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Network (1976) & Broadcast News (1987) · Scenes From The Screen

• 0:03
  Sean: Welcome once again to Scenes From the Screen, where we talk about all types of films: obscure, forgotten, prestigious, rotten...
• 0:08
  Sean: big screen and small, we cover it all.
• 0:10
  Sean: Who knows, you might discover a new gem or be reintroduced to an old favorite.
• 0:14
  Sean: My name is Sean, and I'll be your host.
• 0:16
  Sean: Hollie is back again with me.
• 0:18
  Sean: Hello.
• 0:19
  Hollie: Triple Threat Hollie back here again.
• 0:22
  Sean: You darn tootin'.
• 0:22
  Sean: You know what?
• 0:23
  Sean: I'm just you've been you've been really putting in the extra hours.
• 0:25
  Sean: I think I'm just gonna make you instead of guest, I'm gonna make you co-host.
• 0:28
  Hollie: No.
• 0:29
  Sean: You don't want to be co-host?
• 0:30
  Hollie: No.
• 0:30
  Sean: I mean, not all the time, but you know...
• 0:32
  Hollie: I could be...producer, boss.
• 0:34
  Sean: You know, I don't know about the producer boss.
• 0:36
  Sean: Well, we'll talk about that.
• 0:37
  Sean: I mean, it's you know, it's not much more money, up from zero to nothing.
• 0:41
  Sean: I mean, I don't, but anyway, so here we are back again, and we're gonna do because it almost like the news the the recent news of CBS, obviously Colbert show ending, and with Scott Pelley just being...
• 0:53
  Hollie: Fired.
• 0:53
  Sean: ...booted from CBS.
• 0:55
  Sean: We watched the one movie a couple months ago, and I thought, why don't we do the another one that both are very similar?
• 1:01
  Sean: So uh the first movie we watched a couple months ago, and you'd never seen it before...
• 1:05
  Hollie: No.
• 1:05
  Sean: ...was Network.
• 1:06
  Sean: And Network is from 1976, so it's 50 years old.
• 1:10
  Sean: And that's I say that for a reason because so it begins with the revelation that longtime news uh nightly news anchor Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, he's gonna be fired due to declining ratings.
• 1:21
  Sean: When he declares that he'll commit suicide on the air, his friend and news division president Max Schumacher (William Holden) talks him down and gives him an opportunity for a more dignified final appearance.
• 1:30
  Sean: Beale decides to issue a rant, and that leads to a spike in the ratings.
• 1:34
  Sean: Eventually, Schumacher's let go too, and his lover Dinah Christensen, which is Faye Dunaway, and other network executives, they decide to exploit Beale's populist ravings and his descent into madness for profit.
• 1:47
  Sean: Beale discovers that the network is going to be bought out by a foreign conglomerate and is told by company chairman Ned Beatty in a very brief but incredible performance...
• 1:55
  Hollie: Yes, very odd but amazing.
• 1:57
  Sean: ...to abandon his criticism of the company so that the sale can go through.
• 2:00
  Sean: Eventually, Beale's story comes to an end in the most original way, which we don't want to reveal it, but I mean 50 years ago...
• 2:06
  Hollie: I mean, you can ruin you can ruin it now.
• 2:08
  Sean: Yeah, I I mean he basically they they assassinate him live on the air.
• 2:12
  Sean: So, you know, that that in and of itself is a lot because back then you think that's 1976, and this is still going on today.
• 2:24
  Hollie: Right.
• 2:25
  Hollie: I think we we...
• 2:26
  Sean: Obviously not the assassination yet.
• 2:28
  Hollie: That we know of.
• 2:29
  Sean: That we know of, correct.
• 2:30
  Sean: Correct.
• 2:31
  Hollie: I do think that we watch some old movies, but this movie, and you've told you raved about this movie for a very long time, and I just never had an interest in seeing it.
• 2:40
  Hollie: You this movie actually is timeless because I didn't feel like like I was taking I was watching something with old new old feelings and old sensibilities and old things.
• 2:53
  Hollie: It was very, very, very pertinent today.
• 2:56
  Sean: And it helps that Paddy Chayefsky wrote the screenplay and he was he was great.
• 3:00
  Sean: If you've never seen The Hospital, which I'll have to show you at some point, and that is that's another great movie.
• 3:05
  Sean: Yeah, the the beginning of that makes me laugh out loud.
• 3:07
  Sean: But anyway, Network.
• 3:08
  Sean: Yeah, so did you did you enjoy Network?
• 3:10
  Hollie: Yes, very much, very, very much.
• 3:11
  Sean: Yeah, it's um...
• 3:12
  Hollie: Love William Holden.
• 3:13
  Sean: I mean, yeah, I mean everybody's great in it.
