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This story is about Howard Beale...

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...who was 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, with a HUT
rating of 16 and a 28 audience share.

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00:00:32,157 --> 00:00:35,702
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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And 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, then.

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I was NBC, uh, associate producer, Morning News.

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I was just a kid, 26 years old.

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Anyway...

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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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Then after 7 in the morning, I get a call.

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"Where the hell 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 down the stairs,
I run out in the street, hail a cab.

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And I say to the cabby, "Take me to the
middle of the George Washington Bridge."

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And the cabbie turns around and he says...

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

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You're a young man.

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You got your whole life ahead of you."

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Didn't I ever tell you that one before?

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I'm gonna kill myself.

34
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Oh, 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 7:00 news.

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

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- 50 share easy.
- You think so?

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Well, sure.
We could make a series out of it.

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Suicide of the Week.

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Hell. Why limit ourselves?

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Execution of the Week.

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Terrorist of the Week.

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I love it.

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Suicides.

46
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Assassinations.

47
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Mad bombers, Mafia hit men...

48
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...automobile smashups.

49
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The Death Hour.

50
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Great Sunday night show for the whole family.

51
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We'll wipe that fucking Disney
right off the air.

52
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Hmm.

53
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Let's do the Lenin deportation
at the end of three.

54
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That strong enough to bump?

55
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In one then, I'll do a lead on Sara Jane
Moore to Mayberry in San Francisco.

56
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In the film I saw,
it was the chief of detectives.

57
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I think we've got about 10 seconds
on the shooting itself.

58
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The whole thing is 1:25.

59
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- What does that come out?
- About 4:50.

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- We using Squeaky Fromme?
- Let's do that in two.

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Squeaky, Ford at the airport, bump.

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Now, you using a map going into San Francisco?

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Um, I prefer our news pics.

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What have we got left?

65
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Gun control, Patty Hearst affidavit.

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Guerrillas in Chad, OPEC in Vienna.

67
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All right, fine. I'll see you later.

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- Hello, Howard, how are you?
- Hi. Okay.

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Don't forget, Howard,
Ron Nessen is now 16, okay?

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Mm-hm.

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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...

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...Mr. Ford says 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 the hell you always get mixed up...

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Under no circumstances will I...

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...and I hope no others, capitulate...

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...to those that want to undercut...

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...what's all good in America.

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Two, cue Howard.

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Ladies and gentlemen...

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...I would like to announce
that I will be retiring from this program...

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...in two weeks' time
because of poor ratings.

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Since this show was 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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So, what did she say?

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I'm gonna blow my brains out
right on this program, a week from today.

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Ten seconds to commercial.

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So 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 ought to get a hell of a rating
out of that. A 50 share, easy.

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- Take Tellison.
- Listen.

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- Uh, did you hear that?
- What was that about?

97
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Howard just said he was going
to blow his brains out next Tuesday.

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What are you talking about?

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- Didn't you hear him? He just said--
- What's wrong now?

100
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Howard just said he was going
to kill himself next Tuesday.

101
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What do you mean, "Howard just said
he was going to kill himself next Tuesday"?

102
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He was supposed to do a tag
on Ron Nessen--

103
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He said, "Tune in next Tuesday.
I'm gonna shoot myself."

104
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What the hell's going on?

105
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He said he was going to blow his brains out.

106
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What the fuck's going on, Howard?

107
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They wanna know what the fuck's going on.

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- I can't hear you.
- Turn the studio mike on.

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- We're back on in 11 seconds.
- Ten seconds.

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Howard, what are you doing?

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- Have you flipped?
- I think we better get him off.

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- Get him off.
- What's the matter with you?

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- Get your fucking hands off.
- Turn the sound off. He's going out live!

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We're in a lot of fucking trouble down here.

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- This is the dumbest thing I've ever seen.
- That's my head.

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Go to standby. You dumb schmuck!

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Lou, can't we clear out that downstairs lobby?

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- There must be a hundred people.
- How?

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Every TV station and wire service
in the city. I could barely get in.

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- Arthur, anything litigable?
- Not so far.

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- How many spots were wiped out?
- Frank just walked in.

122
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We had to abort. What could we do?

123
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He's talking to Wheeler.
Over 900 phone calls...

124
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- ...complaining about foul language.
- Shit.

125
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Come on, Mickey,
what page are you putting it on?

126
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- Hackett just walked in.
- ABC again, they want the tape.

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Tell him to go fuck himself.
That goes for you too.

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You're off the air as of now.

129
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- He wants to talk to you.
- Who's replacing Beale tomorrow?

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- We're flying Snowden up from Washington.
- Everybody, hold it.

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Let's see how the other networks handle this.

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Ten o'clock news opened with it.

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Good evening.
Howard Beale, one of television's...

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They're all gonna make it their lead story.

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Howard Beale interrupted his
Network News program tonight...

136
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...to announce
that he was gonna kill himself.

137
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An unusual thing happened at one
of our sister networks, UBS, this evening.

138
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How are we handling it?

139
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Halloway's going to make a brief statement
at the end of the show...

140
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...that Howard's been under
great personal stress, et cetera.

141
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I'll call you back, John.

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

143
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...at which we're gonna announce
the restructuring-of-management plan.

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

145
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I'll suggest Mr. Ruddy open with a short
statement, washing this whole thing off.

146
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You, Max, you better have some answers...

147
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...for those nuts
that come to stockholders' meetings.

148
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Mr. Beale has been under
professional and personal strain.

149
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I've got some surprises for you too, Schumacher.

150
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I've had it up to here with your cruddy
division and its annual $33 million deficit!

151
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You keep your hands off my news division, Frank.

152
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We're responsible to corporate level, not you.

153
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- Well, goddamn, we'll see about that.
- All right, take it easy.

154
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Right now, how do we get Beale out of here?

155
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I understand there's at least a hundred
reporters and camera crews in the lobby.

156
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We got a limo at the freight exit.

157
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Howard, you're gonna spend the night
at my place.

158
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There's bound to be press around yours.

159
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I want Snowden here by noon.

160
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Have Lester cover the CIA hearings...

161
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...and give the White House to Doris.

162
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You're late for your screening, Max.

163
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Right. Okay.

164
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If John Wheeler calls,
switch him to Projection Room 7.

165
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Margot, come in here a minute.

166
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- I'm sorry. This Beale business...
- It's all right.

167
00:10:16,741 --> 00:10:19,285
Sit down.
Diana asked if she could sit in on this.

168
00:10:19,452 --> 00:10:21,662
Fine. How's it going?

169
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I think you'll like this footage better
than the stuff I showed you last time, Max.

170
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Max Schumacher.

171
00:10:31,006 --> 00:10:33,716
Goddamn it. When, Louise?

172
00:10:34,551 --> 00:10:35,634
Laureen?

173
00:10:35,802 --> 00:10:37,219
Well, did he say anything?

174
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Communist Party to be these--

175
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All right, thank you.

176
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--splintered underground groups?

177
00:10:42,642 --> 00:10:44,143
The Communist Party believes...

178
00:10:44,311 --> 00:10:47,563
...that the most pressing
political necessity today...

179
00:10:47,731 --> 00:10:51,442
...is the consolidation
of the revolutionary, radical...

180
00:10:51,609 --> 00:10:54,111
...and democratic movements
into a united front.

181
00:10:54,279 --> 00:10:58,240
Harry, Howard Beale left my house
about 20 minutes ago. Has he come in yet?

182
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--of the bourgeois democratic state...

183
00:11:00,452 --> 00:11:02,828
Well, let me know when he arrives, huh?

184
00:11:03,747 --> 00:11:05,247
That's Laureen Hobbs, isn't it?

185
00:11:05,415 --> 00:11:08,459
Yeah. This is from
a David Susskind thing a while back.

186
00:11:08,626 --> 00:11:10,419
I think we can use some of this stuff.

187
00:11:10,587 --> 00:11:13,255
--by the broadest possible coalition...

188
00:11:13,757 --> 00:11:16,925
What we're going to see now
is something really sensational.

189
00:11:17,218 --> 00:11:20,554
The Flagstaff Independent Bank of Arizona
was ripped off last week...

190
00:11:20,722 --> 00:11:23,724
...by a terrorist group called
the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

191
00:11:23,892 --> 00:11:27,227
They actually took movies of the rip-off
while they were ripping it off.

192
00:11:27,395 --> 00:11:29,938
- Wait till you see it.
- The Ecumenical Liberation Army.

193
00:11:30,106 --> 00:11:32,232
That's not the one that kidnapped Patty Hearst?

194
00:11:32,400 --> 00:11:34,568
No, no.
That's the Symbionese Liberation Army.

195
00:11:34,736 --> 00:11:36,987
This is the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

196
00:11:37,155 --> 00:11:40,240
They're the ones who kidnapped
Mary Ann Gifford three weeks ago.

197
00:11:40,408 --> 00:11:43,660
There's a lot of liberation armies
in the revolutionary underground...

198
00:11:43,828 --> 00:11:47,581
...and a lot of kidnapped heiresses.
This is Mary Ann Gifford.

