:59:20,898
What kind of show?

900
00:59:20,981 --> 00:59:23,985
I'm interested in doing
a weekly dramatic series...

901
00:59:24,068 --> 00:59:26,530
based on the
Ecumenical Liberation Army...

902
00:59:26,613 --> 00:59:30,409
and the first show has to be
a two-hour special on Mary Ann Gifford.

903
00:59:30,493 --> 00:59:35,958
I want a lot more film like the bank
rip-off the Ecumenical sent in.

904
00:59:35,999 --> 00:59:38,628
The way I see the series is...

905
00:59:38,711 --> 00:59:43,592
each week we open with an authentic act
of political terrorism...

906
00:59:43,675 --> 00:59:45,970
taken on the spot
and in the actual moment.

907
00:59:46,012 --> 00:59:48,932
Then we go to the drama behind
the opening film footage.

908
00:59:49,015 --> 00:59:51,143
That's your job, Miss Hobbs.

909
00:59:51,226 --> 00:59:55,189
You've got to get the Ecumenicals
to bring in that film footage for us.

910
00:59:55,273 --> 00:59:59,194
The network can't deal with them.
They are wanted criminals.

911
01:00:00,195 --> 01:00:03,157
The Ecumenical Liberation Army
is an ultra-left sect...

912
01:00:03,241 --> 01:00:04,784
creating political confusion...

913
01:00:04,868 --> 01:00:08,038
with wildcat violence
and pseudo-insurrectionary acts...

914
01:00:08,122 --> 01:00:10,291
which the Communist Party
does not endorse.

915
01:00:10,374 --> 01:00:13,587
The American masses are not yet ready
for open revolt.

916
01:00:13,670 --> 01:00:16,548
We would not want to produce
a television show...

917
01:00:16,632 --> 01:00:20,053
celebrating historically
deviational terrorism.

918
01:00:20,094 --> 01:00:23,015
I'm offering you an hour
of prime-time television every week...

919
01:00:23,056 --> 01:00:25,059
into which you can stick
whatever propaganda you want.

920
01:00:25,142 --> 01:00:28,521
The Ecumenicals are an undisciplined
ultra-left gang...

921
01:00:28,563 --> 01:00:31,108
whose leader is an eccentric,
to say the least.

922
01:00:31,191 --> 01:00:35,989
He calls himself the Great Ahmed Khan
and wears a hussar's shako.

923
01:00:36,072 --> 01:00:39,201
We're talking about
30 to 50 million people a shot.

924
01:00:39,243 --> 01:00:41,245
It's better than handing out...

925
01:00:41,328 --> 01:00:43,957
mimeographed pamphlets
on ghetto street corners.

926
01:00:50,172 --> 01:00:53,218
I'll have to take this matter
to the Central Committee.

927
01:00:54,386 --> 01:00:57,056
And I'd better check it out
with the Great Ahmed Khan.

928
01:00:58,724 --> 01:01:02,896
I'll be in L.A. Until Saturday,
and I'd like to get it rolling.

929
01:01:37,271 --> 01:01:40,817
Well, Ahmed,
you ain't gonna believe this...

930
01:01:42,152 --> 01:01:45,197
but I'm gonna make
a TV star outta you.

931
01:01:45,281 --> 01:01:48,618
Just like Archie Bunker.

932
01:01:48,660 --> 01:01:51,371
You gonna be a household word.

933
01:01:53,040 --> 01:01:55,501
What the fuck are you talking about?

934
01:01:55,585 --> 01:01:58,422
- Thirty seconds.
- Ready VTA.

935
01:01:58,505 --> 01:02:00,674
One, you have the audience to pan.

936
01:02:00,758 --> 01:02:03,428
Two, you have the window to pull.

937
01:02:03,511 --> 01:02:05,639
Three, you're on the announcer.

938
01:02:05,722 --> 01:02:07,182
Twenty.

939
01:02:09,310 --> 01:02:10,603
Stand by VTA.

940
01:02:10,686 --> 01:02:14,024
Fifteen, 14, 13, 12...

941
01:02:14,066 --> 01:02:16,694
- Ready A.
- Roll VTA.

942
01:02:16,777 --> 01:02:19,364
Nine, 8, 7...

943
01:02:19,447 --> 01:02:22,492
6, 5, 4...

944
01:02:22,534 --> 01:02:24,537
3, 2, 1.

945
01:02:24,620 --> 01:02:26,205
Three, cue announcer!

946
01:02:26,289 --> 01:02:29,709
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it!
How do you feel?

947
01:02:29,751 --> 01:02:31,545
We're mad as hell...

948
01:02:31,628 --> 01:02:34,549
and we're not gonna take this anymore!

949
01:02:34,590 --> 01:02:36,551
Ladies and gentlemen,
the "Network News Hour"...

950
01:02:36,593 --> 01:02:38,470
with Sybil the Soothsayer...

951
01:02:42,683 --> 01:02:46,271
Jim Webbing and his
It's-The-Emmes-Truth Department...

952
01:02:49,942 --> 01:02:52,487
Miss Mata Hari
and her skeletons in the closet.

953
01:02:56,867 --> 01:02:59,245
Plus tonight, another segment
of "Vox Populi. "

954
01:03:03,417 --> 01:03:07,547
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

955
01:03:22,690 --> 01:03:25,110
Edward George Ruddy died today!

956
01:03:25,193 --> 01:03:27,780
Edward George Ruddy
was the chairman of the board...

957
01:03:27,863 --> 01:03:30,533
of the Union Broadcasting Systems...

958
01:03:30,616 --> 01:03:34,079
and he died at 11:00 this morning
of a heart condition.

959
01:03:34,121 --> 01:03:37,458
Woe is us!
We're in a lot of trouble!

960
01:03:40,921 --> 01:03:45,843
So, a rich little man
with white hair died.

961
01:03:46,636 --> 01:03:49,431
What does that got to do
with the price of rice, right?

962
01:03:49,473 --> 01:03:51,517
And why is that woe to us?

963
01:03:53,477 --> 01:03:55,563
Because you people...

964
01:03:55,647 --> 01:03:59,610
and 62 million other Americans
are listening to me right now.

965
01:03:59,693 --> 01:04:03,489
Because less than three percent
of you people read books.

966
01:04:04,908 --> 01:04:08,579
Because less than 15 percent of you
read newspapers.

967
01:04:08,662 --> 01:04:12,417
Because the only truth you know
is what you get over this tube.

968
01:04:12,500 --> 01:04:16,005
Right now, there is a whole
and entire generation...

969
01:04:16,088 --> 01:04:19,300
that never knew anything
that didn't come out of this tube!

970
01:04:20,510 --> 01:04:24,765
This tube is the Gospel.
The ultimate revelation.

971
01:04:24,849 --> 01:04:27,018
This tube can make or break...

972
01:04:27,101 --> 01:04:29,813
presidents, popes, prime ministers.

973
01:04:29,896 --> 01:04:35,069
This tube is the most awesome goddamn
force in the whole godless world...

974
01:04:35,153 --> 01:04:38,031
and woe is us if it ever falls
into the hands of the wrong people!

975
01:04:38,073 --> 01:04:41,369
And that's why woe is us
that Edward George Ruddy died.

976
01:04:42,286 --> 01:04:45,332
Because this company is now
in the hands of CCA...

977
01:04:45,415 --> 01:04:48,043
the Communication Corporation
of America.

978
01:04:48,127 --> 01:04:51,506
There's a new chairman of the board,
a man called Frank Hackett...

979
01:04:51,548 --> 01:04:53,550
sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office
on the 20th floor.

980
01:04:53,633 --> 01:04:57,889
And when the 12th largest company
in the world...

981
01:04:57,972 --> 01:05:01,393
controls the most awesome,
goddamn propaganda force...

982
01:05:01,476 --> 01:05:03,395
in the whole godless world...

983
01:05:03,479 --> 01:05:07,525
who knows what shit will be peddled
for truth on this network!

984
01:05:07,609 --> 01:05:10,612
So you listen to me.
Listen to me!

985
01:05:10,696 --> 01:05:13,449
Television is not the truth.

986
01:05:13,533 --> 01:05:16,036
Television's
a goddamned amusement park!

987
01:05:16,077 --> 01:05:20,332
Television is a circus, a carnival,
a traveling troupe of acrobats...

988
01:05:20,416 --> 01:05:24,003
storytellers, dancers, singers,
jugglers, sideshow freaks...

989
01:05:24,087 --> 01:05:26,924
lion tamers and football players.

990
01:05:26,965 --> 01:05:29,427
We're in the boredom-killing business.

991
01:05:31,471 --> 01:05:35,476
So if you want the truth,
go to God.

992
01:05:35,559 --> 01:05:37,937
Go to your gurus.

993
01:05:38,020 --> 01:05:40,065
Go to yourselves!

994
01:05:40,106 --> 01:05:44,236
Because that's the only place
you're ever gonna find any real truth.

995
01:05:45,613 --> 01:05:49,743
But, man, you're never gonna get
any truth from us.

996
01:05:49,826 --> 01:05:52,747
We'll tell you anything you wanna hear.
We lie like hell.

997
01:05:52,788 --> 01:05:55,834
We'll tell you that Kojak
always gets the killer...

998
01:05:55,917 --> 01:05:59,129
and that nobody ever gets cancer
in Archie Bunker's house.

999
01:05:59,213 --> 01:06:01,549
And no matter how much trouble
the hero is in, don't worry.

1000
01:06:01,632 --> 01:06:04,344
Look at your watch.
At the end of the hour he'll win!

1001
01:06:04,427 --> 01:06:07,890
We'll tell you any shit
you want to hear!

1002
01:06:07,973 --> 01:06:11,728
We deal in illusions.
None of it is true!

1003
01:06:11,811 --> 01:06:15,774
But you people sit there,
day after day, night after night.