• 3:15
  Sean: Holden, Faye Dunaway.
• 3:16
  Hollie: Faye Dunaway's she her...
• 3:17
  Sean: She's such a shark.
• 3:19
  Hollie: ...character...
• 3:19
  Sean: Yes.
• 3:20
  Hollie: ...was she was such a bitch.
• 3:22
  Sean: She was.
• 3:23
  Hollie: And she was a bitch that was still she still had her power and her intelligence and her sexiness, almost stereotypical of a powerful woman because what once you have power, you're a bitch.
• 3:33
  Hollie: That's what they always say about women.
• 3:35
  Hollie: But...
• 3:35
  Sean: She really was.
• 3:36
  Hollie: ...she really truly was it, but she was very cool.
• 3:39
  Sean: She orchestrated a lot of that...
• 3:40
  Hollie: A lot of it, yes.
• 3:41
  Sean: Yeah, just and...
• 3:42
  Hollie: For her own power, too.
• 3:43
  Sean: Right, and one of the things that she did was so she used her power as a programming developer to talk them into moving the news or at least Howard Beale's show under the entertainment division.
• 3:53
  Hollie: Right.
• 3:54
  Sean: And what else sounds like that?
• 3:55
  Sean: Whereas not it's not news, but it's entertainment.
• 3:57
  Hollie: Right.
• 3:58
  Hollie: And that's what news is, technically, it's just entertainment.
• 4:01
  Sean: It's just entertainment at this point.
• 4:02
  Sean: It's not like the days of you know, back then you saw Cronkite, there was Rather, there was people that you trusted, and that they you knew they would deliver the news correctly, and it was actual news.
• 4:11
  Hollie: And you felt like they were un...they didn't pick sides, like they just gave you the facts and they just gave you the exactly what happened without skewing it to either side.
• 4:21
  Sean: Right, a nonpartisan...
• 4:22
  Hollie: Yes, which we don't have that...
• 4:23
  Sean: They were just facts.
• 4:23
  Hollie: ...at all today.
• 4:24
  Hollie: Yes.
• 4:25
  Sean: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:25
  Sean: And they were pretty much indisputable.
• 4:27
  Sean: I mean, you could see some of the stuff that, like maybe yeah, maybe they were facts that they reported, but maybe some of it wasn't correct because of what they were being fed.
• 4:33
  Sean: But it was pretty much, I would say 99% facts is what they were what they were giving us.
• 4:37
  Hollie: Black and white , this happened.
• 4:44
  Speaker: Cronkite would have never allowed, I mean any of those people would have never allowed this bullshit. He would have, he would have just flipped out.
• 4:45
  Hollie: Right.
• 4:45
  Hollie: I think well, I was gonna say David Muir is like that, but...
• 4:48
  Sean: Yeah, I mean I think to a certain extent.
• 4:50
  Sean: But but we'll touch on that because of our second film.
• 4:52
  Sean: Because I mean, I do like I do like Muir, I really do.
• 4:56
  Sean: But again, I think it it it plays into part of the second film more than the first.
• 5:01
  Sean: Let's see.
• 5:03
  Sean: So the thing about Network is that it saw the rise of sensationalistic journalism and the need to make money.
• 5:10
  Sean: Not that that didn't exist, but I think that really brought it to the forefront.
• 5:13
  Hollie: Right, that that news was a profit.
• 5:15
  Hollie: It wasn't just a news used a long time ago, news was a service.
• 5:21
  Sean: Yes, right.
• 5:22
  Hollie: And then this is showing how news is profit.
• 5:24
  Hollie: It's it's a cup, it's capitalism, it's profit, it's corporate, it's not just ...
• 5:29
  Sean: Well, once the corporation started taking over and purchasing all the right, that's when it's it had to turn a profit.
• 5:35
  Hollie: Commercialism and all that.
• 5:37
  Sean: Correct.
• 5:37
  Sean: Yes, correct.
• 5:38
  Sean: Yeah, I mean...
• 5:39
  Hollie: Sensationalism because that's all that like keeping that the old guy on as the anchor or uh whatever his role was.
• 5:46
  Sean: Yeah, he was the lead anchor...
• 5:47
  Hollie: Lead anchor?
• 5:48
  Sean: ...for the nightly news.
• 5:48
  Hollie: It was just sensationalism because they were exploiting his mental health, and and it was just like, oh my god, what's he gonna say next, or what's he gonna do next?
• 5:55
  Hollie: And it was just like it was just like kind of that what people do when you see a car accident, everyone slows down to look at it.
• 6:03
  Hollie: That's what it was.
• 6:04
  Hollie: It was how society watches someone else's pain.
• 6:07
  Hollie: And I think I knew that people would watch and tune in and the ratings would go up because people like to see other people in pain.