199
00:11:51,169 --> 00:11:53,962
That's the Great Ahmed Kahn, he's their leader.

200
00:11:55,048 --> 00:11:57,174
You mean, they actually shot this film...

201
00:11:57,342 --> 00:11:58,967
...while they were ripping off the bank?

202
00:11:59,135 --> 00:12:04,139
Wait till you see it. I don't know
whether to edit or leave it raw like this.

203
00:12:05,767 --> 00:12:09,228
This is terrific stuff.
Where did you get it?

204
00:12:09,396 --> 00:12:13,816
I got everything through Laureen Hobbs.
She's my contact for all this stuff.

205
00:12:19,406 --> 00:12:22,199
- Yeah?
- I've got Howard on the other line.

206
00:12:22,826 --> 00:12:23,867
All right, put him on.

207
00:12:24,035 --> 00:12:26,662
Howard, I've got Max on 4.
Would you pick up?

208
00:12:28,456 --> 00:12:32,209
- Listen, Max, I'd like another shot.
- Oh, come on, Howard.

209
00:12:32,377 --> 00:12:34,128
I don't mean the whole show...

210
00:12:34,295 --> 00:12:37,965
I'd just like to come on,
make some brief farewell statement...

211
00:12:38,133 --> 00:12:41,135
...and then turn the show over
to Jack Snowden.

212
00:12:41,302 --> 00:12:43,345
I have 11 years at this network, Max.

213
00:12:43,513 --> 00:12:45,222
I have some standing in the industry.

214
00:12:45,390 --> 00:12:47,683
I just don't wanna go out like a clown.

215
00:12:47,851 --> 00:12:50,102
It'll be simple, dignified.

216
00:12:50,270 --> 00:12:52,062
You and Harry can check the copy.

217
00:12:52,689 --> 00:12:55,357
I think it'll take the strain off the show, Max.

218
00:12:56,651 --> 00:12:58,152
Well, what do you think?

219
00:12:58,319 --> 00:13:00,362
Well, okay.

220
00:13:00,530 --> 00:13:03,157
And no booze today, Howard.

221
00:13:03,741 --> 00:13:05,534
No booze.

222
00:13:08,830 --> 00:13:11,373
Summaries have been received.
We're forwarding them...

223
00:13:11,541 --> 00:13:14,084
George, can, uh, you come into my office
for a minute?

224
00:13:14,252 --> 00:13:15,669
Right.

225
00:13:20,717 --> 00:13:22,885
- Barbara, is Tommy around anywhere?
- I think so.

226
00:13:23,052 --> 00:13:25,721
I'd like to see the two of you for a moment.

227
00:13:32,270 --> 00:13:36,023
Uh, this is Bill Herron from our
West Coast Special Programs Department.

228
00:13:36,191 --> 00:13:38,817
George Bosch, Barbara Schlesinger,
Tommy Pellegrino.

229
00:13:38,985 --> 00:13:42,279
Look, I just saw some rough footage
of a special Bill's doing...

230
00:13:42,447 --> 00:13:45,240
...on the revolutionary underground.
Most is tedious stuff...

231
00:13:45,408 --> 00:13:48,911
...of Laureen Hobbs and two fatigue jackets
muttering mutilated Marxism.

232
00:13:49,078 --> 00:13:53,081
But he's got about eight minutes
of a bank robbery...

233
00:13:53,249 --> 00:13:56,293
...that is absolutely sensational.
Authentic stuff.

234
00:13:56,461 --> 00:13:59,421
Actually shot while the robbery was going on.

235
00:13:59,589 --> 00:14:01,840
You remember the Mary Ann Gifford kidnapping?

236
00:14:02,091 --> 00:14:05,761
It's that bunch of nuts. She's in the movie
shooting off machine guns.

237
00:14:05,929 --> 00:14:10,432
Really terrific footage. I think we can get
a hell of a Movie of the Week out of it...

238
00:14:10,600 --> 00:14:11,725
...maybe even a series.

239
00:14:13,019 --> 00:14:15,229
A series out of what?
What are we talking about?

240
00:14:15,396 --> 00:14:17,898
Look, we've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals...

241
00:14:18,066 --> 00:14:20,067
...called the Ecumenical
Liberation Army...

242
00:14:20,235 --> 00:14:23,654
...who go around taking home movies
of themselves robbing banks.

243
00:14:23,821 --> 00:14:26,573
And maybe they'll take movies
of themselves kidnapping heiresses...

244
00:14:26,741 --> 00:14:30,911
...um, hijacking 747s, bombing bridges,
assassinating ambassadors.

245
00:14:32,997 --> 00:14:35,916
We'd open each week's segment
with that authentic footage...

246
00:14:36,084 --> 00:14:38,752
...hire writers to write some story
behind that footage...

247
00:14:38,920 --> 00:14:41,088
...and we've got ourselves a series.

248
00:14:41,256 --> 00:14:44,675
A series about a bunch
of, uh, bank-robbing guerillas?

249
00:14:46,010 --> 00:14:47,928
What are we gonna call it,
The Mao Tse-Tung Hour?

250
00:14:48,096 --> 00:14:50,389
- Ha, ha!
- Why not?

251
00:14:50,974 --> 00:14:54,184
They've got Strike Force, Task Force,
SWAT, why not Che Guevara...

252
00:14:54,352 --> 00:14:56,019
...and his own little mod squad?

253
00:14:56,187 --> 00:14:58,855
Look, I sent you all
a concept-analysis report yesterday.

254
00:14:59,023 --> 00:15:00,857
Did any of you read it?

255
00:15:03,069 --> 00:15:06,572
Well, in a nutshell, it said
the American people are turning sullen.

256
00:15:06,739 --> 00:15:10,659
They've been clobbered by Vietnam,
Watergate, inflation, the Depression.

257
00:15:10,827 --> 00:15:14,413
They've turned off, shot up and fucked
themselves limp. And nothing helps.

258
00:15:14,581 --> 00:15:19,293
So this concept-analysis report concludes
the American people want somebody...

259
00:15:19,460 --> 00:15:22,296
...to articulate their rage for them.

260
00:15:22,463 --> 00:15:25,591
I've been telling you people
since I took this job six months ago...

261
00:15:25,758 --> 00:15:27,843
...that I want angry shows.

262
00:15:28,011 --> 00:15:31,597
I don't want conventional programming
on this network, I want counterculture.

263
00:15:31,764 --> 00:15:33,765
I want antiestablishment.

264
00:15:36,185 --> 00:15:39,771
I don't wanna play butch boss with you people.

265
00:15:40,106 --> 00:15:41,732
When I took over this department...

266
00:15:41,899 --> 00:15:44,693
...it had the worst programming record
in television history.

267
00:15:45,153 --> 00:15:47,154
This network hasn't one show in the top 20.

268
00:15:47,322 --> 00:15:49,656
This network is an industry joke.

269
00:15:49,824 --> 00:15:52,868
And we better start putting together
one winner for next September.

270
00:15:53,036 --> 00:15:58,582
I want a show developed based
on the activities of a terrorist group.

271
00:15:58,750 --> 00:16:01,043
Joseph Stalin and his merry band of Bolsheviks.

272
00:16:01,210 --> 00:16:04,630
I want ideas from you people.
That is what you're paid for.

273
00:16:04,797 --> 00:16:08,550
And, by the way, the next time I send
an audience research report around...

274
00:16:08,718 --> 00:16:12,554
...you'd all better read it, or I'll sack
the fucking lot of you, is that clear?

275
00:16:12,722 --> 00:16:14,890
I'll be out on the coast in, uh, four weeks.

276
00:16:15,058 --> 00:16:17,142
Will you set up a meeting with Laureen Hobbs?

277
00:16:17,310 --> 00:16:18,352
Sure.

278
00:16:18,770 --> 00:16:21,980
But the business of management is management.

279
00:16:22,148 --> 00:16:24,858
And at the time CCA took control
of the UBS TV Network...

280
00:16:25,026 --> 00:16:28,987
...it was foundering with less than
7 percent of national television revenues...

281
00:16:29,155 --> 00:16:31,740
...most network programs being sold
at station rates.

282
00:16:31,908 --> 00:16:35,118
I am pleased to announce I am
submitting to the board of directors...

283
00:16:35,286 --> 00:16:38,372
...a plan for the coordination
of the main profit centers.

284
00:16:38,539 --> 00:16:40,123
And with the specific intention...

285
00:16:40,291 --> 00:16:44,461
...of making each division
more responsive to management.

286
00:16:45,088 --> 00:16:46,797
Point one.

287
00:16:47,423 --> 00:16:51,426
The division producing the lowest rate
of return has been the news division...

288
00:16:51,594 --> 00:16:57,224
...with its $98 million budget and
its average annual deficit of 32 million.

289
00:16:57,725 --> 00:17:00,936
I know that, historically, news divisions
are expected to lose money.

290
00:17:01,104 --> 00:17:04,523
But to our minds, this philosophy
is a wanton fiscal affront...