1004
01:06:15,858 --> 01:06:20,030
You're all ages, colors, creeds.
We're all you know.

1005
01:06:20,113 --> 01:06:23,033
You're beginning to believe
the illusions we're spinning here.

1006
01:06:23,117 --> 01:06:26,913
You're beginning to think the tube is
reality and your own lives are unreal.

1007
01:06:26,996 --> 01:06:29,082
You do whatever the tube tells you!

1008
01:06:29,166 --> 01:06:31,293
You dress like the tube,
eat like the tube...

1009
01:06:31,377 --> 01:06:34,505
raise your children like the tube,
even think like the tube.

1010
01:06:34,589 --> 01:06:38,135
This is mass madness, you maniacs!

1011
01:06:38,176 --> 01:06:40,930
In God's name, you people
are the real thing!

1012
01:06:41,013 --> 01:06:43,183
We are the illusion!

1013
01:06:43,266 --> 01:06:48,063
So turn off your television sets.
Turn them off right now.

1014
01:06:48,147 --> 01:06:50,149
Turn them off and leave them off.

1015
01:06:50,191 --> 01:06:53,403
Turn them off in the middle
of this sentence.

1016
01:06:53,487 --> 01:06:55,489
Turn them off!

1017
01:07:09,923 --> 01:07:12,802
UBS was running at a cash flow
of break-even point...

1018
01:07:12,885 --> 01:07:17,391
after taking into account $110 million
of negative cash flow from the network.

1019
01:07:17,474 --> 01:07:21,020
It was clear the fat on the network
had to be flitched off.

1020
01:07:21,103 --> 01:07:24,357
Please note an increase in projected
initial programming revenues...

1021
01:07:24,441 --> 01:07:26,527
in the amount of $21 million...

1022
01:07:26,568 --> 01:07:30,239
due to the phenomenal success
of the "Howard Beale Show. "

1023
01:07:31,783 --> 01:07:36,497
I expect a positive cash flow
for the entire complex of 45 million...

1024
01:07:36,580 --> 01:07:38,833
achievable in this fiscal year...

1025
01:07:38,917 --> 01:07:41,503
a year, in short,
ahead of schedule.

1026
01:07:42,296 --> 01:07:44,340
Beyond that...

1027
01:07:44,423 --> 01:07:47,260
this network may be
the most significant profit center...

1028
01:07:47,302 --> 01:07:49,721
of the communications complex...

1029
01:07:49,763 --> 01:07:53,893
and based upon the projected rate
of return on invested capital...

1030
01:07:53,976 --> 01:07:57,814
and if merger is accomplished,
the communications complex...

1031
01:07:57,898 --> 01:08:02,236
may well become the towering
and most profitable center...

1032
01:08:02,278 --> 01:08:04,948
in the entire CCA empire.

1033
01:08:06,950 --> 01:08:10,288
I await your questions and comments.

1034
01:08:10,371 --> 01:08:11,873
Mr. Jensen?

1035
01:08:12,666 --> 01:08:15,753
Very good, Frank. Exemplary.
Keep it up.

1036
01:08:41,451 --> 01:08:43,954
Buy you a cup of coffee?

1037
01:08:45,622 --> 01:08:47,166
Hell, yes.

1038
01:08:48,209 --> 01:08:50,628
Do you have to get back
to the office?

1039
01:08:50,670 --> 01:08:53,006
Nothing that can't wait.

1040
01:09:05,480 --> 01:09:09,067
I drop down to the news studios
now and then...

1041
01:09:09,151 --> 01:09:11,237
and ask Howard Beale about you.

1042
01:09:11,320 --> 01:09:14,490
He says you're doing fine.
Are you?

1043
01:09:15,241 --> 01:09:17,327
Are you keeping busy?

1044
01:09:17,369 --> 01:09:19,163
In a fashion.

1045
01:09:19,246 --> 01:09:23,501
This is the third funeral
I've been to in two weeks.

1046
01:09:23,543 --> 01:09:28,382
I have two other friends in the hospital
whom I visit regularly.

1047
01:09:28,424 --> 01:09:31,636
I've been to a couple of christenings.

1048
01:09:31,720 --> 01:09:35,474
All my friends seem to be dying
or having grandchildren.

1049
01:09:36,517 --> 01:09:38,853
You should be a grandfather yourself
about now.

1050
01:09:38,895 --> 01:09:41,690
You have a pregnant daughter
in Seattle, don't you?

1051
01:09:41,773 --> 01:09:43,818
Any day now.

1052
01:09:43,901 --> 01:09:46,404
My wife's out there
for the occasion.

1053
01:09:50,826 --> 01:09:54,372
I've thought many times of calling you.

1054
01:09:56,208 --> 01:09:58,585
I wish you had.

1055
01:10:01,422 --> 01:10:05,636
I bumped into Sybil the Soothsayer
in the elevator last week.

1056
01:10:05,719 --> 01:10:08,681
I said, "You know, Sybil,
about four months ago...

1057
01:10:08,764 --> 01:10:13,103
you predicted I would get involved
with a craggy, middle-aged man.

1058
01:10:13,145 --> 01:10:16,816
So far, all that's happened
has been one many-splendored night.

1059
01:10:16,899 --> 01:10:20,237
I don't call that
getting involved. "

1060
01:10:20,278 --> 01:10:23,741
She said,
"Don't worry. You will. "

1061
01:10:26,619 --> 01:10:30,207
It was a many-splendored night,
wasn't it, Max?

1062
01:10:32,251 --> 01:10:34,045
Yes, it was.

1063
01:10:36,715 --> 01:10:39,009
Are we going to get involved?

1064
01:10:41,637 --> 01:10:45,684
Yes. I need to become involved
very much.

1065
01:10:46,936 --> 01:10:49,105
How about you?

1066
01:10:50,482 --> 01:10:53,443
I've reached for the phone to call you
a hundred times...

1067
01:10:53,527 --> 01:10:56,572
but I was sure you hated me for my part
in taking your news show away.

1068
01:10:58,408 --> 01:11:01,620
I probably did.
I don't know anymore.

1069
01:11:01,662 --> 01:11:06,709
All I know is,
I can't get you out of my mind.

1070
01:11:11,006 --> 01:11:13,676
Marty, I know what NBC offered them.

1071
01:11:13,760 --> 01:11:19,475
Go to 3.5, and I want an option
for a third run on all of them.

1072
01:11:19,517 --> 01:11:22,896
I'm in a big hurry, and you and Charlie
are supposed to be negotiating this.

1073
01:11:22,979 --> 01:11:25,023
Good-bye, good luck.
I'll see you Monday.

1074
01:11:28,611 --> 01:11:32,073
- Jimmy Caan's agent says absolutely nix.
- You can't win them all.

1075
01:11:32,157 --> 01:11:35,619
- Where can I reach you later today?
- You can't. I'll be gone all weekend.

1076
01:11:40,625 --> 01:11:45,548
NBC's offering 3.25 mil
per package of five James Bond movies...

1077
01:11:45,632 --> 01:11:48,677
and I think I'm gonna steal them
for 3.5...

1078
01:11:48,719 --> 01:11:50,846
with a third run.

1079
01:11:59,356 --> 01:12:01,526
I'm gonna stick the "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
in at 8:00...

1080
01:12:01,567 --> 01:12:06,198
because we're having a lot of trouble
selling the "Mao Tse-tung Hour. "

1081
01:12:14,959 --> 01:12:19,840
That "Mao Tse-tung Hour's" turning
into one big pain in the ass.

1082
01:12:20,924 --> 01:12:24,804
We're having heavy legal problems
with the federal government right now.

1083
01:12:26,222 --> 01:12:31,145
Two FBI guys turned up in Hackett's
office and served us with a subpoena.

1084
01:12:33,106 --> 01:12:37,361
They heard about our Flagstaff
bank rip-off film, and they want it.

1085
01:12:38,654 --> 01:12:41,324
Hackett told the FBI to fuck off.

1086
01:12:46,580 --> 01:12:48,499
We're getting around the FBI...

1087
01:12:48,583 --> 01:12:51,962
by doing the show in collaboration
with the news division.

1088
01:12:52,045 --> 01:12:54,340
We're standing on the First Amendment:
Freedom of the press...

1089
01:12:54,423 --> 01:12:56,884
and the right to protect our sources.

1090
01:12:56,968 --> 01:13:00,639
Walter thinks we can knock out
the misprision of felony charge.

1091
01:13:08,440 --> 01:13:11,777
But he says absolutely nix
on going to series.

1092
01:13:11,819 --> 01:13:17,117
They'll hit us with "conspiracy
with an inducement to commit a crime. "

1093
01:13:17,159 --> 01:13:19,286
Christ, it's cold in here.

1094
01:13:19,370 --> 01:13:23,959
We're paying these Ecumencial
Liberation Army nuts $10,000 a week...

1095
01:13:24,042 --> 01:13:27,546
in order to turn in authentic film
of their revolutionary activities.

1096
01:13:27,630 --> 01:13:31,676
That inconstitutes
"inducement to commit a crime"...

1097
01:13:31,760 --> 01:13:35,181
and Walter says we'll all wind up
in federal prison.

1098
01:13:36,182 --> 01:13:41,230
I said, "Walter,
let the federal government sue us.

1099
01:13:41,313 --> 01:13:43,607
We'll take them to the Supreme Court.

1100
01:13:43,691 --> 01:13:45,652
We'll be front page. "

1101
01:13:47,279 --> 01:13:50,115
The New York Times
and the Washington Post...

1102
01:13:50,199 --> 01:13:52,118
will write editorials.

1103
01:13:52,201 --> 01:13:56,623
We'll be front page for months.
We'll have more press than Watergate.

1104
01:13:56,707 --> 01:14:01,546
All I need is six weeks
federal litigation...

1105
01:14:01,588 --> 01:14:05,217
and the "Mao Tse-tung Hour" can start
carrying its own time slot.