• 6:13
  Sean: Well, and then they they kind of showed the his the reaction because you know, during the one time he came into the studio and rain, he just soaked in rain, and he just wandered onto the set and gave this long diatribe.
• 6:26
  Sean: And you know, he said, I want everyone to go to their windows and say, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore".
• 6:30
  Sean: People did because they were people were fed up and they didn't want to take it anymore.
• 6:35
  Hollie: Well, this was when was this 76 or...
• 6:37
  Sean: 76.
• 6:38
  Hollie: Is that that's when the gas prices and all that...
• 6:40
  Sean: Uh, that started a little bit later.
• 6:41
  Sean: That was um...
• 6:42
  Hollie: I was wondering then why were they so mad then?
• 6:44
  Sean: Probably Vietnam had just ended, it's the mid-70s, you know.
• 6:47
  Sean: It's I mean, there were you know a lot of reasons that there could have been, but I I don't I don't think I don't think a lot of the reasons were much different than it was today.
• 6:56
  Sean: I think that oh God bless you.
• 6:59
  Hollie: Thank you.
• 6:59
  Hollie: Sorry about that.
• 7:00
  Sean: My goodness.
• 7:01
  Sean: No, yeah, you ruined the whole show.
• 7:02
  Sean: That's it.
• 7:03
  Sean: No, I'm gonna have to demote you.
• 7:05
  Sean: You thought you were gonna be the boss, I'm gonna have to demote you, maybe not probably back to guest.
• 7:08
  Sean: But yeah, I mean, for yeah, I mean, for that time for any time, it's really amazing how he captured the essence of again of the profit making, of the just cynicism.
• 7:25
  Hollie: Yes.
• 7:26
  Hollie: And the very in the feeling that you know how people will prefer to watch bad news over good news, prefer to watch the negative over the positive.
• 7:36
  Hollie: I think you know, they always say that new news movies about newscasters, they're always like, Oh, I'm the one who does the fluff pieces, you know, and but we need those fluff pieces, we need that happy news.
• 7:47
  Hollie: But this is just showing that people prefer the bad.
• 7:49
  Sean: Yes.
• 7:50
  Hollie: The general population would rather watch some a crash than a tree planted.
• 7:55
  Sean: I mean, everyone forgets about this film.
• 7:56
  Sean: It was uh, you know, you look back, it was Rocky won Best Picture for that year.
• 8:00
  Hollie: This didn't win?
• 8:01
  Sean: No, this did not win.
• 8:02
  Sean: This one uh acting, so it won for Peter Finch posthumously.
• 8:05
  Sean: He was the first posthumous posthumous uh actor to win.
• 8:09
  Hollie: Which one was Peter Finch?
• 8:10
  Sean: He was Howard Beale, he was the main yeah, that and it won for Faye Dunaway.
• 8:14
  Hollie: Oh best actress?
• 8:15
  Sean: She won for best...
• 8:16
  Sean: Beatrice Strait won for best supporting actress, and she was William Holden's wife, yeah.
• 8:20
  Sean: So...
• 8:20
  Hollie: William Holden.
• 8:21
  Sean: William Holden, yeah.
• 8:22
  Sean: You're thinking Hal Holbrook.
• 8:23
  Hollie: Yes, well, I was close.
• 8:25
  Sean: But actually, uh no, yeah, so yeah, but it's kind of Holden...Holbrook.
• 8:29
  Sean: So anyway, yes, but we watched another movie...
• 8:32
  Hollie: Yes.
• 8:33
  Sean: ...and...
• 8:33
  Hollie: ...now this one...
• 8:35
  Sean: ...it's and this is why I mentioned David Muir.
• 8:37
  Sean: So Broadcast News was from 87, so it's 39 years old, and it almost looks...
• 8:43
  Sean: so it the basic story is Jane played by Holly Hunter, Aaron is Albert Brooks, they already worked together for um a uh Washington Bureau of the of the news.
• 8:52
  Hollie: It's like a yeah, like a network channel, network channel.
• 8:55
  Sean: Yes, and along comes Tom, played by William Hurt, he's an anchor on the rise, based mainly on his good looks and the ability to deliver the news in a trustworthy manner.
• 9:04
  Sean: And there there starts a little bit of a love triangle.
• 9:07
  Sean: Not much, I mean, it's not really that much of a love triangle because Aaron does he he does love Jane in a way.
• 9:14
  Hollie: I see, I think to the core, this was a love story, this movie.
• 9:19
  Hollie: I got I got a lot of the love story tone in it.
• 9:22
  Sean: Yeah, I mean it was, but yeah, to me it was, and I think because at that time, you know, I was I was actually uh you know, my major of broadcast communication.
• 9:31
  Sean: So a lot of the stuff would have been now, obviously not on the level of that, but you start you saw a lot of that in what we did, you know.