291
00:17:04,691 --> 00:17:07,317
...to be resolutely resisted.

292
00:17:07,777 --> 00:17:12,447
The new plan calls for local news to be
transferred to owned stations' divisions.

293
00:17:12,615 --> 00:17:16,827
News radio would be transferred
to the UBS Radio Division and in effect...

294
00:17:17,995 --> 00:17:21,206
...the news division would be reduced
from an independent division...

295
00:17:21,374 --> 00:17:25,335
...to a department accountable
to network.

296
00:17:30,633 --> 00:17:33,760
- What was that all about, Ed?
- This is not the time, Max.

297
00:17:33,928 --> 00:17:35,929
Why wasn't I told about this?

298
00:17:36,097 --> 00:17:38,849
Why was I led up onto that podium
and publicly humiliated...

299
00:17:39,016 --> 00:17:40,642
...in front of the stockholders?

300
00:17:40,810 --> 00:17:43,145
Goddamn it,
I spoke to John Wheeler this morning...

301
00:17:43,312 --> 00:17:45,480
...and he assured me
the news division was safe.

302
00:17:45,648 --> 00:17:47,816
That's one hell of a way to get me to resign.

303
00:17:47,984 --> 00:17:51,737
We'll talk about this tomorrow
at our regular morning meeting.

304
00:18:02,498 --> 00:18:04,374
- Eleven, 10...
- Roll VTA.

305
00:18:04,542 --> 00:18:07,961
...nine, eight, seven, six.

306
00:18:08,129 --> 00:18:12,007
In five, four, three, two...

307
00:18:12,341 --> 00:18:14,634
- One.
- One, cue VTA.

308
00:18:19,182 --> 00:18:20,348
Cue announcer.

309
00:18:20,516 --> 00:18:25,520
The UBS evening news with Howard Beale.

310
00:18:25,772 --> 00:18:27,272
Ready, two?

311
00:18:27,857 --> 00:18:29,191
Two, cue Howard.

312
00:18:29,358 --> 00:18:33,320
Good evening. Today is Wednesday,
September the 24th...

313
00:18:33,488 --> 00:18:35,363
...and this is my last broadcast.

314
00:18:36,866 --> 00:18:41,745
Yesterday I announced on this program
that I was going to commit public suicide.

315
00:18:41,913 --> 00:18:46,082
Admittedly an act of madness.
Well, I'll tell you what happened.

316
00:18:46,250 --> 00:18:47,584
I just ran out of bullshit.

317
00:18:47,752 --> 00:18:50,504
- All right, cut him off.
- Leave him on.

318
00:18:51,756 --> 00:18:52,798
Am I still on the air?

319
00:18:52,965 --> 00:18:55,175
If this is how he wants to go out,
this is how he goes out.

320
00:18:56,594 --> 00:18:58,053
--except I just ran out of bullshit.

321
00:18:58,221 --> 00:19:00,138
Mr. Schumacher's right here.
Wanna talk to him?

322
00:19:00,306 --> 00:19:02,682
Bullshit is all the reasons we give for living.

323
00:19:02,850 --> 00:19:06,061
If we can't think up any reasons
of our own, we have the God bullshit.

324
00:19:06,229 --> 00:19:08,522
- Holy Mary, Mother of Christ.
- Tom, what is it?

325
00:19:08,731 --> 00:19:11,691
--through all this pointless pain,
humiliation and decay...

326
00:19:11,859 --> 00:19:13,944
...so there better be someone
who does know.

327
00:19:14,111 --> 00:19:15,695
That's the God bullshit.

328
00:19:15,863 --> 00:19:19,366
He's saying that life is bullshit and it is.
What are you screaming about?

329
00:19:19,534 --> 00:19:21,993
Man is a noble creature that can order
his own world. Who needs God?

330
00:19:23,496 --> 00:19:24,955
If there's anybody out there...

331
00:19:25,122 --> 00:19:28,250
...that can look around this
slaughterhouse of a world we live in...

332
00:19:28,417 --> 00:19:30,752
...and tell me that man
is a noble creature...

333
00:19:30,920 --> 00:19:33,255
...believe me, that man is full of bullshit.

334
00:19:34,465 --> 00:19:37,968
- What's so goddamn funny?
- I can't help it, Harry. It's funny.

335
00:19:38,594 --> 00:19:42,639
Max, this is going out live to 67 affiliates.

336
00:19:42,807 --> 00:19:44,182
Leave him on.

337
00:19:44,433 --> 00:19:48,770
And I was married for 33 years
of shrill, shrieking fraud.

338
00:19:48,938 --> 00:19:52,941
- Mr. Hackett's trying to get through to you.
- Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself.

339
00:19:53,109 --> 00:19:55,777
So I don't have any bullshit left.

340
00:19:56,696 --> 00:19:59,114
I just ran out of it, you see.

341
00:20:05,121 --> 00:20:07,789
Mr. Ruddy, could we have
just one statement from you?

342
00:20:07,957 --> 00:20:10,792
Sorry, I don't have all the information yet.

343
00:20:11,127 --> 00:20:12,669
One question.

344
00:20:13,629 --> 00:20:17,883
Could we--? If we could just
have one statement about Mr. Beale.

345
00:20:27,351 --> 00:20:29,060
Max.

346
00:20:37,737 --> 00:20:39,571
I'll want to see Mr. Beale after this.

347
00:20:42,283 --> 00:20:44,910
The way I hear it, Max,
you were primarily responsible...

348
00:20:45,077 --> 00:20:47,120
...for this colossally stupid prank.

349
00:20:47,997 --> 00:20:50,165
- Is that the fact, Max?
- That's the fact.

350
00:20:50,875 --> 00:20:52,792
It was unconscionable.

351
00:20:56,005 --> 00:20:58,089
There doesn't seem to be anything more to say.

352
00:20:58,257 --> 00:20:59,591
I have something to say, Ed.

353
00:21:00,676 --> 00:21:03,678
I want to know why that whole debasement
of the news division...

354
00:21:03,846 --> 00:21:08,266
...announced at the stockholders' meeting
this afternoon was kept secret from me.

355
00:21:08,684 --> 00:21:10,894
You and I go back 20 years, Ed.

356
00:21:11,354 --> 00:21:13,521
I took this job with your personal assurance...

357
00:21:13,689 --> 00:21:17,317
...that you'd back my autonomy
against any encroachment.

358
00:21:17,485 --> 00:21:22,197
But ever since CCA acquired control
of UBS Systems 10 months ago...

359
00:21:22,365 --> 00:21:24,491
...Hackett's been taking over everything.

360
00:21:24,659 --> 00:21:28,787
Now who the hell is running this network?
You or some conglomerate called CCA?

361
00:21:29,413 --> 00:21:31,665
I mean you're president of the Systems Group...

362
00:21:31,832 --> 00:21:34,876
...and Hackett's nothing
but a hatchet man for CCA.

363
00:21:35,044 --> 00:21:38,046
Nelson here, president of a network...

364
00:21:38,214 --> 00:21:40,882
...and he hasn't a thing
to say about anything anymore.

365
00:21:41,050 --> 00:21:43,510
I told you at the stockholders' meeting, Max...

366
00:21:43,678 --> 00:21:47,555
...that we would discuss all that
at our regular meeting tomorrow morning.

367
00:21:47,723 --> 00:21:48,890
If you had been patient...

368
00:21:49,058 --> 00:21:52,143
...I would've explained that
I thought Frank Hackett precipitate...

369
00:21:52,311 --> 00:21:54,562
...and that the reorganization
of the division...

370
00:21:54,730 --> 00:21:58,066
...would not be executed until everyone,
specifically you, Max...

371
00:21:58,567 --> 00:22:01,069
...had been consulted and satisfied.

372
00:22:02,071 --> 00:22:05,031
Instead, you sulked off like a child
and engaged this network...

373
00:22:05,199 --> 00:22:07,075
...in a shocking and disgraceful episode.

374
00:22:07,576 --> 00:22:09,327
Your position is no longer tenable...

375
00:22:09,495 --> 00:22:12,372
...regardless of how management
is restructured.

376
00:22:13,499 --> 00:22:16,209
I will expect your resignation
at 10:00 tomorrow morning...

377
00:22:16,377 --> 00:22:20,046
...and we will coordinate our statements
to the least detriment of everyone.

378
00:22:20,715 --> 00:22:22,966
Bob McDonough will take over
the news division...

379
00:22:23,134 --> 00:22:25,093
...until we can sort all this out.

380
00:22:27,596 --> 00:22:29,723
I'd like to see Mr. Beale now.

381
00:22:30,307 --> 00:22:33,518
They're looking for him, Ed.
They don't know where he is.

382
00:22:35,563 --> 00:22:39,941
Every day, five days a week for 15 years,
I've been sitting behind that desk.

383
00:22:40,109 --> 00:22:41,609
The dispassionate pundit...

384
00:22:42,445 --> 00:22:45,572
...reporting with seemly detachment
the daily parade...

385
00:22:45,740 --> 00:22:48,283
...of lunacies that constitute the news.