1106
01:14:21,653 --> 01:14:25,533
What's really bugging me now
is my daytime programming.

1107
01:14:26,576 --> 01:14:29,246
NBC's got a lock on daytime...

1108
01:14:29,329 --> 01:14:32,041
with their lousy game shows...

1109
01:14:32,124 --> 01:14:34,711
and I'd like to bust them.

1110
01:14:34,794 --> 01:14:39,258
I'm thinking of doing
a homosexual soap opera. "The Dykes. "

1111
01:14:40,760 --> 01:14:43,471
The heartrending saga about a woman...

1112
01:14:43,555 --> 01:14:46,851
hopelessly in love
with her husband's mistress.

1113
01:14:46,934 --> 01:14:49,062
What do you think?

1114
01:15:00,158 --> 01:15:02,286
How long has it been going on?

1115
01:15:04,789 --> 01:15:06,374
A month.

1116
01:15:08,293 --> 01:15:11,547
I thought it was a transient thing,
blow over in a week.

1117
01:15:12,924 --> 01:15:17,930
I still pray to God
it's just a menopausal infatuation.

1118
01:15:19,473 --> 01:15:22,852
But it is an infatuation, Louise.

1119
01:15:24,479 --> 01:15:27,441
There's no sense in my saying
I won't see her again, because I will.

1120
01:15:32,489 --> 01:15:36,160
You want me to leave,
check into a hotel?

1121
01:15:39,164 --> 01:15:41,166
Do you love her?

1122
01:15:44,587 --> 01:15:46,798
I don't know how I feel.

1123
01:15:48,759 --> 01:15:52,472
I'm grateful I can feel anything.

1124
01:15:55,183 --> 01:15:57,186
I know I'm obsessed with her.

1125
01:15:59,689 --> 01:16:01,399
Then say it!

1126
01:16:02,400 --> 01:16:05,904
Don't keep telling me that
you're obsessed, you're infatuated!

1127
01:16:05,988 --> 01:16:08,449
Say that you're in love with her.

1128
01:16:11,077 --> 01:16:14,206
I'm in love with her.

1129
01:16:14,290 --> 01:16:18,712
Then get out! Go anywhere you want.
Go live with her, but don't come back!

1130
01:16:18,753 --> 01:16:23,342
Because after 25 years of building
a home and raising a family...

1131
01:16:23,426 --> 01:16:27,097
and all the senseless pain
that we have inflicted on each other...

1132
01:16:27,180 --> 01:16:30,559
I'm damned if I'll stand and have you
say you're in love with somebody else!

1133
01:16:32,228 --> 01:16:37,067
This isn't the convention weekend
with your secretary, is it?

1134
01:16:37,109 --> 01:16:41,447
Or some broad that you picked up
after three belts of booze.

1135
01:16:41,531 --> 01:16:44,326
This is your great winter romance,
isn't it?

1136
01:16:44,409 --> 01:16:48,539
Your last roar of passion before
you settle into your emeritus years.

1137
01:16:48,623 --> 01:16:51,710
Is that what's left for me?
Is that my share?

1138
01:16:51,793 --> 01:16:54,630
She gets the winter passion,
and I get the dotage?

1139
01:16:54,713 --> 01:16:58,301
Am I supposed to sit home
knitting and purling...

1140
01:16:58,385 --> 01:17:02,014
while you slink back
like some penitent drunk?

1141
01:17:02,097 --> 01:17:04,183
I'm your wife, damn it...

1142
01:17:04,267 --> 01:17:06,394
and if you can't work up
a winter passion for me...

1143
01:17:06,436 --> 01:17:09,648
the least I require
is respect and allegiance!

1144
01:17:22,080 --> 01:17:25,542
I hurt!
Don't you understand that?

1145
01:17:27,628 --> 01:17:30,674
I hurt badly!

1146
01:17:38,642 --> 01:17:40,978
Oh, say something for God's sake.

1147
01:17:50,740 --> 01:17:53,117
I've got nothing to say.

1148
01:18:03,714 --> 01:18:06,133
I won't give you up easily.

1149
01:18:12,558 --> 01:18:15,394
I think perhaps it is better
if you move out.

1150
01:18:21,151 --> 01:18:23,446
Does she love you?

1151
01:18:27,367 --> 01:18:31,163
I'm not sure she's capable
of any real feelings.

1152
01:18:31,205 --> 01:18:35,293
She's television generation.
She learned life from Bugs Bunny.

1153
01:18:35,377 --> 01:18:39,131
The only reality she knows
comes to her from over the TV set.

1154
01:18:40,967 --> 01:18:44,930
She's very carefully devised a number
of scenarios for all of us to play...

1155
01:18:45,013 --> 01:18:47,850
like a movie of the week.

1156
01:18:50,312 --> 01:18:53,232
My God, look at us.

1157
01:18:53,315 --> 01:18:56,611
Here we are going through
the obligatory middle-of-act-two...

1158
01:18:56,694 --> 01:19:00,657
"scorned wife throws
peccant husband out" scene.

1159
01:19:00,741 --> 01:19:04,162
But don't worry,
I'll come back to you in the end.

1160
01:19:04,245 --> 01:19:07,499
All of her plot outlines have me
leaving her and coming back to you...

1161
01:19:07,582 --> 01:19:12,213
because the audience won't buy a
rejection of the happy American family.

1162
01:19:15,092 --> 01:19:18,596
She does have one script
in which I kill myself.

1163
01:19:18,679 --> 01:19:22,893
An adapted-for-television version
of "Anna Karenina"...

1164
01:19:24,520 --> 01:19:27,189
where she's Count Vronsky
and I'm Anna.

1165
01:19:32,362 --> 01:19:34,573
You're in for some dreadful grief.

1166
01:19:37,535 --> 01:19:38,954
I know.

1167
01:19:39,037 --> 01:19:42,458
The "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
went on the air March 14.

1168
01:19:42,500 --> 01:19:44,836
It received a 47 share.

1169
01:19:44,919 --> 01:19:48,090
The network promptly committed
to 15 shows with an option for 10 more.

1170
01:19:48,173 --> 01:19:51,594
There were the usual
contractual difficulties.

1171
01:19:51,636 --> 01:19:55,265
"Equal to 20 percent except that such
a percentage shall be 30 percent...

1172
01:19:55,307 --> 01:19:58,018
for 90 minutes
or longer television programs. "

1173
01:19:58,102 --> 01:20:00,897
Have we settled
that sub-licensing thing?

1174
01:20:00,980 --> 01:20:04,026
We want a clear definition here.

1175
01:20:04,109 --> 01:20:08,197
"Gross proceeds should consist of
all funds the sub-licensee receives...

1176
01:20:08,281 --> 01:20:10,450
not merely the net amount remitted...

1177
01:20:10,534 --> 01:20:13,829
after payment to the sub-licensee
or distributor. "

1178
01:20:13,913 --> 01:20:17,625
We're not sitting still for overhead
charges as a cost prior to distribution.

1179
01:20:17,709 --> 01:20:21,297
Don't fuck with my distribution costs!

1180
01:20:21,380 --> 01:20:23,341
I'm making a lousy 215 per segment.

1181
01:20:23,382 --> 01:20:25,885
I'm already deficiting 25 grand a week
with Metro!

1182
01:20:25,969 --> 01:20:27,888
I'm paying William Morris 10 percent
off the top!

1183
01:20:27,971 --> 01:20:30,391
I'm giving this turkey ten thousand
per segment and five to this fruitcake.

1184
01:20:30,474 --> 01:20:33,353
And, Helen, don't start
no shit with me about a piece again.

1185
01:20:33,436 --> 01:20:36,231
I'm paying Metro 20 percent for all
foreign and Canadian distribution...

1186
01:20:36,315 --> 01:20:38,401
and that's after recoupment!

1187
01:20:38,484 --> 01:20:42,447
The Communist Party won't see a nickel
outta this show until syndication.

1188
01:20:42,531 --> 01:20:44,992
The Party's in for 7,500 a week
production expenses!

1189
01:20:45,075 --> 01:20:48,830
I'm not giving
this pseudo-insurrectionary a piece.

1190
01:20:48,913 --> 01:20:52,960
I won't give him script approval or
cut him in on my distribution charges.

1191
01:20:53,043 --> 01:20:55,004
You fucking fascist!

1192
01:20:55,087 --> 01:20:57,924
Did you see the film we made
of the San Marino jail breakout...

1193
01:20:58,008 --> 01:21:01,095
demonstrating the rising up of a
seminal prisoner class infrastructure?

1194
01:21:01,178 --> 01:21:04,974
You can blow the seminal prisoner class
infrastructure out your ass!

1195
01:21:05,058 --> 01:21:07,686
I'm not knocking down
my goddamn distribution charges!

1196
01:21:09,230 --> 01:21:13,026
Man, give her
the fucking overhead clause.

1197
01:21:14,152 --> 01:21:16,155
Who's gonna believe this?

1198
01:21:18,574 --> 01:21:22,162
Let's get back to page 22.
Five, small "a. "

1199
01:21:22,245 --> 01:21:24,832
"Subsidiary rights. "

1200
01:21:24,915 --> 01:21:28,461
- Where are we now?
- Middle of page 22, "Subsidiary rights. "

1201
01:21:28,545 --> 01:21:32,299
"As used herein, 'subsidiary rights'
means without limitation any and all... "

1202
01:21:43,020 --> 01:21:48,068
Over the past two days, you've had
opportunity to meet Diana Christensen...

1203
01:21:48,152 --> 01:21:51,364
our vice president
in charge of programming.

1204
01:21:51,447 --> 01:21:56,120
This afternoon, you all saw some of the
stuff she's set up for the new season.

1205
01:22:05,464 --> 01:22:09,594
You all know that she is the woman
behind the "Howard Beale Show. "

1206
01:22:16,227 --> 01:22:19,648
We all know she's beautiful.