• 9:37
  Sean: Again, it wasn't peanuts compared to the Washington Bureau of you know nightly news.
• 9:43
  Sean: Yeah, or any whatever news it was supposed to be.
• 9:46
  Sean: But yeah, it's so for me, Broadcast News took a look at it looks at the through the viewpoint of society spending uh speeding, sorry, towards mediocrity, which is pretty much where we are now.
• 9:58
  Sean: Even the opening sequences introducing us to the characters as children has a pretty dim view of the future...
• 10:05
  Hollie: Well yeah because...
• 10:06
  Sean: ...it says that it shows establishes the characters and a young Aaron, you know, he's getting beaten up after his...
• 10:12
  Hollie: ...well and he's he's graduating high school at what 14 or something or 12 years...
• 10:17
  Sean: Right.
• 10:17
  Hollie: So he's smarter than everyone else, and he's getting beat up by the other kids.
• 10:21
  Hollie: Yeah.
• 10:22
  Sean: Yeah, and he tells the one guy, you'll never make more than $19,000 a year, he goes, 19,000, it's not bad.
• 10:27
  Sean: You know, and it's and that's true, some people do think that way.
• 10:32
  Sean: And but but yeah, it like I said, it's it's not the movie again, it does not hold.
• 10:38
  Sean: And here's the here was the the the big scene that that got, and I was I was thinking about this scene too.
• 10:44
  Sean: So when Jane is speaking at a conference, and you know, she's going on and on just about you know the news and everything and society, and people start to leave, they get bored, they're talking.
• 10:55
  Sean: So she skips everything that she a cue card, or not her cue cards, her note cards...
• 10:59
  Hollie: Yeah.
• 10:59
  Sean: ...and she starts skipping all that, and she goes, oh well, here's something like instead of this major news announcement, you saw this on all three stations, and it was this dominoes video, like this the contest where they set up all the dominoes and they they show them falling over, and you know, up until then people were bored, but they all start to applaud, the whole audience erupts in applause over something so trivial.
• 11:23
  Sean: And Brooks, I think, saw the future then how entertainment and style would usurp news and substance.
• 11:28
  Hollie: Yes.
• 11:29
  Hollie: Well, I think that's again, that's what we're we're talking about with Network is you know, the news itself is not the important part, it's the sensa...
• 11:39
  Hollie: sensationalism of the news, what the news looks like...
• 11:42
  Sean: Yes.
• 11:42
  Hollie: ...instead of what the news is.
• 11:44
  Hollie: And this I was trying when we were watching broadcast news, I kept thinking about how can I compare this?
• 11:49
  Hollie: And even if you don't mind me doing a little compare and contrast...
• 11:53
  Sean: Absolutely, that's why we chose both movies.
• 11:57
  Hollie: I could write an essay on these two movies to do a compare and contrast with them because I was looking at Faye Dunaway's character versus Hollie Hunter's character.
• 12:01
  Hollie: Hollie Hunter's character was also a boss.
• 12:03
  Hollie: Um, she wasn't the big boss, but she was also very important, very, very important character and very important at the net at that station, but she was kind and friendly and caring and...
• 12:14
  Sean: And when they let people go, which was part of Network too, the network firings, not just Howard Beale, but...
• 12:20
  Hollie: ...other people...
• 12:22
  Sean: ...yeah they were cutting...some of the cut people, she felt awful.
• 12:24
  Hollie: ...she felt really bad about it.
• 12:25
  Hollie: She felt bad that she was taking the position of her friend, her mentor...
• 12:30
  Sean: Yes, Robert Prosky.
• 12:30
  Hollie: ...because they were fine with the older gentleman and she was taking his job.
• 12:33
  Hollie: But when Faye Dunaway took her lover's job, she like she was half like push you aside like it was nothing, so I think those two characters were really neat to have against each other.
• 12:43
  Sean: Yes...
• 12:44
  Hollie: Very cool.
• 12:44
  Sean: And again, they both did great jobs in what they were doing.
• 12:47
  Sean: You know, when when they're talking about you know sensationalism in the news, Network and Broadcast News were were both used as warnings.
• 12:56
  Sean: Unfortunately, the companies will use it as a playbook.
• 13:00
  Hollie: Right.
• 13:00
  Sean: So, and you know, when you mentioned David David Muir before, yeah, I mean he's a good-looking guy, but he's you know, I I think he's more of a corporate person than he is a news person.
• 13:11
  Sean: I think he does lean towards the news, but you can almost see, I don't know.
• 13:14
  Sean: I just I just kind of see him as I kind of see him as a Tom Grunick, as a as a William Hurt character.
• 13:20
  Hollie: I see him as a little Tom Grunick and a little bit of Aaron at the same time.