386
00:22:48,868 --> 00:22:51,786
And just once I wanted to say
what I really felt.

387
00:22:51,954 --> 00:22:53,830
Knock it off, Arthur.

388
00:22:53,998 --> 00:22:55,582
It was, after all, my last...

389
00:23:12,475 --> 00:23:15,351
- Did the overnight ratings come in yet?
- They're on your desk.

390
00:23:15,519 --> 00:23:17,479
Have you still got yesterday's overnights?

391
00:23:17,646 --> 00:23:19,564
- Shall I bring them in?
- Yeah.

392
00:23:25,404 --> 00:23:28,990
These are those four outlines submitted
by Universal for an hour series.

393
00:23:29,158 --> 00:23:31,701
You needn't bother to read them.
I'll tell them to you.

394
00:23:31,869 --> 00:23:36,331
The first one is set in a large
Eastern law school, presumably Harvard.

395
00:23:36,499 --> 00:23:39,334
The series is irresistibly entitled
The New Lawyers.

396
00:23:39,502 --> 00:23:42,921
The running characters are a crusty
but benign ex-Supreme Court Justice...

397
00:23:43,089 --> 00:23:46,382
...presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes
by way of Dr. Zorba.

398
00:23:46,550 --> 00:23:48,635
There is a beautiful girl graduate student...

399
00:23:48,803 --> 00:23:52,180
...and the district attorney who
is brilliant and sometimes cuts corners.

400
00:23:52,348 --> 00:23:53,681
Next one.

401
00:23:53,849 --> 00:23:55,934
The second one is called The Amazon Squad.

402
00:23:56,102 --> 00:23:57,352
Lady cops?

403
00:23:57,520 --> 00:24:00,438
The running characters include
a crusty but benign lieutenant...

404
00:24:00,606 --> 00:24:03,024
...who's always getting heat
from the commissioner...

405
00:24:03,192 --> 00:24:06,444
...a hard-drinking detective
who thinks women belong in the kitchen...

406
00:24:06,612 --> 00:24:08,863
...and a brilliant and beautiful
young girl cop...

407
00:24:09,031 --> 00:24:12,534
- ...who's fighting the feminist battle.
- We're up to our ears in lady cops.

408
00:24:12,701 --> 00:24:15,745
The next is another one
of those investigative reporter shows.

409
00:24:15,913 --> 00:24:18,331
A crusty but benign managing editor
who's always--

410
00:24:18,499 --> 00:24:20,166
You know, Barbara...

411
00:24:20,835 --> 00:24:25,547
...the Arabs have decided to jack up
the price of oil another 20 percent.

412
00:24:25,714 --> 00:24:29,467
Uh, the CIA has been caught opening
Senator Humphrey's mail.

413
00:24:29,635 --> 00:24:34,556
There's a civil war in Angola,
another one in Beirut.

414
00:24:35,099 --> 00:24:37,725
The-- New York City's still facing default.

415
00:24:37,893 --> 00:24:40,520
They finally caught up with Patricia Hearst.

416
00:24:40,688 --> 00:24:44,566
And the whole front page
of the Daily News is Howard Beale.

417
00:24:45,609 --> 00:24:49,362
There's also a two-column story
on Page 1 of the Times.

418
00:24:52,324 --> 00:24:54,951
Helen, call Mr. Hackett's office.

419
00:24:55,119 --> 00:24:57,829
See if he can give me
a few minutes this morning.

420
00:25:03,752 --> 00:25:07,964
KTNS, Kansas City, refuses to carry
our Network News show anymore...

421
00:25:08,132 --> 00:25:09,883
...unless Beale is taken off the air.

422
00:25:10,050 --> 00:25:12,260
Did you see the overnights on the Network News?

423
00:25:12,428 --> 00:25:17,056
It has an eight in New York, a nine in L.A.
and a 27 share in both cities.

424
00:25:17,224 --> 00:25:20,935
Last night Howard Beale went on the air
and yelled "bullshit" for two minutes...

425
00:25:21,103 --> 00:25:25,064
...and I can tell you right now that tonight's
show will get a 30 share, at least.

426
00:25:25,232 --> 00:25:26,941
I think we've lucked into something.

427
00:25:27,109 --> 00:25:29,986
For God's sakes. Are you suggesting
that we put that lunatic...

428
00:25:30,154 --> 00:25:31,946
...back on the air yelling "bullshit"?

429
00:25:32,114 --> 00:25:35,283
I think we should put Beale back
on the air tonight and keep him on.

430
00:25:35,451 --> 00:25:38,119
Did you see the news this morning?
Did you see the Times?

431
00:25:38,287 --> 00:25:41,831
We've got press on this you couldn't buy
for a million dollars. Frank.

432
00:25:41,999 --> 00:25:45,293
That dumb show jumped
five rating points in one night.

433
00:25:45,461 --> 00:25:47,337
Tonight's show has gotta be at least 15.

434
00:25:47,504 --> 00:25:51,341
We just increased our audience
by 20 or 30 million people in one night.

435
00:25:51,508 --> 00:25:53,635
You're not gonna get this dumped in your lap...

436
00:25:53,802 --> 00:25:56,262
...for the rest of your days.
You can't piss it away.

437
00:25:56,430 --> 00:25:58,556
Howard Beale said what every American feels...

438
00:25:58,724 --> 00:26:03,645
...that he's tired of all the bullshit.
He's articulating the popular rage.

439
00:26:03,938 --> 00:26:07,982
I want that show, Frank. I can turn that
show into the biggest smash on television.

440
00:26:08,150 --> 00:26:11,110
What do you mean? It's a news show.
It's not your department.

441
00:26:11,278 --> 00:26:13,863
I see Howard Beale
as a latter-day prophet.

442
00:26:14,323 --> 00:26:17,992
A magnificent, messianic figure inveighing
against the hypocrisies of our times.

443
00:26:18,160 --> 00:26:20,620
A strip Savonarola, Monday through Friday...

444
00:26:20,788 --> 00:26:23,790
...that I tell you, Frank,
could just go through the roof...

445
00:26:23,958 --> 00:26:27,001
...and I'm talking about a $6 cost
per thousand show.

446
00:26:27,378 --> 00:26:30,004
I'm talking about a hundred--
A 130,000-dollar minutes.

447
00:26:30,172 --> 00:26:32,715
Do you wanna figure out
the revenues of a strip show...

448
00:26:32,883 --> 00:26:34,801
...that sells for 100,000 bucks a minute?

449
00:26:34,969 --> 00:26:37,804
One show like that could pull
this network out of the hole.

450
00:26:37,972 --> 00:26:40,515
Frank, it's being handed to us on a plate.
Let's not blow it.

451
00:26:42,685 --> 00:26:44,018
Yes?

452
00:26:44,937 --> 00:26:47,021
Tell him I'll be a few minutes.

453
00:26:49,358 --> 00:26:50,400
Let me think it over.

454
00:26:50,567 --> 00:26:53,361
Frank, let's not go to committee on this.
It's 20 after 10.

455
00:26:53,529 --> 00:26:56,447
We want Beale in that studio.
We don't wanna lose the momentum.

456
00:26:56,615 --> 00:26:57,824
For God's sake, Diana...

457
00:26:57,992 --> 00:27:03,413
...we're talking about putting a manifestly
irresponsible man on national television.

458
00:27:13,007 --> 00:27:15,925
I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs at least
and Herb Thackeray...

459
00:27:16,093 --> 00:27:18,970
...and certainly Joe Donnelly
in Standards and Practices.

460
00:27:20,055 --> 00:27:23,391
And you know, I'm going to be eyeball
to eyeball with Mr. Ruddy on this.

461
00:27:23,559 --> 00:27:27,020
If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy,
I wanna make sure of some of my ground.

462
00:27:27,187 --> 00:27:29,689
I'm the one whose ass is going on the line.

463
00:27:32,484 --> 00:27:34,152
I'll get back to you, Diana.

464
00:27:38,073 --> 00:27:40,575
I don't believe this.
I don't believe the top brass...

465
00:27:40,743 --> 00:27:43,911
...of a national television network
are sitting around their salads--

466
00:27:44,079 --> 00:27:46,831
The top brass of a bankrupt
national television network...

467
00:27:46,999 --> 00:27:49,250
...with projected losses
of close to $150 million.

468
00:27:49,418 --> 00:27:50,668
I don't care how bankrupt.

469
00:27:52,171 --> 00:27:56,049
You can't be seriously proposing,
and the rest of us seriously considering...

470
00:27:56,216 --> 00:27:59,093
...putting on a pornographic
Network News show.

471
00:27:59,261 --> 00:28:01,012
- The FCC'd kill us.
- Sit down, Nelson.

472
00:28:01,180 --> 00:28:03,931
The FCC can't do anything
except rap our knuckles.

473
00:28:04,099 --> 00:28:07,185
I don't even wanna think about
the litigious possibilities, Frank.

474
00:28:07,353 --> 00:28:10,605
- Could be up to our ears in lawsuits.
- The affiliates won't carry it.