1207
01:22:20,649 --> 01:22:23,486
We all know she's brainy.

1208
01:22:23,528 --> 01:22:28,492
I was thinking, before we start digging
into our chateaubriands...

1209
01:22:30,494 --> 01:22:33,081
let's show her how we feel about her.

1210
01:22:48,516 --> 01:22:51,478
We've got the number one show
in television!

1211
01:22:54,815 --> 01:22:59,196
At next year's affiliates' meeting, I'll
be telling you we've got the top five!

1212
01:23:05,537 --> 01:23:08,248
Last year, we were
the number four network.

1213
01:23:08,332 --> 01:23:10,751
Next year, we're number one!

1214
01:23:11,586 --> 01:23:13,046
We're number one!

1215
01:23:13,797 --> 01:23:15,716
We're number one!

1216
01:23:26,604 --> 01:23:30,066
It is exactly 7:00
here in Los Angeles...

1217
01:23:30,108 --> 01:23:34,071
and right now over a million homes
using television in this city...

1218
01:23:34,113 --> 01:23:36,282
are turning their dials
to channel three...

1219
01:23:36,366 --> 01:23:38,952
and that's our channel!

1220
01:23:45,835 --> 01:23:48,046
Howard Beale!

1221
01:23:50,967 --> 01:23:53,428
Stop it! Stop it!

1222
01:23:53,511 --> 01:23:55,848
Listen to me,
and listen carefully...

1223
01:23:55,931 --> 01:24:00,436
because this is your goddamn life
I'm talking about today.

1224
01:24:01,521 --> 01:24:04,525
In this country, when one company wants
to take over another company...

1225
01:24:04,608 --> 01:24:06,903
they simply buy up a controlling share
of the stock...

1226
01:24:06,944 --> 01:24:09,447
but first they have to file notice
with the government.

1227
01:24:09,489 --> 01:24:12,618
That's how CCA took over the company
that owns this network.

1228
01:24:12,701 --> 01:24:16,122
But now somebody's buying up CCA.

1229
01:24:16,164 --> 01:24:19,918
Somebody called
the Western World Funding Corporation.

1230
01:24:20,002 --> 01:24:22,296
They filed the notice this morning.

1231
01:24:22,380 --> 01:24:26,385
Who in the hell is
the Western World Funding Corporation?

1232
01:24:26,468 --> 01:24:29,972
It is a consortium of banks
and insurance companies...

1233
01:24:30,056 --> 01:24:33,727
who are not buying CCA for themselves
but as agents for somebody else.

1234
01:24:33,810 --> 01:24:36,146
And who is this somebody else?
They won't tell you.

1235
01:24:36,188 --> 01:24:38,441
They won't tell you.
They won't tell the Senate.

1236
01:24:38,482 --> 01:24:42,571
They won't tell the SEC, the FCC,
the Justice Department.

1237
01:24:42,654 --> 01:24:46,492
This is Mr. Hackett.
Do you have a New York call for me?

1238
01:24:46,576 --> 01:24:48,995
Do you want to
turn that down, please?

1239
01:24:49,079 --> 01:24:52,124
I will tell you who
they're buying CCA for.

1240
01:24:52,207 --> 01:24:56,379
They're buying it for the
Saudi Arabian Investment Corporation.

1241
01:24:56,463 --> 01:24:58,423
They're buying it for the Arabs!

1242
01:24:58,507 --> 01:25:01,510
Clarence? Frank Hackett here.
How's everything back in New York?

1243
01:25:01,594 --> 01:25:03,596
How's the good lady?

1244
01:25:06,892 --> 01:25:10,688
Take it easy.
I don't know what you're talking about.

1245
01:25:10,772 --> 01:25:13,483
When? Tonight's show?

1246
01:25:14,484 --> 01:25:16,737
Clarence, take it easy.

1247
01:25:17,947 --> 01:25:22,285
The "Howard Beale Show" is just going on
out here. You get it 3 hours earlier.

1248
01:25:22,369 --> 01:25:26,541
Take it easy! How the hell could
I see it? It's just going on now!

1249
01:25:31,880 --> 01:25:34,717
When did Mr. Jensen call?

1250
01:25:34,801 --> 01:25:37,512
We all know that the Arabs control...

1251
01:25:37,596 --> 01:25:41,308
$16 billion in this country.

1252
01:25:41,392 --> 01:25:45,480
They own a chunk of Fifth Avenue,
20 downtown pieces of Boston...

1253
01:25:45,564 --> 01:25:50,236
a part of the port of New Orleans,
an industrial park in Salt Lake City.

1254
01:25:50,319 --> 01:25:52,572
They own big hunks
of the Atlanta Hilton...

1255
01:25:52,655 --> 01:25:55,158
the Arizona Land and Cattle Company...

1256
01:25:55,242 --> 01:25:57,536
the Security National Bank
in California...

1257
01:25:57,620 --> 01:25:59,706
the Bank of the Commonwealth
in Detroit.

1258
01:25:59,789 --> 01:26:04,253
They control Aramco, so that puts them
into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil.

1259
01:26:04,295 --> 01:26:08,717
They're all over! New Jersey,
Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri.

1260
01:26:08,758 --> 01:26:13,431
And that's only what we know about.
There's more we don't know about.

1261
01:26:13,514 --> 01:26:16,893
Because all of those Arab
petrol dollars are washed...

1262
01:26:16,935 --> 01:26:20,272
through Switzerland and Canada
and the biggest banks in this country.

1263
01:26:20,356 --> 01:26:24,486
For example, what we don't know about
is this CCA deal...

1264
01:26:24,569 --> 01:26:28,073
and all the other CCA deals.

1265
01:26:28,157 --> 01:26:31,828
Right now the Arabs have screwed us out
of enough American dollars...

1266
01:26:31,911 --> 01:26:33,955
to come right back
and with our own money...

1267
01:26:34,039 --> 01:26:38,252
buy General Motors,
IBM, ITT, AT&T...

1268
01:26:38,336 --> 01:26:42,299
Du Pont, U.S. Steel
and 20 other American companies.

1269
01:26:42,382 --> 01:26:45,261
Hell, they already own
half of England!

1270
01:26:46,304 --> 01:26:47,805
Listen to me.

1271
01:26:47,847 --> 01:26:50,016
Listen to me, goddamn it!

1272
01:26:50,100 --> 01:26:52,186
The Arabs are simply buying us.

1273
01:26:52,269 --> 01:26:55,857
There's only one thing
that can stop them! You!

1274
01:26:56,942 --> 01:26:58,610
You!

1275
01:26:58,694 --> 01:27:01,948
So I want you to get up now.

1276
01:27:02,031 --> 01:27:04,576
I want you to get up
out of your chairs.

1277
01:27:04,659 --> 01:27:07,496
I want you to get up right now
and go to the phone.

1278
01:27:07,538 --> 01:27:10,291
I want you to get up from your chairs,
go to the phone...

1279
01:27:10,374 --> 01:27:14,254
get in your cars, drive into
the Western Union offices in town.

1280
01:27:14,338 --> 01:27:17,717
I want you to send a telegram
to the White House.

1281
01:27:17,800 --> 01:27:20,261
- Oh, my God.
- By midnight tonight...

1282
01:27:20,345 --> 01:27:23,140
I want a million telegrams
in the White House!

1283
01:27:23,223 --> 01:27:27,353
I want them wading knee-deep
in telegrams at the White House.

1284
01:27:27,437 --> 01:27:31,859
I want you to get up right now and
write a telegram to President Ford...

1285
01:27:31,900 --> 01:27:36,698
saying "I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!

1286
01:27:36,781 --> 01:27:39,952
I don't want the banks
selling my country to the Arabs!

1287
01:27:40,035 --> 01:27:43,414
I want the CCA deal stopped now!"

1288
01:27:43,498 --> 01:27:46,126
I want the CCA deal stopped now!

1289
01:27:46,209 --> 01:27:50,131
Come on. I want the CCA deal
stopped now!

1290
01:28:13,200 --> 01:28:15,995
- Could we have the room?
- Sure.

1291
01:28:24,381 --> 01:28:28,469
I'd like to see a typed script
and run through a couple more times.

1292
01:28:28,552 --> 01:28:31,431
But as for this whole CCA deal...

1293
01:28:31,472 --> 01:28:34,852
with the Saudis, you know a lot more
about that, Frank, than I would.

1294
01:28:34,935 --> 01:28:36,896
Is it true?

1295
01:28:40,775 --> 01:28:44,738
The CCA has two billion in loans
with the Saudis...

1296
01:28:44,822 --> 01:28:47,742
and they hold
every pledge we've got.

1297
01:28:48,952 --> 01:28:51,830
We need that Saudi money bad.

1298
01:28:54,000 --> 01:28:56,503
The show is a disaster.

1299
01:28:58,005 --> 01:29:01,467
Unmitigated disaster!
The death knell.

1300
01:29:02,635 --> 01:29:06,098
I'm ruined. I'm dead.
I'm finished.

1301
01:29:07,391 --> 01:29:10,979
Maybe we're overstating Beale's clout
with the public.

1302
01:29:12,397 --> 01:29:14,858
An hour ago, Clarence McElheny
called me from New York.

1303
01:29:14,942 --> 01:29:16,861
It was 10:00 in the East...

1304
01:29:16,944 --> 01:29:21,450
and our people in the White House report
they were knee-deep in telegrams.

1305
01:29:21,491 --> 01:29:26,289
By tomorrow morning,
they'll be suffocating in telegrams!

1306
01:29:26,372 --> 01:29:28,333
Can the government stop the deal?

1307
01:29:28,416 --> 01:29:32,963
They can hold it up. The SEC could hold
it up for 20 years if they wanted to.

1308
01:29:33,047 --> 01:29:34,507
I'm finished.

1309
01:29:34,590 --> 01:29:37,302
Any second that phone's gonna ring,
and Clarence McElheny...