• 13:24
  Sean: A little bit, yeah.
• 13:26
  Hollie: Well, to me, Martha Raddatz would be Aaron.
• 13:28
  Sean: Martha Raditz is a definitely Aaron.
• 13:30
  Hollie: If I had to compare them to my favorite ABC people...
• 13:32
  Sean: Yes.
• 13:32
  Hollie: ...Martha Raddatz would definitely be Aaron because genius, intelligent, knows the players, knows the situation, tells you the way it is.
• 13:40
  Hollie: And I do see David Muir as being a little bit more like the William Hurt character.
• 13:44
  Sean: Yes.
• 13:45
  Hollie: I kind of the funniest thing is when William Hurt puts the jacket under...
• 13:49
  Sean: Albert Brooks?
• 13:50
  Hollie: ...Albert Brooks's butt.
• 13:52
  Hollie: And um so he keeps his line stiff, and it really did make a difference, and it was cool.
• 13:57
  Hollie: And I'm like, I want to see next time we watch David Muir to see...
• 14:02
  Sean: I've looked at that.
• 14:02
  Hollie: ...I want to see how he stands.
• 14:04
  Sean: He does.
• 14:04
  Hollie: He does posture himself.
• 14:05
  Sean: He does posture, and I've noticed that because of this movie.
• 14:07
  Hollie: So we talked about the arm, but I'm gonna just see his lines of his coat.
• 14:10
  Sean: He does, he sits.
• 14:11
  Sean: I mean, he sits very rigidly, and he they do that.
• 14:14
  Sean: That I mean, that's a trick.
• 14:15
  Sean: What I found interesting too about Broadcast News is that both of them, both Jane and Aaron, disavow anything Tom stands for, but yet they both end up kind of being under the sway.
• 14:26
  Hollie: Right.
• 14:27
  Sean: You know, Jane falls in love with him, even though he's she said he personifies everything that she that she finds truly dangerous, but it's actually becoming the norm.
• 14:35
  Sean: And then Aaron, who's this great reporter, everyone loves his stuff, but he completely flops when he goes on the air.
• 14:43
  Sean: But he asks Tom Grunick for help.
• 14:47
  Hollie: He gets help from Tom. They both get help from Tom.
• 14:48
  Hollie: Yes, yeah, and Tom's very, very, very not bright.
• 14:53
  Sean: But here's a quick so I'm glad you brought that.
• 14:55
  Sean: He's not.
• 14:55
  Sean: No, he's he's but he's not bright, but do you think he knew what he was doing in a lot of cases, that he was manipulative?
• 15:06
  Hollie: I think he did learn to be manipulative because he wasn't he didn't know what was going on around him, so he would he would use his charm to manipulate a situation.
• 15:15
  Hollie: But I really do think he didn't like he doesn't didn't know how many cabinet members there were.
• 15:20
  Sean: No, he didn't.
• 15:21
  Hollie: He doesn't know the players.
• 15:22
  Sean: But he tried to he tried to portray it as he did, and any anyone lesser of lesser intelligence than Aaron would have not caught that.
• 15:29
  Hollie: Right.
• 15:29
  Sean: Yeah, but they wouldn't have asked him that in the first place.
• 15:30
  Sean: Everyone would be dazzled by him and yeah, but that being the I think...
• 15:34
  Hollie: Yeah, he I think it just shows that it was almost like the the looks over the substance, you know.
• 15:40
  Hollie: Even the two people who who had the most substance to them, Aaron and Jane, like uh Jane especially, like words mattered, everything mattered to her, substance was important to her, but then she still chose the good-looking guy over the guy with substance.
• 15:58
  Sean: Yes.
• 15:58
  Hollie: So she still did that.
• 15:59
  Sean: Right.
• 16:00
  Sean: She still, but so you mentioned her words.
• 16:02
  Sean: So this is I don't know if you you saw this, and I thought this was really interesting editing for for sound and just film editing.
• 16:09
  Sean: So at the one point, there is a kind of an emergency special report, they have to go on the air, and obviously she says he's not ready for it, but because everyone else thinks Tom is smart, but it's not right, so she has to kind of mentor him and you know, she's kind of feeding him stuff uh through an earpiece.
• 16:28
  Sean: So, but the words that she uses, like she is very specific about what she uses.
• 16:34
  Sean: So her words over his and what he how he repeats it, he doesn't repeat it verbatim...
• 16:38
  Hollie: Verbatim, no.
• 16:39
  Sean: ...he he modifies it so that it's more relatable to the public.
• 16:43
  Hollie: Right.
• 16:43
  Sean: You know...
• 16:43
  Hollie: Yes, he he took I did I did like that because her language is very curt and very like almost what's the word that they use too high intelligence for the average person.
• 16:57
  Hollie: What's that word?