475
00:28:10,773 --> 00:28:13,691
Affiliates will kiss your ass,
if you can hand them a hit show.

476
00:28:13,859 --> 00:28:14,901
The popular reaction--

477
00:28:15,069 --> 00:28:18,112
We don't know the popular reaction.
We have to find out.

478
00:28:18,280 --> 00:28:19,322
The New York Times--

479
00:28:19,490 --> 00:28:22,825
The New York Times
doesn't advertise on our network.

480
00:28:24,953 --> 00:28:29,082
All I know is this violates every canon
of respectable broadcasting.

481
00:28:29,625 --> 00:28:32,377
We're not a respectable network.
We're a whorehouse network.

482
00:28:32,544 --> 00:28:34,796
We have to take whatever we can get.

483
00:28:36,215 --> 00:28:37,799
Well, I don't want any part of it.

484
00:28:37,966 --> 00:28:40,551
I don't fancy myself
the president of a whorehouse.

485
00:28:40,719 --> 00:28:43,429
That's very commendable of you, Nelson.
Now, sit down.

486
00:28:44,848 --> 00:28:48,976
Your indignation has been duly recorded.
You can always resign tomorrow.

487
00:28:50,938 --> 00:28:54,315
Now look, what in substance are we proposing?

488
00:28:54,858 --> 00:28:58,653
Merely to add editorial comment
to our Network News show.

489
00:28:58,821 --> 00:29:02,490
Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner,
all have their comments.

490
00:29:02,658 --> 00:29:04,617
Now Howard Beale will have his.

491
00:29:04,785 --> 00:29:08,329
I think we ought to give it a shot.
Let's see what happens tonight.

492
00:29:08,497 --> 00:29:09,539
Telephone, please.

493
00:29:09,706 --> 00:29:12,625
I don't wanna be the messenger
that has to tell Max Schumacher.

494
00:29:12,793 --> 00:29:14,710
Max doesn't work at this network anymore.

495
00:29:14,878 --> 00:29:16,379
Mr. Ruddy fired him last night.

496
00:29:16,547 --> 00:29:19,257
Bob McDonough's running the news division now.

497
00:29:20,801 --> 00:29:22,677
Bob McDonough in News, please.

498
00:29:24,263 --> 00:29:26,180
Oh, I don't know.

499
00:29:26,348 --> 00:29:28,766
I may teach or I may write a book...

500
00:29:28,934 --> 00:29:31,352
...whatever the hell one does
when one approaches...

501
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,896
...the autumn of one's years.

502
00:29:35,899 --> 00:29:38,151
My God, is that me?

503
00:29:38,444 --> 00:29:40,528
- Was I ever that young?
- Ha, ha.

504
00:29:41,196 --> 00:29:43,614
No. Howard just brought
in a picture of Ed Murrow...

505
00:29:43,782 --> 00:29:46,117
...and the whole CBS gang
when we were there.

506
00:29:46,285 --> 00:29:47,618
You wouldn't believe it.

507
00:29:47,786 --> 00:29:51,998
Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner,
Hollenbeck, Bob Trout.

508
00:29:52,166 --> 00:29:54,083
- Is that you, Howard?
- Mm-hm.

509
00:29:55,127 --> 00:29:56,711
Yeah.

510
00:29:57,045 --> 00:29:59,881
- Okay, Dick, we'll be in touch. Right.
- You remember this kid?

511
00:30:00,048 --> 00:30:03,384
He's the kid I think you once sent out to
interview Cleveland Amory on vivisection.

512
00:30:07,181 --> 00:30:09,056
What's so funny?

513
00:30:11,977 --> 00:30:15,480
So I jump out of bed in my pajamas,
I grab my raincoat, I run downstairs.

514
00:30:15,647 --> 00:30:18,065
I run out in the street and I hail a cab.

515
00:30:18,233 --> 00:30:20,234
And I jumped in and I yell at the driver:

516
00:30:20,402 --> 00:30:23,321
"Take me to the middle
of the George Washington Bridge."

517
00:30:25,449 --> 00:30:29,118
And the driver turns around and he says:
"Don't do it, buddy, don't do it.

518
00:30:29,286 --> 00:30:31,704
You're young,
you got your whole life ahead of you."

519
00:30:31,872 --> 00:30:34,832
Ha-ha-ha!
- Wait a minute! Wait a minute!

520
00:30:35,000 --> 00:30:36,667
If you think that's funny--

521
00:30:36,835 --> 00:30:39,378
No, if you think that's funny,
wait till you hear this.

522
00:30:39,546 --> 00:30:41,797
I've just come back from Frank Hackett's office.

523
00:30:41,965 --> 00:30:43,716
He wants to put Howard on the air.

524
00:30:43,884 --> 00:30:45,301
- You're kidding.
- Apparently...

525
00:30:45,469 --> 00:30:47,678
...the ratings went up
five points last night...

526
00:30:47,846 --> 00:30:50,973
...and he wants Howard to go back on
and do his angry-man thing.

527
00:30:51,642 --> 00:30:53,142
What are you talking about?

528
00:30:53,310 --> 00:30:56,270
I'm telling you. They want Howard
to go back on and yell "bullshit."

529
00:30:59,525 --> 00:31:02,860
They want Howard to go on spontaneously
letting out his anger.

530
00:31:03,028 --> 00:31:05,905
A latter-day prophet denouncing
the hypocrisies of our times.

531
00:31:06,073 --> 00:31:08,199
Hey, that sounds pretty good.

532
00:31:09,117 --> 00:31:10,535
Who's this "they"?

533
00:31:11,119 --> 00:31:14,747
Hackett. Chaney was there.
The Legal Affairs guy.

534
00:31:14,915 --> 00:31:16,832
Oh, and that girl from Programming.

535
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:19,001
Christensen?
What's she got to do with this?

536
00:31:19,169 --> 00:31:21,671
- You're kidding, aren't you?
- I'm not kidding.

537
00:31:21,838 --> 00:31:22,880
I told them. I said:

538
00:31:23,048 --> 00:31:25,633
"Look, we're running a news department,
not a circus.

539
00:31:25,801 --> 00:31:28,135
And Howard Beale's not a bearded lady.

540
00:31:28,303 --> 00:31:30,972
If you think I'm gonna go along
with this bastardization...

541
00:31:31,139 --> 00:31:34,350
...you can have my resignation along
with Max Schumacher's right now.

542
00:31:34,518 --> 00:31:37,311
I think I'm speaking for Howard Beale
and everybody else--"

543
00:31:37,479 --> 00:31:40,523
That's my job you're turning down.

544
00:31:40,816 --> 00:31:43,276
I'd go nuts without some kind of work.

545
00:31:43,443 --> 00:31:47,738
What's wrong with being an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

546
00:31:47,906 --> 00:31:49,699
What do you think, Max?

547
00:31:49,866 --> 00:31:53,452
Do you want to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

548
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:58,040
Yeah, I think I'd like to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

549
00:31:59,418 --> 00:32:01,294
Then grab it. Grab it!

550
00:32:07,884 --> 00:32:09,677
- Afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.
- Good afternoon.

551
00:32:09,845 --> 00:32:11,804
Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.

552
00:32:14,975 --> 00:32:17,768
- He's waiting for you, Mr. Ruddy.
- Thank you.

553
00:32:23,567 --> 00:32:27,862
Nelson Chaney tells me Beale
may actually go on the air this evening.

554
00:32:29,072 --> 00:32:30,990
As far as I know, Howard's going to do it.

555
00:32:33,660 --> 00:32:35,369
You going to sit still for this, Ed?

556
00:32:35,537 --> 00:32:38,998
Yes.
I think Hackett's overstepped himself.

557
00:32:39,166 --> 00:32:41,792
There's some kind of corporate
maneuvering going on, Max.

558
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:44,170
Hackett is clearly forcing a confrontation.

559
00:32:44,338 --> 00:32:47,548
That would account for his behavior
at the stockholders' meeting.

560
00:32:47,716 --> 00:32:51,302
However, I think he's making a serious
mistake with this Beale business.

561
00:32:51,928 --> 00:32:56,599
I suspect CCA will be upset
at Hackett's presumptuousness.

562
00:32:56,767 --> 00:32:58,851
Certainly Mr. Jensen will.

563
00:32:59,019 --> 00:33:02,063
So I'm going to let Hackett
have his head for a while.

564
00:33:02,606 --> 00:33:05,149
He just might lose it over this Beale business.

565
00:33:09,488 --> 00:33:12,156
I'd like you to reconsider
your resignation, Max.

566
00:33:12,699 --> 00:33:14,950
I assume that Hackett
wouldn't take such steps...

567
00:33:15,118 --> 00:33:17,119
...without some support
on the CCA board.

568
00:33:17,829 --> 00:33:20,081
I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen.

569
00:33:20,248 --> 00:33:23,250
When that happens,
I'm going to need every friend I've got.

570
00:33:23,418 --> 00:33:27,088
And I certainly don't want Hackett's
people in all of the divisional positions.