1310
01:29:37,385 --> 01:29:41,140
is gonna tell me Mr. Jensen wants me
in his office tomorrow morning...

1311
01:29:41,223 --> 01:29:44,311
so he can personally chop my head off!

1312
01:29:45,395 --> 01:29:47,773
Four hours ago,
I was the sun god at CCA...

1313
01:29:47,856 --> 01:29:51,069
Mr. Jensen's handpicked golden boy,
the heir apparent.

1314
01:29:52,112 --> 01:29:56,242
Now, I'm a man
without a corporation.

1315
01:29:57,743 --> 01:30:00,747
Let's get back to Howard Beale.

1316
01:30:00,830 --> 01:30:04,168
You're not seriously gonna pull
Beale off the air.

1317
01:30:08,715 --> 01:30:12,803
Mr. Jensen's unhappy with Howard Beale
and wants him discontinued.

1318
01:30:12,887 --> 01:30:15,139
He may be unhappy,
but he isn't stupid enough...

1319
01:30:15,223 --> 01:30:18,060
to withdraw the number one show
on television out of pique.

1320
01:30:18,101 --> 01:30:21,689
Two billion dollars isn't pique!
That's the wrath of God!

1321
01:30:21,731 --> 01:30:23,733
And the wrath of God wants
Howard Beale fired!

1322
01:30:23,817 --> 01:30:28,990
What for? Every other network will grab
him. He'll be on the air for ABC.

1323
01:30:29,073 --> 01:30:31,910
I'm gonna impale the son of a bitch
with a sharp stick through the heart.

1324
01:30:31,993 --> 01:30:33,996
We'll lose $40 million in revenues.

1325
01:30:34,079 --> 01:30:38,000
I'll take a contract out on him.
I'll hire professional killers.

1326
01:30:38,084 --> 01:30:40,170
No, I'll do it myself.

1327
01:30:40,253 --> 01:30:45,718
I'll strangle him with a sash cord.
Jesus!

1328
01:30:45,802 --> 01:30:48,013
I don't think Jensen's
gonna fire anybody.

1329
01:30:56,898 --> 01:31:00,027
Yes, Clarence.
I've already booked my flight.

1330
01:31:02,405 --> 01:31:05,242
Can you give me a little more time
than that? I've got the red-eye flight.

1331
01:31:05,283 --> 01:31:08,829
I won't be back in New York
till 6:00 tomorrow morning.

1332
01:31:11,541 --> 01:31:13,710
That'll be just fine.

1333
01:31:13,794 --> 01:31:15,838
I'll see you then.

1334
01:31:23,848 --> 01:31:27,811
Mr. Jensen wants to meet
with Howard Beale personally.

1335
01:31:27,894 --> 01:31:31,565
He wants Mr. Beale in his office
at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

1336
01:31:37,990 --> 01:31:40,952
The final revelation is at hand!

1337
01:31:40,993 --> 01:31:45,165
I have seen the shattering
vulgarizations of ultimate clarity.

1338
01:31:45,248 --> 01:31:49,754
The light is impending.
I bear witness to the light!

1339
01:32:10,904 --> 01:32:13,950
Good morning, Mr. Beale.
They tell me you're a madman.

1340
01:32:14,033 --> 01:32:15,577
Only desultorily.

1341
01:32:15,660 --> 01:32:17,913
- How are you now?
- I'm as mad as a hatter.

1342
01:32:17,996 --> 01:32:19,415
Who isn't?

1343
01:32:20,499 --> 01:32:22,418
I'm taking you into
our conference room.

1344
01:32:22,502 --> 01:32:25,839
Seems more seemly a setting
for what I have to say to you.

1345
01:32:27,257 --> 01:32:30,011
I started as a salesman.

1346
01:32:30,053 --> 01:32:33,014
I sold sewing machines,
automobile parts...

1347
01:32:33,056 --> 01:32:35,893
hair brushes
and electronic equipment.

1348
01:32:35,976 --> 01:32:39,147
They say I can sell anything.

1349
01:32:39,230 --> 01:32:42,276
I'd like to try
to sell something to you.

1350
01:32:45,905 --> 01:32:47,866
Valhalla, Mr. Beale.

1351
01:32:47,949 --> 01:32:49,910
Please sit down.

1352
01:33:19,070 --> 01:33:24,076
You have meddled with the primal forces
of nature, Mr. Beale...

1353
01:33:24,160 --> 01:33:26,204
and I won't have it!

1354
01:33:26,955 --> 01:33:28,415
Is that clear?

1355
01:33:28,498 --> 01:33:31,168
You think you merely stopped
a business deal.

1356
01:33:31,252 --> 01:33:33,212
That is not the case.

1357
01:33:33,296 --> 01:33:35,757
The Arabs have taken billions of dollars
out of this country...

1358
01:33:35,840 --> 01:33:38,177
and now they must put it back!

1359
01:33:38,260 --> 01:33:43,349
It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity.
It is ecological balance!

1360
01:33:44,851 --> 01:33:46,812
You are an old man...

1361
01:33:46,854 --> 01:33:50,692
who thinks in terms
of nations and peoples.

1362
01:33:50,775 --> 01:33:53,278
There are no nations.
There are no peoples.

1363
01:33:53,362 --> 01:33:55,531
There are no Russians.
There are no Arabs.

1364
01:33:55,614 --> 01:33:58,284
There are no Third Worlds.
There is no West.

1365
01:33:58,326 --> 01:34:03,499
There is only one holistic system
of systems!

1366
01:34:03,582 --> 01:34:07,837
One vast and immane,
interwoven, interacting...

1367
01:34:07,921 --> 01:34:12,218
multi-variant, multinational
dominion of dollars!

1368
01:34:12,301 --> 01:34:15,472
Petrol dollars, electro dollars,
multi-dollars.

1369
01:34:15,513 --> 01:34:20,561
Reichsmarks, rins, rubles, pounds
and shekels!

1370
01:34:22,689 --> 01:34:25,567
It is the international system
of currency...

1371
01:34:25,651 --> 01:34:30,657
which determines the totality
of life on this planet.

1372
01:34:31,533 --> 01:34:36,080
That is the natural order
of things today.

1373
01:34:37,081 --> 01:34:41,128
That is the atomic...

1374
01:34:41,211 --> 01:34:43,339
and subatomic...

1375
01:34:43,380 --> 01:34:47,761
and galactic structure
of things today.

1376
01:34:49,513 --> 01:34:51,849
And you have meddled...

1377
01:34:51,932 --> 01:34:55,520
with the primal forces of nature!

1378
01:34:56,730 --> 01:35:01,319
And you will atone!

1379
01:35:02,403 --> 01:35:04,406
Am I getting through to you?

1380
01:35:08,578 --> 01:35:12,541
You get up on
your little 21-inch screen...

1381
01:35:14,084 --> 01:35:18,214
and howl about America
and democracy.

1382
01:35:19,424 --> 01:35:21,343
There is no America.

1383
01:35:21,426 --> 01:35:23,804
There is no democracy.

1384
01:35:23,888 --> 01:35:27,767
There is only IBM and ITT...

1385
01:35:27,809 --> 01:35:29,478
and AT&T...

1386
01:35:29,561 --> 01:35:33,524
and Du Pont, Dow, Union Carbide...

1387
01:35:33,608 --> 01:35:35,151
and Exxon.

1388
01:35:35,235 --> 01:35:38,864
Those are the nations
of the world today.

1389
01:35:38,948 --> 01:35:41,743
What do you think the Russians
talk about in their councils of state?

1390
01:35:41,826 --> 01:35:43,411
Karl Marx?

1391
01:35:43,453 --> 01:35:46,039
They get out their
linear programming charts...

1392
01:35:46,123 --> 01:35:49,085
statistical decision theories,
minimax solutions and compute...

1393
01:35:49,168 --> 01:35:53,340
price-cost probabilities of their
transactions and investments like we do.

1394
01:35:53,423 --> 01:35:58,346
We no longer live in a world
of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale.

1395
01:35:58,429 --> 01:36:00,599
The world...

1396
01:36:00,682 --> 01:36:03,602
is a college of corporations...

1397
01:36:03,644 --> 01:36:06,564
inexorably determined...

1398
01:36:06,648 --> 01:36:09,943
by the immutable bylaws
of business.

1399
01:36:12,572 --> 01:36:15,575
The world is a business.

1400
01:36:17,411 --> 01:36:21,708
It has been since man
crawled out of the slime.

1401
01:36:24,252 --> 01:36:28,674
And our children will live,
Mr. Beale...

1402
01:36:30,510 --> 01:36:32,471
to see that...

1403
01:36:34,515 --> 01:36:36,559
perfect world...

1404
01:36:38,144 --> 01:36:41,481
in which there's no war or famine...

1405
01:36:41,565 --> 01:36:44,068
oppression or brutality.

1406
01:36:45,987 --> 01:36:49,992
One vast and ecumenical
holding company...

1407
01:36:50,033 --> 01:36:54,414
for whom all men will work to serve
a common profit...

1408
01:36:54,497 --> 01:36:59,879
in which all men will hold
a share of stock...

1409
01:36:59,962 --> 01:37:02,382
all necessities provided...

1410
01:37:03,592 --> 01:37:07,096
all anxieties tranquilized...

1411
01:37:08,681 --> 01:37:12,018
all boredom amused.

1412
01:37:18,401 --> 01:37:23,199
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale...

1413
01:37:23,282 --> 01:37:26,035
to preach this evangel.

1414
01:37:26,119 --> 01:37:27,871
Why me?

1415
01:37:29,081 --> 01:37:31,709
Because you're on television, dummy!

1416
01:37:33,002 --> 01:37:35,088
Sixty million people watch you...

1417
01:37:35,171 --> 01:37:38,008
every night of the week,
Monday through Friday.

1418
01:37:39,218 --> 01:37:41,512
I have seen the face of God.