• 16:58
  Sean: I can't think of it right now so obviously I'm the average person.
• 17:01
  Hollie: No, she speaks, she speaks very direct and very specific.
• 17:07
  Hollie: That not everyone's gonna really relate to that but Tom has that down home friendly...
• 17:13
  Sean: Folksy, kind of...
• 17:14
  Sean: Yeah, because he asks at the one point, you know, because she says it's an F-14, it's also known as a Tomcat and it's you know conflict, but instead of using the conflict, he goes, he goes, because the F-14 Tomcat, what's it like in a real dog fight?
• 17:28
  Hollie: Right.
• 17:28
  Sean: You know, which she wouldn't have used.
• 17:29
  Hollie: He uses the word dogfight and she uses...yeah.
• 17:29
  Sean: It's more conversational.
• 17:33
  Hollie: Right.
• 17:34
  Hollie: And he also, when she said the F-14 is also called a it's also called a Tomcat, he took the Tomcat and made it the adjective...
• 17:42
  Sean: Yes.
• 17:43
  Hollie: ...what or you know, the subject, and the way he changed it, it made it more natural, more of a uh a flow of language, where hers is very like informational only.
• 17:52
  Hollie: This is it, da da da da da almost like driven in I yeah.
• 17:56
  Sean: Well, the facts, but he was he was uh imbuing it with the sense of...
• 18:00
  Hollie: He had the social intelligence.
• 18:02
  Sean: Yeah.
• 18:02
  Sean: He absolutely did.
• 18:03
  Sean: Yeah, that was his gift.
• 18:04
  Sean: So that was that's his talent, I think.
• 18:07
  Sean: So it's not like he's he's without any talent or use or anything, obviously not because...
• 18:12
  Hollie: He's...
• 18:12
  Hollie: yeah.
• 18:13
  Sean: ...yeah, that's absolutely his talent is being relatable to the audience.
• 18:16
  Hollie: And he was like...
• 18:17
  Sean: Which is what you want from an anchor.
• 18:18
  Hollie: He was a likable, everyone liked him.
• 18:20
  Sean: Yes.
• 18:20
  Hollie: Like there wasn't it's like he was...
• 18:21
  Sean: And he wasn't a jerk to anyone.
• 18:22
  Hollie: No, no, he wasn't he was very friendly, very suave, very charming.
• 18:27
  Hollie: He was he was everyone liked him except for Aaron.
• 18:32
  Sean: Yeah, well, even Aaron...
• 18:33
  Hollie: Until the end, and then Aaron kind of liked it.
• 18:35
  Sean: Yeah, I mean, it was a little, you know, it was I mean, he did he did he didn't like him, like him, but he got along with him.
• 18:41
  Hollie: Right.
• 18:42
  Sean: Yeah, and I will say that this is, as Network, this was very well acted.
• 18:47
  Sean: I didn't feel like these were movie characters, I felt like they were real people.
• 18:51
  Hollie: Right.
• 18:51
  Hollie: Yeah, I agree.
• 18:52
  Hollie: Hollie Hunter was just amazing in it.
• 18:54
  Hollie: She's she's the little girl who plays her at the beginning, too, the way she talked, and her act, the little girl's accent was just she just she reminded me of a little Hollie Hunter.
• 19:05
  Sean: Yes, yeah, just very Hannah decided to go in the other room.
• 19:08
  Sean: She's very she's very feisty tonight.
• 19:11
  Hollie: Yes, she is.
• 19:11
  Hollie: She wants to be involved in it.
• 19:13
  Sean: But she wasn't, I don't know.
• 19:14
  Hollie: Sleeping during the movies, though.
• 19:16
  Sean: Yeah, oh yeah, she slept during, yeah, all films she'll she'll snooze through.
• 19:20
  Hollie: She'll sleep right through them.
• 19:21
  Sean: You know, I for me the stand out is is obviously gonna be Albert Brooks.
• 19:24
  Sean: Like I love, I love his style of comedy, his very dryness, his...
• 19:30
  Hollie: Yes, Albert Brooks, and and I had to look up who did this, and I was like, oh, James Brooks.
• 19:35
  Hollie: And I'm like, James Brooks and Albert, I wonder if they're related because they are do a lot of movies together, and Albert Brooks is just he's...
• 19:43
  Sean: Well his real name's Albert Einstein, and his brother is Super Dave.
• 19:46
  Sean: Remember Super Dave Osborne?
• 19:48
  Hollie: Yes, I do remember that now, yeah.
• 19:48
  Sean: So and there's a great scene with those two in God, what is it?
• 19:52
  Sean: Modern Romance.
• 19:54
  Hollie: Okay.
• 19:54
  Sean: Which I would.
• 19:54
  Sean: ..I mean, we got to do some Albert Brooks.