571
00:33:27,255 --> 00:33:29,382
So I'd like you to stay on, Max.

572
00:33:34,262 --> 00:33:35,346
Of course, Ed.

573
00:33:37,140 --> 00:33:38,933
Thank you, Max.

574
00:33:39,976 --> 00:33:44,271
This has been the UBS
evening news with Howard Beale.

575
00:33:44,940 --> 00:33:49,527
The initial response to the new
Howard Beale Show was not auspicatory.

576
00:33:49,695 --> 00:33:53,948
The press was without exception hostile
and the industry reaction negative.

577
00:33:54,116 --> 00:33:57,118
The ratings for the Thursday
and Friday shows were both 14.

578
00:33:57,285 --> 00:33:59,245
But Monday's rating dropped a point...

579
00:33:59,413 --> 00:34:02,832
...clearly suggesting
the novelty was wearing off.

580
00:34:04,292 --> 00:34:06,502
Did you know there are a number of psychics...

581
00:34:06,670 --> 00:34:09,296
...working as licensed brokers
on Wall Street?

582
00:34:09,464 --> 00:34:12,133
Some of them counsel their clients
by use of tarot cards.

583
00:34:12,300 --> 00:34:15,678
They're all pretty successful,
even in a bear market and selling short.

584
00:34:15,846 --> 00:34:19,265
I met one of them last week
and thought of doing a show around her.

585
00:34:19,433 --> 00:34:22,101
The Wayward Witch of Wall Street,
something like that.

586
00:34:22,269 --> 00:34:24,770
If her tips were any good,
she could wreck the market.

587
00:34:24,938 --> 00:34:30,317
So I called her this morning and asked her
how she was on predicting the future.

588
00:34:30,485 --> 00:34:33,028
She said she was occasionally prescient.

589
00:34:33,196 --> 00:34:35,072
For example, she said:

590
00:34:35,240 --> 00:34:37,825
"I just had a fleeting vision of you...

591
00:34:37,993 --> 00:34:40,870
...sitting in an office
with a craggy middle-aged man...

592
00:34:41,037 --> 00:34:44,582
...with whom you are,
or will be, emotionally involved."

593
00:34:44,750 --> 00:34:46,000
And here I am.

594
00:34:48,462 --> 00:34:50,337
And she does all this with tarot cards?

595
00:34:50,505 --> 00:34:53,966
No. This one operates on parapsychology.

596
00:34:54,134 --> 00:34:58,345
She has trance-like episodes
and feels things in her energy field.

597
00:34:59,473 --> 00:35:01,974
I think this lady could
be very useful to you, Max.

598
00:35:02,350 --> 00:35:04,018
- In what way?
- Well...

599
00:35:04,186 --> 00:35:07,354
...you put on a news show
and here's somebody who can predict...

600
00:35:07,522 --> 00:35:09,106
...tomorrow's news for you.

601
00:35:09,274 --> 00:35:11,901
Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl.

602
00:35:12,068 --> 00:35:13,402
Sibyl the Soothsayer.

603
00:35:13,570 --> 00:35:17,156
You could give her two minutes of trance
at the end of a Howard Beale Show...

604
00:35:17,324 --> 00:35:18,699
...say, once a week, Friday...

605
00:35:18,867 --> 00:35:21,952
...which is suggestively occult,
and she could oraculate.

606
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:26,165
Then next week everyone tunes in to see
how good her predictions were.

607
00:35:27,042 --> 00:35:28,584
Maybe she could do the weather.

608
00:35:30,712 --> 00:35:33,923
Your Network News is going to need
some help, Max, if it's gonna hold.

609
00:35:34,090 --> 00:35:36,383
Beale doesn't do
the angry-man thing well at all.

610
00:35:36,551 --> 00:35:40,221
He's too, uh, kvetchy. He's being irascible.
We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon.

611
00:35:40,388 --> 00:35:42,014
He should do more apocalyptic doom.

612
00:35:42,182 --> 00:35:46,560
I think you should take on a couple of
writers to write some jeremiads for him.

613
00:35:47,062 --> 00:35:49,063
I see you don't fancy my suggestions.

614
00:35:51,608 --> 00:35:53,317
Hell, you're not serious, are you?

615
00:35:54,152 --> 00:35:56,028
Oh, I'm serious.

616
00:35:57,030 --> 00:36:00,866
The fact is I could make your Beale Show
the highest-rated news show...

617
00:36:01,034 --> 00:36:04,370
...in television,
if you'd let me have a crack at it.

618
00:36:04,621 --> 00:36:09,750
- What do you mean, "have a crack at it"?
- I'd like to program it for you. Develop it.

619
00:36:09,918 --> 00:36:14,797
I wouldn't interfere with the actual news
itself, but TV is showbiz, Max.

620
00:36:15,298 --> 00:36:18,592
And even the news
has to have a little showmanship.

621
00:36:18,760 --> 00:36:21,136
My God, you are serious.

622
00:36:21,304 --> 00:36:25,099
Oh. I watched your 6:00 news today.
It's straight tabloid.

623
00:36:25,267 --> 00:36:28,811
You had a minute and a half of that lady
riding a bike naked in Central Park.

624
00:36:28,979 --> 00:36:32,147
You had less than a minute of hard national
and international news.

625
00:36:32,315 --> 00:36:34,900
It was all sex, scandal,
brutal crimes, sports...

626
00:36:35,443 --> 00:36:38,112
...children with incurable diseases
and lost puppies.

627
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:42,032
I don't think I'll listen to any protestations
of high standards of journalism...

628
00:36:42,200 --> 00:36:44,785
...when you're soliciting audiences
like the rest of us.

629
00:36:44,953 --> 00:36:48,455
All I'm saying is, if you're gonna hustle,
at least do it right.

630
00:36:48,623 --> 00:36:50,791
I'm gonna bring this up at tomorrow's meeting.

631
00:36:50,959 --> 00:36:54,336
I don't like network hassles. I was hoping
you and I could work this out.

632
00:36:54,504 --> 00:36:56,171
Now that's why I'm here.

633
00:36:57,048 --> 00:37:00,426
And I was hoping that you were looking
for an emotional involvement...

634
00:37:00,594 --> 00:37:02,595
...with a craggy middle-aged man.

635
00:37:04,222 --> 00:37:06,181
Oh, I wouldn't rule that out entirely.

636
00:37:09,519 --> 00:37:11,687
All right, Diana.

637
00:37:11,855 --> 00:37:14,356
You bring up all your ideas
at the meeting tomorrow...

638
00:37:14,524 --> 00:37:16,483
...because if you don't, I will.

639
00:37:17,193 --> 00:37:19,820
I think Howard's making
a goddamn fool of himself...

640
00:37:19,988 --> 00:37:23,657
...and so does everybody
that Howard and I know in this industry.

641
00:37:24,117 --> 00:37:27,161
It was a fluke. It didn't work.

642
00:37:27,621 --> 00:37:31,415
So tomorrow,
Howard goes back to the old format...

643
00:37:31,583 --> 00:37:34,627
...and all of this gutter depravity
comes to an end.

644
00:37:37,255 --> 00:37:38,964
Okay.

645
00:37:46,431 --> 00:37:48,557
I don't get it, Diana.

646
00:37:49,517 --> 00:37:53,020
You hung around until 7:30
and then came all the way down here...

647
00:37:53,188 --> 00:37:55,689
...just to pitch a couple
of loony showbiz ideas...

648
00:37:55,857 --> 00:37:59,443
...when you knew goddamn well
I'd laugh you right out of the office.

649
00:37:59,611 --> 00:38:01,487
I don't get it.

650
00:38:02,155 --> 00:38:04,156
What's your scam in this?

651
00:38:04,324 --> 00:38:06,867
Max, my little visit here tonight...

652
00:38:07,035 --> 00:38:11,288
...was a gesture made out of your stature
in the industry...

653
00:38:11,665 --> 00:38:15,376
...and because I personally admired you
since I was a kid majoring in speech...

654
00:38:15,543 --> 00:38:17,086
...at the University of Missouri.

655
00:38:18,338 --> 00:38:20,172
Sooner or later, with or without you...

656
00:38:20,340 --> 00:38:22,675
...I'm going to take over
your Network News show...

657
00:38:22,842 --> 00:38:25,094
...and I figured
I might as well start tonight.

658
00:38:25,261 --> 00:38:28,389
I, uh, think I once gave a lecture...

659
00:38:28,556 --> 00:38:31,976
...at the University of Missouri.

660
00:38:32,143 --> 00:38:33,394
I was in the audience.

661
00:38:33,561 --> 00:38:37,606
I had a terrible schoolgirl crush
on you for a couple of months.

662
00:38:38,483 --> 00:38:40,943
If we could get back for a moment
to that gypsy...

663
00:38:41,111 --> 00:38:46,782
...who predicted all that about, uh, emotional
involvements and middle-aged men.

664
00:38:47,325 --> 00:38:49,576
What are you doing for dinner tonight?

665
00:38:59,129 --> 00:39:02,089
I can't make it tonight, love.
Call me tomorrow.