1419
01:37:44,099 --> 01:37:46,352
You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

1420
01:37:48,354 --> 01:37:50,398
That evening Howard Beale
went on the air...

1421
01:37:50,440 --> 01:37:53,736
to preach the corporate cosmology
of Arthur Jensen.

1422
01:37:53,777 --> 01:37:58,408
Last night I got up here and asked you
to fight for your heritage...

1423
01:37:58,491 --> 01:38:00,911
and you did,
and it was beautiful.

1424
01:38:00,953 --> 01:38:03,998
Six million telegrams were received
at the White House.

1425
01:38:04,081 --> 01:38:07,419
The Arab takeover of CCA
has been stopped.

1426
01:38:07,460 --> 01:38:09,630
The people spoke, the people won.

1427
01:38:09,713 --> 01:38:12,508
It was a radiant eruption
of democracy.

1428
01:38:13,593 --> 01:38:17,556
But I think that was it, fellas.

1429
01:38:17,639 --> 01:38:20,268
That sort of thing is not likely
to happen again...

1430
01:38:20,351 --> 01:38:23,396
because at the bottom
of all our terrified souls...

1431
01:38:23,480 --> 01:38:26,317
we know that democracy
is a dying giant...

1432
01:38:26,400 --> 01:38:29,612
a sick, sick, dying,
decaying political concept...

1433
01:38:29,696 --> 01:38:31,656
writhing in its final pain.

1434
01:38:31,698 --> 01:38:35,453
I don't mean that the United States
is finished as a world power.

1435
01:38:35,536 --> 01:38:38,707
The U. S is the richest,
most advanced country in the world...

1436
01:38:38,790 --> 01:38:40,834
light-years ahead
of any other country...

1437
01:38:40,918 --> 01:38:44,839
and the Communists won't take over the
world because they're deader than we.

1438
01:38:44,881 --> 01:38:46,925
What is finished...

1439
01:38:48,510 --> 01:38:50,804
is the idea that this great country...

1440
01:38:50,846 --> 01:38:56,311
is dedicated to the freedom and
flourishing of every individual in it.

1441
01:38:57,396 --> 01:39:00,566
It's the individual that's finished.

1442
01:39:00,650 --> 01:39:04,488
It's the single, solitary human being
that's finished.

1443
01:39:05,531 --> 01:39:10,078
It's every single one of you
out there that's finished.

1444
01:39:10,161 --> 01:39:15,209
Because this is no longer a nation
of independent individuals.

1445
01:39:16,377 --> 01:39:21,842
It's a nation of some 200 million
transistorized, deodorized...

1446
01:39:21,925 --> 01:39:24,679
whiter-than-white,
steel-belted bodies...

1447
01:39:24,720 --> 01:39:27,724
totally unnecessary
as human beings...

1448
01:39:27,766 --> 01:39:30,936
and as replaceable as piston rods.

1449
01:39:41,741 --> 01:39:45,120
Well, the time has come to say...

1450
01:39:45,204 --> 01:39:48,624
is "dehumanization"
such a bad word?

1451
01:39:48,708 --> 01:39:51,878
Whether it's good or bad,
that's what is so.

1452
01:39:51,920 --> 01:39:54,340
The whole world
is becoming humanoid...

1453
01:39:54,423 --> 01:39:57,552
creatures that look human
but aren't.

1454
01:39:57,594 --> 01:39:59,554
The whole world, not just us.

1455
01:39:59,596 --> 01:40:02,975
We're just the most advanced,
so we're getting there first.

1456
01:40:04,018 --> 01:40:08,231
The whole world's people
are becoming mass-produced...

1457
01:40:08,315 --> 01:40:11,277
programmed, numbered and...

1458
01:40:11,318 --> 01:40:13,404
It was an admissible argument
that Howard Beale...

1459
01:40:13,488 --> 01:40:15,949
advanced in the days that followed.

1460
01:40:15,991 --> 01:40:19,245
It was, however,
also a very depressing one.

1461
01:40:19,328 --> 01:40:22,624
Nobody particularly cared to hear
his life was utterly valueless.

1462
01:40:22,707 --> 01:40:24,668
By the end of the first week
in June...

1463
01:40:24,751 --> 01:40:26,670
the show dropped
one ratings point...

1464
01:40:26,754 --> 01:40:30,216
and its trend of shares
dipped under 48 for the first time...

1465
01:40:30,300 --> 01:40:32,052
since last November.

1466
01:40:32,135 --> 01:40:34,096
You're his goddamn agent, Lou!

1467
01:40:34,179 --> 01:40:36,349
I'm counting on you to talk sense
into the lunatic!

1468
01:40:36,432 --> 01:40:39,352
Nobody wants to hear about
dying democracy and dehumanization!

1469
01:40:40,812 --> 01:40:43,190
I'm sorry I'm late.

1470
01:40:43,274 --> 01:40:46,861
We're getting rumbles from the agencies.
The sponsors will bail out soon!

1471
01:40:46,945 --> 01:40:49,114
This is a breach of contract!

1472
01:40:49,198 --> 01:40:52,744
This isn't the Howard Beale we signed.
Get him off the corporate universe kick.

1473
01:40:52,827 --> 01:40:54,996
I'll pull him off the air!

1474
01:40:55,080 --> 01:40:58,125
I told him! I've been telling him
every day for a week!

1475
01:40:58,209 --> 01:41:01,588
I am sick of telling him!
Now you tell him!

1476
01:41:09,013 --> 01:41:10,891
Jesus Christ!

1477
01:41:14,603 --> 01:41:19,192
You could help me with Howard. He
listens to you. You're his best friend.

1478
01:41:19,276 --> 01:41:21,695
I'm tired of all this hysteria
about Howard Beale!

1479
01:41:21,779 --> 01:41:24,365
Every time you come back from seeing
somebody in your family...

1480
01:41:24,449 --> 01:41:26,743
you're in a morbid,
middle-aged mood!

1481
01:41:26,826 --> 01:41:30,164
And I'm tired of finding you on the
goddamn phone every time I turn around!

1482
01:41:30,206 --> 01:41:33,585
I'm tired of being an accessory
in your life!

1483
01:41:33,668 --> 01:41:36,046
I'm tired of pretending
to write this dumb book...

1484
01:41:36,129 --> 01:41:39,675
about my maverick days
in the early years of television.

1485
01:41:39,759 --> 01:41:43,513
Every goddamned executive fired
from a network in the last 20 years...

1486
01:41:43,555 --> 01:41:47,727
has written this dumb book about
the great early years of television!

1487
01:41:47,810 --> 01:41:51,189
And nobody wants a dumb, damn,
goddamn book...

1488
01:41:51,273 --> 01:41:53,442
about the early days of television!

1489
01:41:53,525 --> 01:41:56,487
Terrific. Maybe you can start
a whole new career as an actor!

1490
01:41:59,366 --> 01:42:03,955
After living with you for six months,
I'm turning into one of your scripts!

1491
01:42:04,956 --> 01:42:07,667
This is not a script.

1492
01:42:07,751 --> 01:42:11,047
There's some real, actual life
going on here.

1493
01:42:12,131 --> 01:42:15,635
I went to visit my wife today
because she's in a state of depression...

1494
01:42:15,719 --> 01:42:19,390
so depressed that my daughter
flew from Seattle to be with her...

1495
01:42:19,432 --> 01:42:21,768
and I feel lousy about that.

1496
01:42:21,851 --> 01:42:25,940
I feel lousy about the pain
that I've caused my wife and kids.

1497
01:42:26,023 --> 01:42:30,695
I feel guilty and conscious-stricken and
those things you think sentimental...

1498
01:42:30,779 --> 01:42:34,950
but which my generation called
simple human decency.

1499
01:42:39,039 --> 01:42:41,750
And I miss my home...

1500
01:42:41,792 --> 01:42:44,671
because I'm beginning
to get scared shitless.

1501
01:42:44,754 --> 01:42:48,008
Because all of a sudden it's closer to
the end than it is to the beginning...

1502
01:42:48,091 --> 01:42:51,345
and death is suddenly
a perceptible thing to me...

1503
01:42:51,429 --> 01:42:53,973
with definable features.

1504
01:42:57,895 --> 01:43:02,734
You're dealing with a man
that has primal doubts...

1505
01:43:02,817 --> 01:43:05,654
and you've got to cope with it.

1506
01:43:05,738 --> 01:43:10,619
I'm not some guy discussing male
menopause on the "Barbara Walters Show. "

1507
01:43:10,660 --> 01:43:13,914
I'm the man that you presumably love.

1508
01:43:14,999 --> 01:43:18,044
I'm part of your life.

1509
01:43:18,128 --> 01:43:19,963
I live here.

1510
01:43:20,005 --> 01:43:21,548
I'm real!

1511
01:43:22,591 --> 01:43:25,845
You can't switch
to another station.

1512
01:43:30,309 --> 01:43:31,727
Well...

1513
01:43:33,271 --> 01:43:36,066
what exactly is it
you want me to do?

1514
01:43:40,071 --> 01:43:42,949
I just want you to love me.

1515
01:43:44,493 --> 01:43:47,830
I just want you to love me,
primal doubts and all.

1516
01:43:50,292 --> 01:43:52,836
You understand that, don't you?

1517
01:43:57,675 --> 01:43:59,886
I don't know how to do that.

1518
01:44:11,567 --> 01:44:14,279
I'll be with you in a minute, Max.

1519
01:44:19,535 --> 01:44:23,123
By the first week in July, the
"Howard Beale Show" was down 11 points.

1520
01:44:23,206 --> 01:44:25,167
Hysteria swept through the network.

1521
01:44:25,250 --> 01:44:28,296
He's a plague! He's smallpox!
He's typhoid!

1522
01:44:28,379 --> 01:44:31,174
I don't want to follow his goddamn show!
I want out of the 8:00 spot.