• 19:56
  Sean: We love Defending Your Life.
• 19:57
  Sean: I think Defend and Mother is another one.
• 20:00
  Sean: Those those two are just if you haven't seen those, and watch anything, Albert Brooks.
• 20:04
  Sean: Real Life was great, that's an early one by him.
• 20:06
  Sean: But yeah, like I said, uh both films are just so well cast and so well done.
• 20:12
  Sean: And for films to be one 50 years old, one 39 years old...
• 20:16
  Hollie: And still pertinent to what's going on in our...
• 20:19
  Hollie: and especially in the United States.
• 20:21
  Hollie: Like, I can't speak for what's going on in other countries.
• 20:23
  Sean: No, well, these movies were based in the United States, it's not like they were...
• 20:27
  Hollie: What's going on now with news and politics and the way we get information so fast.
• 20:33
  Hollie: It's almost like they predicted how fast information would come.
• 20:36
  Sean: Yes.
• 20:37
  Hollie: Because they were it it's very uh I said the the flashiness, and even the guys singing getting people excited for.
• 20:45
  Sean: Who was I told you Mark Shaiman for South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut...Hairspray.
• 20:50
  Hollie: Right.
• 20:50
  Sean: Yeah.
• 20:50
  Sean: And I I didn't know that until later.
• 20:51
  Sean: Obviously, I didn't know that in '87.
• 20:52
  Sean: No, because he wasn't who he was, but um...
• 20:56
  Hollie: I have one more thing.
• 20:57
  Sean: Sure.
• 20:58
  Hollie: Now I forgot what I was gonna say.
• 20:59
  Hollie: See, it's terrible when you get to be my age.
• 21:02
  Sean: Well, I'm even older.
• 21:03
  Sean: What do you think?
• 21:03
  Hollie: Oh, can we talk about the uncredited person?
• 21:07
  Sean: In Broadcast News?
• 21:08
  Hollie: Yes.
• 21:09
  Sean: Yeah, you know what?
• 21:09
  Sean: I I still haven't seen him.
• 21:11
  Sean: I still I I never catch him in there.
• 21:13
  Sean: I look for him.
• 21:14
  Hollie: No, who he the one...
• 21:16
  Sean: Oh, oh oh there's another one I'm gonna talk about.
• 21:17
  Hollie: There's another one?
• 21:18
  Sean: Yes, there is.
• 21:19
  Hollie: No, and I had to read about it because I kind of didn't believe you when you told me the story.
• 21:23
  Hollie: But Jack Nicholson plays the...
• 21:26
  Sean: The top anchor, yes.
• 21:27
  Hollie: ...person for the network.
• 21:29
  Hollie: And he was such good friends with James L.
• 21:32
  Hollie: Brooks that he did this movie and he didn't want his name in the title at the beginning.
• 21:37
  Hollie: It's Jack Nicholson, and this is not when he was like this is he was "Jack Nicholson" then.
• 21:43
  Sean: Right, because I think the same year he did Witches of Eastwick.
• 21:45
  Hollie: Right, so he was...
• 21:46
  Sean: He was already well established.
• 21:48
  Hollie: ...already a big star. Yes, huge, huge man.
• 21:50
  Hollie: And then at the he's names just at the end credits, but he did not get paid at all for this.
• 21:55
  Sean: No, he didn't want any money.
• 21:56
  Hollie: Yeah, because he just wanted to work with James L.
• 21:57
  Hollie: Brooks again, which I it's just so cool.
• 22:00
  Sean: How often do you see that?
• 22:00
  Hollie: Yeah and his character is there's he only has small scenes but I think his character in the last scene was better when the the news director says you can help out with the firings if you take a million dollar less off your salary and there was just...
• 22:15
  Sean: The way he looks at him.
• 22:15
  Hollie: dead silence and Jack Nicholson just makes his Jack Nicholson face at this guy and doesn't say anything and I just thought that was one of the best scenes.
• 22:24
  Sean: I told you that other scene with he you know when yeah he calls up Jane and you know he's like oh no give Aaron some credit give Aaron he's like oh no it's all you and they say well he talked to me he's like no I gotta go and oh he had to read some copy but they are actually watching Nicholson sit in his chair doing nothing he's just staring up and...
• 22:40
  Hollie: Throwing his head back and looking up...
• 22:41
  Sean: ...looking up at the ceiling...
• 22:42
  Hollie: ...and playing with his mouth.
• 22:43
  Sean: I and I told you I think about that often because that's the way I feel if like people are ignoring me what they're doing on the oh they're not busy they're just like Jack Nicholson in that film.
• 22:52
  Sean: No there's actually someone else uncredited who played the Angry Messenger and I never see him in it but it's John Cusack.