666
00:39:04,300 --> 00:39:07,678
- Do you have a favorite restaurant?
- I eat anything.

667
00:39:08,722 --> 00:39:10,848
Son of a bitch, I get a feeling I'm being made.

668
00:39:11,016 --> 00:39:12,558
You are.

669
00:39:13,268 --> 00:39:16,729
Ah, I've got to warn you,
I don't do anything on my first date.

670
00:39:16,896 --> 00:39:18,605
We'll see.

671
00:39:24,237 --> 00:39:26,780
Schmuck, what are you getting into?

672
00:39:48,053 --> 00:39:52,097
I was married for four years
and pretended to be happy...

673
00:39:52,265 --> 00:39:55,601
...and had six years of analysis
and pretended to be sane.

674
00:39:56,478 --> 00:39:59,188
My husband ran off with his boyfriend...

675
00:39:59,355 --> 00:40:01,231
...and I had an affair with my analyst.

676
00:40:01,399 --> 00:40:04,610
He told me I was the worst lay he'd ever had.

677
00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:08,906
I can't tell you how many men
have told me what a lousy lay I am.

678
00:40:09,074 --> 00:40:11,408
I apparently have a masculine temperament.

679
00:40:11,993 --> 00:40:15,329
I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely...

680
00:40:15,497 --> 00:40:19,166
...and can't wait to get my clothes back on
and get out of that bedroom.

681
00:40:19,709 --> 00:40:24,379
I seem to be inept at everything except my work.

682
00:40:24,547 --> 00:40:29,343
I'm good at my work.
So I confine myself to that.

683
00:40:29,636 --> 00:40:32,971
All I want out of life
is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

684
00:40:34,724 --> 00:40:36,642
You're married, surely?

685
00:40:38,269 --> 00:40:40,145
Twenty-five years.

686
00:40:40,855 --> 00:40:44,024
I have a married daughter in Seattle
who's six months pregnant...

687
00:40:44,776 --> 00:40:49,988
...a younger girl who's starting
at Northwestern in January.

688
00:40:52,200 --> 00:40:54,243
Well, Max, here we are.

689
00:40:56,204 --> 00:40:58,872
Middle-aged man reaffirming
his middle-aged manhood...

690
00:40:59,040 --> 00:41:02,084
...and a terrified young woman
with a father complex.

691
00:41:02,252 --> 00:41:05,212
What sort of script do you think
we can make out of this?

692
00:41:06,631 --> 00:41:10,968
Corridor gossip, uh, says that you are
Frank Hackett's backstage girl.

693
00:41:11,136 --> 00:41:14,179
Ha, ha. I'm not.

694
00:41:15,223 --> 00:41:18,475
Frank is a corporation man, body and soul.

695
00:41:18,643 --> 00:41:22,187
He has no loves, lusts or allegiances
that are not consummately directed...

696
00:41:22,355 --> 00:41:24,106
...toward becoming a CCA board member.

697
00:41:24,274 --> 00:41:27,818
So why should he bother with me?
I'm not even a stockholder.

698
00:41:28,987 --> 00:41:33,073
What about your loves, lusts and allegiances?

699
00:41:33,241 --> 00:41:35,284
Is your wife in town?

700
00:41:36,077 --> 00:41:37,578
Yes.

701
00:41:38,246 --> 00:41:40,581
Well, then, we better go to my place.

702
00:41:42,083 --> 00:41:44,918
I can't hear you.
You will have to talk a little louder.

703
00:41:51,759 --> 00:41:55,554
Yes. I hear you.

704
00:41:58,349 --> 00:42:03,979
Yes.

705
00:42:10,028 --> 00:42:12,029
Why me?

706
00:42:13,448 --> 00:42:15,532
I said, "Why me?"

707
00:42:22,790 --> 00:42:24,208
Okay.

708
00:42:35,929 --> 00:42:37,763
Howard in his office?

709
00:42:39,265 --> 00:42:43,894
Oh, Harry, I'm killing this whole
screwball, angry-prophet thing.

710
00:42:44,062 --> 00:42:47,898
- Tonight we go back to straight news.
- Okay.

711
00:42:49,442 --> 00:42:52,986
Fifteen seconds, 14, 13...

712
00:42:53,154 --> 00:42:54,571
Yeah? What?

713
00:42:54,739 --> 00:42:58,450
Max, I'm telling you, he's fine.
He's been sharp all day.

714
00:42:58,618 --> 00:43:02,246
He's been funny as hell. Had everybody
cracking up at the rundown meeting.

715
00:43:02,413 --> 00:43:04,248
I told him. I told him.

716
00:43:04,415 --> 00:43:06,792
Up. Cue VTA.

717
00:43:07,335 --> 00:43:09,336
Ready, two.

718
00:43:11,089 --> 00:43:12,172
Cue announcer.

719
00:43:12,340 --> 00:43:15,342
The UBS Evening News with Howard Beale.

720
00:43:15,510 --> 00:43:17,177
Take 2, cue Howard.

721
00:43:17,512 --> 00:43:21,306
Last night, I was awakened
from a fitful sleep...

722
00:43:21,474 --> 00:43:24,017
...shortly after 2:00 in the morning...

723
00:43:24,185 --> 00:43:27,145
...by a shrill, sibilant, faceless voice.

724
00:43:27,897 --> 00:43:30,857
I couldn't make it out at first
in the dark bedroom...

725
00:43:32,318 --> 00:43:35,529
...and I said, "I'm sorry,
you will have to talk a little louder."

726
00:43:35,697 --> 00:43:38,782
- What do you want me to do?
- Nothing.

727
00:43:38,950 --> 00:43:42,160
And the voice said to me,
"I want you to tell the people the truth.

728
00:43:42,328 --> 00:43:45,205
Not an easy thing to do because
the people don't want to know."

729
00:43:45,373 --> 00:43:47,833
And I said, "You're kidding.

730
00:43:48,001 --> 00:43:50,419
What the hell should I know
about the truth?"

731
00:43:50,586 --> 00:43:54,923
But the voice said to me,
"Don't worry about the truth.

732
00:43:55,091 --> 00:43:57,384
I will put the words in your mouth."

733
00:43:57,552 --> 00:44:00,887
I said, "What's this, the Burning Bush?
For God's sake, I'm not Moses."

734
00:44:01,055 --> 00:44:04,391
The voice said to me, "And I'm not God.
What has that got to do with it?"

735
00:44:04,559 --> 00:44:05,642
The voice said to me:

736
00:44:05,810 --> 00:44:08,854
"We're not talking about eternal
or absolute or ultimate truth.

737
00:44:09,022 --> 00:44:12,065
We're talking about impermanent,
transient, human truth.

738
00:44:12,233 --> 00:44:14,568
I don't expect you people
to be capable of truth...

739
00:44:14,736 --> 00:44:17,237
...but at least you're capable of
self-preservation."

740
00:44:18,406 --> 00:44:21,616
And I said, "Why me?"

741
00:44:22,243 --> 00:44:24,870
And the voice said,
"Because you're on television, dummy.

742
00:44:25,079 --> 00:44:26,121
Beautiful.

743
00:44:26,289 --> 00:44:28,540
You have 40 million Americans listening to you.

744
00:44:28,708 --> 00:44:30,375
After this show, you could have 50.

745
00:44:30,543 --> 00:44:34,921
I'm not asking you to walk the land
in sackcloth, preaching the Armageddon.

746
00:44:35,089 --> 00:44:36,840
You're on TV, man."

747
00:44:37,008 --> 00:44:39,176
So I thought about it for a moment...

748
00:44:41,054 --> 00:44:43,972
...and then I said, "Okay."

749
00:45:03,785 --> 00:45:05,786
Close the door, Harry.

750
00:45:09,165 --> 00:45:12,042
Howard, I'm taking you off the air.

751
00:45:13,294 --> 00:45:16,505
I think you're having a breakdown.
Require treatment.

752
00:45:18,800 --> 00:45:21,802
This is not a psychotic episode.

753
00:45:22,178 --> 00:45:24,888
This is a cleansing moment of clarity.

754
00:45:29,352 --> 00:45:31,311
I'm imbued, Max.

755
00:45:32,146 --> 00:45:36,191
I'm imbued with some special spirit.
It's not a religious feeling at all.

756
00:45:36,359 --> 00:45:39,653
It's a shocking eruption
of great electrical energy.

757
00:45:39,821 --> 00:45:42,989
I feel vivid and flashing, as if suddenly...

758
00:45:43,157 --> 00:45:48,078
...I'd been plugged into some
great electromagnetic field.

759
00:45:49,414 --> 00:45:51,998
I feel connected to all living things.

760
00:45:52,166 --> 00:45:53,917
To flowers...

761
00:45:54,419 --> 00:45:58,463
...birds, all the animals of the world...

762
00:46:00,341 --> 00:46:05,887
...and even to some great
unseen living force.

763
00:46:06,055 --> 00:46:09,099
What I think the Hindus call prana.

764
00:46:09,976 --> 00:46:12,018
It is not a breakdown.