1523
01:44:31,258 --> 01:44:33,761
I've got enough troubles
without Howard Beale as a lead-in.

1524
01:44:33,844 --> 01:44:36,055
You guys scheduled me up against
"Tony Orlando and Dawn"!

1525
01:44:36,139 --> 01:44:39,726
NBC's got "Little House on the Prairie. "
ABC's got "The Bionic Woman. "

1526
01:44:39,768 --> 01:44:42,647
You gotta do something
about Howard Beale!

1527
01:44:42,730 --> 01:44:44,899
Get him off the air!
Get him off!

1528
01:44:44,983 --> 01:44:47,069
Do something! Do anything!

1529
01:44:47,152 --> 01:44:51,032
We're trying to find a replacement! I'm
going to look at audition footage now!

1530
01:44:51,115 --> 01:44:54,744
And how when the sick heal!

1531
01:44:54,828 --> 01:44:57,832
Man, I tell you I saw it!

1532
01:44:57,915 --> 01:45:01,461
It was heavy, baby.

1533
01:45:01,544 --> 01:45:03,797
I saw the earth quake...

1534
01:45:03,881 --> 01:45:07,802
and I saw the moon became like blood.

1535
01:45:07,885 --> 01:45:12,099
And every mountain and island
was moved from its place.

1536
01:45:12,182 --> 01:45:16,187
No, no, damn it! If we wanted hell-fire,
we'd get Billy Graham!

1537
01:45:16,270 --> 01:45:19,858
We don't want faith healers, evangelists
or Oberammergau passion players!

1538
01:45:19,942 --> 01:45:24,280
What about that terrific new messiah
ABC was to sign for our competition?

1539
01:45:25,365 --> 01:45:26,783
That's him.

1540
01:45:28,827 --> 01:45:31,456
That's him?

1541
01:45:32,832 --> 01:45:34,751
Jesus. Turn him off!

1542
01:45:35,919 --> 01:45:39,549
I've got three more,
but you've already seen the best ones.

1543
01:45:39,632 --> 01:45:41,593
I've got a guru from Spokane...

1544
01:45:41,676 --> 01:45:44,471
and two more hell-fires
who see visions of the Virgin Mary.

1545
01:45:44,555 --> 01:45:48,518
We're not gonna find a replacement
for Beale. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

1546
01:45:48,560 --> 01:45:51,647
Fully-fledged messiahs
don't come in bunches.

1547
01:45:51,730 --> 01:45:54,942
We either go with Howard Beale
or we go without him.

1548
01:45:55,026 --> 01:45:57,946
My reports say we'll do better
without him.

1549
01:45:58,029 --> 01:46:00,949
It would be disaster to let
this situation go on another week.

1550
01:46:01,033 --> 01:46:03,745
By then he'll be down 16 points...

1551
01:46:03,828 --> 01:46:06,623
and the trend irreversible,
if it isn't already.

1552
01:46:08,542 --> 01:46:11,587
I think we should fire Howard.

1553
01:46:14,257 --> 01:46:17,720
Arthur Jensen has taken
a strong personal interest...

1554
01:46:17,761 --> 01:46:19,764
in the "Howard Beale Show. "

1555
01:46:22,017 --> 01:46:23,977
I'm having dinner with him tonight.

1556
01:46:24,061 --> 01:46:27,982
Let me have another crack at Jensen.
Meet in my office at 10:00 tonight.

1557
01:46:28,066 --> 01:46:30,861
Diana, give me copies of all
your audience research reports.

1558
01:46:30,902 --> 01:46:33,072
I may need them for Jensen.

1559
01:46:33,155 --> 01:46:35,408
Is 10:00 convenient for everyone?

1560
01:47:06,821 --> 01:47:11,285
I think the time has come
to reevaluate our relationship, Max.

1561
01:47:12,369 --> 01:47:14,163
So I see.

1562
01:47:15,873 --> 01:47:18,293
I don't like the way this script of ours
is turning out.

1563
01:47:19,419 --> 01:47:22,048
It's turning into a seedy little drama.

1564
01:47:22,131 --> 01:47:26,553
Middle-aged man leaves wife and family
for young, heartless woman, goes to pot.

1565
01:47:26,636 --> 01:47:29,557
"The Blue Angel" with Marlene Dietrich
and Emil Jannings.

1566
01:47:29,640 --> 01:47:32,352
- I don't like it.
- So you're gonna cancel the show.

1567
01:47:32,435 --> 01:47:34,688
- Right.
- Let me do that.

1568
01:47:36,315 --> 01:47:39,152
The simple fact is, Max...

1569
01:47:39,235 --> 01:47:41,571
that you're a family man.

1570
01:47:41,655 --> 01:47:45,159
It's beautiful you like a home and kids,
but I am incapable of such commitment.

1571
01:47:45,242 --> 01:47:47,787
All you'll get from me is another
couple of months of intermittent sex...

1572
01:47:47,870 --> 01:47:51,750
and recriminate and ugly little scenes
like the one we had last night.

1573
01:47:51,834 --> 01:47:55,797
I'm sorry for all those things
I said to you last night.

1574
01:47:55,880 --> 01:47:58,300
You're not the worst fuck
I've ever had.

1575
01:47:58,341 --> 01:48:00,761
Believe me, I've had worse.

1576
01:48:02,555 --> 01:48:06,226
You don't puff or snorkel
and make death-like rattles.

1577
01:48:06,309 --> 01:48:08,771
As a matter of fact,
you're rather serene in the sack.

1578
01:48:10,314 --> 01:48:13,234
Why is it that a woman always thinks
that the most savage thing...

1579
01:48:13,318 --> 01:48:17,156
she can say to a man
is to impugn his cocksmanship?

1580
01:48:18,240 --> 01:48:22,078
I'm sorry I impugned your cocksmanship.

1581
01:48:22,162 --> 01:48:26,709
I gave up comparing genitals
back in the schoolyard.

1582
01:48:36,179 --> 01:48:38,932
You're being docile as hell
about this.

1583
01:48:39,975 --> 01:48:43,062
Hell, Diana, I knew it was over
with us weeks ago.

1584
01:48:44,105 --> 01:48:46,858
Will you go back to your wife?

1585
01:48:48,527 --> 01:48:51,322
I'll give it a try,
but I don't think she'll jump at it.

1586
01:48:51,406 --> 01:48:53,366
Don't worry about me.

1587
01:48:53,408 --> 01:48:56,078
I'll manage. I always have,
I always will.

1588
01:48:56,161 --> 01:48:58,205
I'm more concerned about you.

1589
01:48:58,289 --> 01:49:00,792
You're not the boozer type.

1590
01:49:00,875 --> 01:49:04,838
So I figure a year, maybe two,
before you crack up...

1591
01:49:04,922 --> 01:49:07,508
or jump out of
your 14th floor office window.

1592
01:49:07,592 --> 01:49:10,721
Stop selling, Max.
I don't need you.

1593
01:49:22,401 --> 01:49:26,072
I don't want your pain! I don't want
your menopausal decay and death!

1594
01:49:26,114 --> 01:49:28,450
- I don't need you, Max! Get out!
- You need me!

1595
01:49:29,410 --> 01:49:34,332
You need me badly! Because I'm
your last contact with human reality.

1596
01:49:34,416 --> 01:49:36,502
I love you!

1597
01:49:36,585 --> 01:49:40,465
And that painful, decaying love
is the only thing between you...

1598
01:49:40,548 --> 01:49:43,343
and the shrieking nothingness
you live the rest of the day.

1599
01:49:43,427 --> 01:49:45,346
Then don't leave me.

1600
01:49:48,391 --> 01:49:50,310
It's too late.

1601
01:49:51,562 --> 01:49:53,898
There's nothing left in you
that I can live with.

1602
01:49:57,235 --> 01:50:01,824
You're one of Howard's humanoids.
If I stay with you, I'll be destroyed.

1603
01:50:03,576 --> 01:50:06,496
Like Howard Beale was destroyed.

1604
01:50:06,538 --> 01:50:09,792
Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed.

1605
01:50:09,875 --> 01:50:15,048
Like everything you and the institution
of television touch is destroyed.

1606
01:50:21,514 --> 01:50:23,600
You're television incarnate.

1607
01:50:25,186 --> 01:50:27,438
Indifferent to suffering...

1608
01:50:28,231 --> 01:50:30,359
insensitive to joy.

1609
01:50:31,860 --> 01:50:35,698
All of life is reduced
to the common rubble of banality.

1610
01:50:39,369 --> 01:50:41,831
War, murder, death...

1611
01:50:43,082 --> 01:50:45,961
are all the same to you
as bottles of beer.

1612
01:50:47,004 --> 01:50:50,967
And the daily business of life
is a corrupt comedy.

1613
01:50:52,719 --> 01:50:56,056
You even shatter the sensations
of time and space...

1614
01:50:56,140 --> 01:51:00,645
into split seconds
and instant replays.

1615
01:51:04,441 --> 01:51:06,402
You're madness, Diana.

1616
01:51:08,238 --> 01:51:10,157
Virulent madness.

1617
01:51:12,660 --> 01:51:15,705
And everything you touch
dies with you.

1618
01:51:20,252 --> 01:51:23,089
But not me.

1619
01:51:23,172 --> 01:51:25,675
Not as long as I can feel pleasure...

1620
01:51:27,010 --> 01:51:28,596
and pain...

1621
01:51:32,684 --> 01:51:34,186
and love.

1622
01:51:45,533 --> 01:51:47,744
And it's a happy ending.

1623
01:51:49,120 --> 01:51:52,833
Wayward husband
comes to his senses...

1624
01:51:52,917 --> 01:51:55,086
returns to his wife...

1625
01:51:55,128 --> 01:51:58,131
with whom he's established
a long and sustaining love.

1626
01:51:59,466 --> 01:52:03,346
Heartless young woman left alone
in her arctic desolation.

1627
01:52:06,516 --> 01:52:08,519
Music up with a swell.