• 22:58
  Hollie: No way?
• 22:58
  Sean: Yes and I looked for him again...
• 23:00
  Hollie: Because, again...
• 23:01
  Sean: ...Joan Cusack is in it.
• 23:02
  Hollie: Joan Cusack is hysterical in this like she is in everything.
• 23:04
  Hollie: She plays like a...
• 23:05
  Sean: Phenomenal.
• 23:07
  Hollie: ...Hollie Hunter's assistant kind of.
• 23:09
  Sean: Yes yeah because she has great scenes...
• 23:11
  Hollie: Yeah.
• 23:11
  Sean: ...I mean...
• 23:11
  Hollie: She's just she steals her scenes all the time.
• 23:14
  Sean: Absolutely she does yeah, she's just...
• 23:16
  Hollie: I will have to I have to find that scene now.
• 23:18
  Sean: I know and I like they say you can hear his voice uh yeah off camera saying something because he was fired too but again I I've never seen him in that I like I even watched for him this time but yeah but I don't want to mention anything to you because I'm like you'd probably think I was crazy.
• 23:33
  Sean: But he is in the credits so yeah that's who I thought you were talking about...
• 23:36
  Hollie: No I was talking about um Jack.
• 23:38
  Sean: Jack Nicholson so yeah but they are both great movies watch you know double feature because you know one's a drama one is drama comedy...
• 23:47
  Hollie: More comedy than drama.
• 23:48
  Sean: Yeah it's more comedy...
• 23:49
  Hollie: Until until the the scene with Aaron and Jane...
• 23:53
  Sean: Yes.
• 23:53
  Sean: ...when it gets serious.
• 23:54
  Sean: Yeah when he's when he says in one of the best lines of that film is you know he's the devil who's gonna lower our standards bit by bit and like that is absolutely true with whatever's going on in the world you just lower it over the years and and until we get to mediocrity which again we're pretty much there now.
• 24:10
  Hollie: Which is what we have now!
• 24:11
  Sean: So...
• 24:11
  Hollie: Mediocrity and stupidity.
• 24:13
  Sean: Yes, yeah and those are...
• 24:15
  Hollie: It's like the movie Idiocracy is actually happening.
• 24:17
  Sean: It is but and that's another we might have to do.
• 24:19
  Hollie: That's one we might have to do.
• 24:19
  Sean: Well yeah we'll have to because I have to revisit that.
• 24:21
  Hollie: Yeah I would have to see it again.
• 24:22
  Sean: It's been a long time since I've since I've seen that.
• 24:25
  Sean: All right anything else about the movies that you...
• 24:28
  Hollie: No I highly recommend both uh they're both very rewatchable...
• 24:33
  Sean: Yes I agree I'm Broadcast News more so than Network because Network you really have to be...
• 24:37
  Hollie: Network's serious.
• 24:38
  Sean: ...in the mood for and it's serious.
• 24:39
  Hollie: Very much a serious drama...Hannah just wants to be part of the podcast...
• 24:43
  Sean: She does.
• 24:44
  Hollie: ...serious drama but Broadcast News I could watch over.
• 24:47
  Sean: Yeah I mean I'm I for for me it's um for me it's again glued to set both of them but you have to be in the mood for Network.
• 24:53
  Hollie: Yes definitely not a fun...
• 24:55
  Sean: Yeah I'm not gonna we're not gonna pop that in at a party.
• 24:57
  Hollie: Yeah fun movie to just...
• 24:58
  Sean: Gather around everybody we're watching Network! Grab another beer out of the fridge.
• 25:02
  Sean: Uh okay well we definitely you know we're gonna do another movie or two I just did the double feature with and that's what there's another another Nicholson movie I did, The Fortune which uh you'll never I don't would never make you watch it's it's awful and I'm sure you've you've heard my podcast on that if not you'll listen to it but yeah it is it's really not good so but yeah we we we want to pick some too that we've never seen.
• 25:25
  Hollie: Right some we've never seen and some new ones again.
• 25:28
  Sean: Yeah we'll try and do some new ones or like I sometimes I want to go back a little bit further or we haven't done any oh yeah we have done one from the 90s we haven't done any from the 2000s 2010s yet.
• 25:38
  Hollie: Oh my.
• 25:39
  Sean: So yeah 2000 I have a couple in mind for the 2000s so...
• 25:43
  Hollie: I'm glad you remember dates because you know I don't.
• 25:45
  Sean: I know I know all right well thank you once again and we will be back.
• 25:49
  Hollie: Thank you everybody goodbye.
• 25:51
  Sean: That wraps up another episode so make sure you hit like subscribe download whatever it takes to be the first to know when new episodes become available on your favorite podcast platform.
• 26:00
  Sean: For Scenes From the Screen I'm Sean and thanks for listening.