1628
01:52:11,564 --> 01:52:13,275
Final commercial.

1629
01:52:16,111 --> 01:52:19,574
And here are a few scenes
from next week's show.

1630
01:52:31,714 --> 01:52:33,633
How'd it go?

1631
01:52:50,153 --> 01:52:54,825
Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea
of taking Howard Beale off the air.

1632
01:52:56,160 --> 01:52:58,329
Mr. Jensen thinks Howard Beale
is bringing...

1633
01:52:58,412 --> 01:53:02,209
a very important message
to the American people.

1634
01:53:04,503 --> 01:53:07,882
So he wants Howard Beale on the air,
and he wants him kept on.

1635
01:53:10,052 --> 01:53:13,347
Mr. Jensen feels we're too catastrophic
in our thinking.

1636
01:53:13,389 --> 01:53:15,892
I argued that television
was a volatile industry...

1637
01:53:15,975 --> 01:53:19,813
in which success and failure
were determined week by week.

1638
01:53:20,856 --> 01:53:23,735
Mr. Jensen said he did not like
volatile industries...

1639
01:53:23,818 --> 01:53:27,531
and suggested with a certain
sinister silkiness...

1640
01:53:29,033 --> 01:53:32,621
that volatility in business
usually reflected bad management.

1641
01:53:33,914 --> 01:53:36,876
He didn't really care if Howard Beale
was the number one show or the 50th.

1642
01:53:36,959 --> 01:53:39,462
He didn't really care
if the Beale show lost money.

1643
01:53:40,588 --> 01:53:43,175
He wants Howard Beale on the air...

1644
01:53:43,258 --> 01:53:45,511
and he wants him kept on.

1645
01:53:45,553 --> 01:53:49,683
I would describe his position on this
as inflexible.

1646
01:53:51,602 --> 01:53:53,562
Where does that put us, Diana?

1647
01:53:54,689 --> 01:53:58,235
That puts us in the shithouse.
That's where that puts us.

1648
01:54:01,030 --> 01:54:03,908
Do you want me to go through this?

1649
01:54:05,035 --> 01:54:08,831
The Beale show Q score
is down to 33.

1650
01:54:09,916 --> 01:54:13,462
Most of this loss occurred in the child
and teen and 18-34 categories...

1651
01:54:13,545 --> 01:54:16,382
which were our key core markets.

1652
01:54:17,550 --> 01:54:20,220
It's the AR department's carefully
considered judgment, and mine...

1653
01:54:20,261 --> 01:54:24,892
that if we get rid of Beale, we should
maintain a respectable share...

1654
01:54:24,975 --> 01:54:27,186
with a comparable Q level.

1655
01:54:27,270 --> 01:54:30,732
The other show segments, Sybil the
Soothsayer, Jim Webbing, Vox Populi...

1656
01:54:30,816 --> 01:54:33,903
have all developed
their own audiences.

1657
01:54:33,945 --> 01:54:38,534
Our AR reports show that it is Beale
that is the destructive force here.

1658
01:54:39,743 --> 01:54:42,121
Minimally, we're talking about...

1659
01:54:42,163 --> 01:54:45,167
a ten-point differential in shares.

1660
01:54:45,250 --> 01:54:47,211
I think Joe oughta spell it out
for us.

1661
01:54:49,213 --> 01:54:52,300
A 28 share
is 80,000 dollar minutes.

1662
01:54:52,384 --> 01:54:55,095
I think we can sell complete positions
on the whole.

1663
01:54:55,137 --> 01:54:57,849
As a matter of fact, we're just getting
into the pre-Christmas gift-sellers...

1664
01:54:57,932 --> 01:55:01,520
and the agencies are coming back to me
with four-dollar CPMs.

1665
01:55:01,603 --> 01:55:06,609
If that's any indication, we're talking
$40-$45 million loss in annual revenues.

1666
01:55:06,693 --> 01:55:09,947
- Want the flak from the affiliates?
- We know all about it, Herb.

1667
01:55:09,988 --> 01:55:13,743
You would describe Mr. Jensen's position
on Beale as inflexible?

1668
01:55:13,826 --> 01:55:16,705
Intractable and adamantine.

1669
01:55:18,582 --> 01:55:21,794
What do we do about this Beale
son of a bitch?

1670
01:55:23,963 --> 01:55:26,216
I suppose we'll have to kill him.

1671
01:55:29,095 --> 01:55:32,057
I don't suppose you have any ideas
on that, Diana?

1672
01:55:35,519 --> 01:55:36,979
Well...

1673
01:55:38,856 --> 01:55:41,526
what would you fellas say
to an assassination?

1674
01:55:43,445 --> 01:55:45,990
I think I can get
the Mao Tse-tung people...

1675
01:55:46,074 --> 01:55:48,660
to kill Beale for us
as one of their shows.

1676
01:55:49,786 --> 01:55:54,459
In fact, it'll make a hell of
a kick-off show for the season.

1677
01:55:54,542 --> 01:55:57,462
We're facing heavy opposition on the
other networks for Wednesday nights...

1678
01:55:57,546 --> 01:56:01,008
and the "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
could use a sensational opener.

1679
01:56:03,219 --> 01:56:06,849
It could be done right on camera
in the studio.

1680
01:56:08,517 --> 01:56:10,728
We oughta get a fantastic
look-in audience...

1681
01:56:10,812 --> 01:56:13,941
for the assassination of Howard Beale
as our opening show.

1682
01:56:15,025 --> 01:56:17,737
If Beale dies...

1683
01:56:17,779 --> 01:56:21,867
what would our continuing obligation
to the Beale Corporation be?

1684
01:56:21,950 --> 01:56:25,037
I know our contract with Beale
contains a buy-out clause...

1685
01:56:25,079 --> 01:56:27,290
triggered by his death
or incapacity.

1686
01:56:27,373 --> 01:56:30,794
There must be a formula for
the computation of the purchase price.

1687
01:56:30,878 --> 01:56:34,883
Offhand, I think it was based on
a multiple of 1975 earnings...

1688
01:56:34,924 --> 01:56:38,762
with a base period in 1975,
which I think was 50 percent...

1689
01:56:38,804 --> 01:56:41,641
of salary, plus 25 percent
of the first year's profit...

1690
01:56:41,724 --> 01:56:44,853
multiplied by the unexpired portion
of the contract.

1691
01:56:44,936 --> 01:56:46,814
I don't think the show...

1692
01:56:46,897 --> 01:56:49,442
has any substantial syndication value,
would you say, Diana?

1693
01:56:49,525 --> 01:56:51,486
Syndication profits are minimal.

1694
01:56:52,654 --> 01:56:55,449
We're talking about a capital crime.

1695
01:56:56,492 --> 01:56:59,287
The network can't be implicated.

1696
01:57:09,633 --> 01:57:13,846
I hope you don't have any hidden
tape machines in this office, Frank.

1697
01:57:15,974 --> 01:57:18,936
The issue is,
shall we kill Howard Beale or not?

1698
01:57:19,019 --> 01:57:21,606
I'd like to hear
some more opinions on that.

1699
01:57:21,689 --> 01:57:25,152
I don't see we have any option.
Let's kill the son of a bitch.

1700
01:57:25,235 --> 01:57:26,904
Ladies and gentlemen,
let's hear it!

1701
01:57:26,987 --> 01:57:28,698
How do you feel?

1702
01:57:28,781 --> 01:57:30,450
We're mad as hell...

1703
01:57:30,491 --> 01:57:33,245
and we're not gonna
take this anymore!

1704
01:57:33,328 --> 01:57:37,083
Ladies and gentlemen, the "Network
News Hour" with Sybil the Soothsayer...

1705
01:57:40,670 --> 01:57:45,009
Jim Webbing and his
It's-the-Emmes-Truth Department.

1706
01:57:47,345 --> 01:57:51,433
Miss Mata Hari
and her skeletons in the closet.

1707
01:57:53,853 --> 01:57:56,147
Tonight another segment
of "Vox Populi. "

1708
01:58:00,945 --> 01:58:05,325
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

1709
01:58:24,891 --> 01:58:29,313
...network news anchorman
on the UBS "Network News Show"...

1710
01:58:29,396 --> 01:58:33,359
known to millions
as the Mad Profit of the Airwaves...

1711
01:58:33,401 --> 01:58:37,197
was shot to death tonight in
a fusillade of automatic rifle fire...

1712
01:58:37,239 --> 01:58:39,491
just as he began
this evening's broadcast.

1713
01:58:39,575 --> 01:58:43,037
We never compromise,
so why should you?

1714
01:58:43,079 --> 01:58:46,500
Canada Dry Mixers.
Why compromise?

1715
01:58:46,583 --> 01:58:50,213
Have you seen the other side
of where you live?

1716
01:58:50,254 --> 01:58:54,092
- What's this stuff?
- Some cereal. It's good for you.

1717
01:58:54,176 --> 01:58:57,096
- Did you try it?
- I'm not gonna try it. You try it.

1718
01:58:57,138 --> 01:58:59,599
I'm not gonna try it.

1719
01:58:59,683 --> 01:59:01,685
- Let's get Mikey to try it!
- Yeah!

1720
01:59:01,768 --> 01:59:03,729
He won't eat it.
He hates everything.

1721
01:59:03,771 --> 01:59:07,734
The extraordinary incident occurred in
full view of his millions of viewers.

1722
01:59:07,817 --> 01:59:12,281
The assassins were members of
the Ecumenical Liberation Army...

1723
01:59:12,323 --> 01:59:14,450
two of whom were apprehended.

1724
01:59:14,534 --> 01:59:18,414
The leader of the group known
as the Great Ahmed Khan escaped.

1725
01:59:18,455 --> 01:59:20,958
This was the story of Howard Beale...

1726
01:59:21,000 --> 01:59:25,297
the first known instance of a man who
was killed because he had lousy ratings.