765
00:46:12,687 --> 00:46:14,813
I've never felt more orderly in my life.

766
00:46:15,273 --> 00:46:19,609
It is a shattering and beautiful sensation.

767
00:46:20,111 --> 00:46:23,822
It is the exalted flow
of the space-time continuum...

768
00:46:23,990 --> 00:46:27,909
...save that it is spaceless
and timeless and...

769
00:46:28,536 --> 00:46:30,787
...of such loveliness.

770
00:46:32,123 --> 00:46:37,419
I feel on the verge
of some great ultimate truth.

771
00:46:42,383 --> 00:46:48,138
And you will not take me off the air
for now, or for any other spaceless time.

772
00:46:51,517 --> 00:46:53,143
Oh, boy.

773
00:46:55,062 --> 00:46:56,980
- Is he okay?
- He's just fainted.

774
00:46:57,315 --> 00:47:00,150
I'd better get him back
to my house again tonight.

775
00:47:00,318 --> 00:47:02,319
Help me get him up.

776
00:47:23,090 --> 00:47:24,883
Everyone's going crazy.

777
00:47:26,385 --> 00:47:28,053
The whole place has gone crazy.

778
00:47:28,221 --> 00:47:31,264
Sitting in their house
and they don't do anything about it.

779
00:48:50,094 --> 00:48:53,597
Wake up, Max, because Howard's gone.

780
00:48:54,307 --> 00:48:56,224
I'll make you some coffee.

781
00:48:57,518 --> 00:48:58,810
You don't know where he is?

782
00:48:58,978 --> 00:49:02,105
The son of a bitch is a hit, goddamn it!
Over 2000 phone calls.

783
00:49:02,273 --> 00:49:05,358
Go down to the mail room.
As of this minute, over 14,000 telegrams!

784
00:49:05,526 --> 00:49:09,112
The response is sensational! Tell him.
Herb's phone hasn't stopped ringing.

785
00:49:09,280 --> 00:49:11,364
Every goddamned affiliate
from Albuquerque to Sandusky.

786
00:49:12,700 --> 00:49:14,409
The response is sensational!

787
00:49:14,577 --> 00:49:18,955
Yes. All right. For you, Herb.
Get back to your office.

788
00:49:19,123 --> 00:49:21,124
Moldanian called me.
Joe Donnelly called me.

789
00:49:21,292 --> 00:49:24,127
We got a goddamn hit, goddamn it.
Diana, show him the Times.

790
00:49:24,295 --> 00:49:26,921
We got an editorial
in the holy goddamn New York Times.

791
00:49:27,089 --> 00:49:29,382
- "A call to morality."
- I don't know where he is.

792
00:49:29,550 --> 00:49:31,384
That son of a bitch Beale has caught on.

793
00:49:31,552 --> 00:49:35,013
- Don't tell me you don't know.
- Could be jumping off a roof for all I know.

794
00:49:35,181 --> 00:49:38,516
The man is insane.
He's not responsible for himself.

795
00:49:38,684 --> 00:49:40,393
He needs care and treatment.

796
00:49:40,561 --> 00:49:44,064
And all you grave robbers
think about is that he's a hit.

797
00:49:44,231 --> 00:49:47,400
You know, Max,
it's just possible that he isn't insane.

798
00:49:47,568 --> 00:49:50,278
That he is, in fact, imbued
with some special spirit.

799
00:49:50,446 --> 00:49:52,405
My God, I'm supposed to be the romantic...

800
00:49:52,573 --> 00:49:54,366
...you're the hard-bitten realist.

801
00:49:54,533 --> 00:49:57,285
All right.
Howard Beale obviously fills a void.

802
00:49:57,453 --> 00:50:00,622
The audience out there wants a prophet,
even a manufactured one...

803
00:50:00,790 --> 00:50:02,415
...even if he's as mad as Moses.

804
00:50:02,583 --> 00:50:05,168
By tomorrow he'll have a 50 share,
maybe even a 60.

805
00:50:05,336 --> 00:50:07,295
Howard Beale is processed, instant God.

806
00:50:07,463 --> 00:50:10,256
It looks like he may just go bigger
than Mary Tyler Moore.

807
00:50:10,424 --> 00:50:12,926
I am not putting Howard back on the air.

808
00:50:13,094 --> 00:50:15,887
It's not your show anymore, Max, it's mine.

809
00:50:18,099 --> 00:50:19,599
I gave her the show, Schumacher.

810
00:50:20,226 --> 00:50:22,936
I'm putting the Network News show
under programming.

811
00:50:23,104 --> 00:50:26,022
Mr. Ruddy has had a mild heart attack
and is not taking calls.

812
00:50:26,190 --> 00:50:29,067
In his absence,
I'm making all network decisions...

813
00:50:29,235 --> 00:50:31,778
...including one I've been wanting
to make a long time.

814
00:50:31,946 --> 00:50:35,281
You're fired.
I want you out of this building by noon.

815
00:50:35,449 --> 00:50:39,285
I'll call the security guards and have you
thrown out, if you're still here.

816
00:50:42,289 --> 00:50:44,124
Well, let's say, "Fuck you, Hackett."

817
00:50:44,458 --> 00:50:47,877
You want me out, you're gonna have to
drag me out kicking and screaming...

818
00:50:48,045 --> 00:50:50,213
...and the whole division
kicking with me!

819
00:50:50,381 --> 00:50:52,966
Gonna quit their jobs for you?
Not in this recession.

820
00:50:53,134 --> 00:50:54,968
When Ruddy gets back he'll have your ass.

821
00:50:55,136 --> 00:50:58,471
I got a hit, Schumacher,
and Ruddy doesn't count anymore.

822
00:50:58,639 --> 00:51:01,808
He was hoping I'd fall on my face
with this Beale Show, but I didn't.

823
00:51:01,976 --> 00:51:06,479
It's a big, fat, big-titted hit and I don't have
to waffle around with Ruddy anymore.

824
00:51:06,647 --> 00:51:09,399
If he wants to take me up
before the CCA Board, let him.

825
00:51:09,567 --> 00:51:12,318
Think Ruddy is stupid enough
to go to the CCA Board and say:

826
00:51:12,486 --> 00:51:14,487
"I'm taking our one hit show off the air"?

827
00:51:14,655 --> 00:51:17,365
And comes November 14,
I'm going to be standing up there...

828
00:51:17,533 --> 00:51:19,492
...at the annual CCA
management meeting.

829
00:51:19,660 --> 00:51:22,287
I'm gonna announce projected earnings
for this network...

830
00:51:22,455 --> 00:51:24,164
...for the first time in five years.

831
00:51:24,331 --> 00:51:28,209
And believe me, Mr. Jensen's going
to be sitting there rocking back and forth...

832
00:51:28,377 --> 00:51:32,714
...in his little chair and he's going to say:
"That's very good, Frank, keep it up."

833
00:51:32,882 --> 00:51:36,468
Don't have any illusions about who's
running this network. You're fired!

834
00:51:36,635 --> 00:51:40,138
I want you out of your office before noon
or I'll have you thrown out.

835
00:51:44,727 --> 00:51:46,728
You go along with this?

836
00:51:47,354 --> 00:51:50,148
Max, I told you I didn't want
a network hassle on this.

837
00:51:50,316 --> 00:51:54,319
I told you I'd much rather work the
Beale Show out just between the two of us.

838
00:51:55,488 --> 00:51:57,739
Well, let's just say,
"Fuck you too, honey."

839
00:51:58,866 --> 00:52:01,618
Howard Beale may be my best friend.
I'll go to court.

840
00:52:01,786 --> 00:52:05,121
I'll put him in a hospital before I'll let you
exploit him like a freak.

841
00:52:05,289 --> 00:52:07,499
You get your psychiatrists, I'll get mine.

842
00:52:07,666 --> 00:52:10,710
I'm gonna spread this whole
reeking business in every newspaper...

843
00:52:10,878 --> 00:52:13,546
...on every network, group
and affiliate in this country.

844
00:52:13,714 --> 00:52:18,384
- I'm gonna make a lot of noise about this.
- Great. We need all the press we can get.

845
00:52:21,096 --> 00:52:23,765
Something going on between you and Schumacher?

846
00:52:24,558 --> 00:52:26,226
Not anymore.

847
00:52:44,703 --> 00:52:47,080
- How do you do, Mr. Beale?
- I must make my witness.

848
00:52:47,248 --> 00:52:49,123
Sure thing, Mr. Beale.

849
00:52:52,753 --> 00:52:55,922
Oil ministers of the OPEC nations meeting
in Vienna still haven't decided...

850
00:52:56,090 --> 00:52:57,882
...how much more to increase
the price of oil.

851
00:52:59,385 --> 00:53:00,593
- Ready, VTA?
- Yeah. Okay.

852
00:53:00,761 --> 00:53:03,221
He came in the building about five minutes ago.

853
00:53:03,389 --> 00:53:05,849
Tell Snowden when he comes in to let him go on.

854
00:53:06,016 --> 00:53:07,141
Did you get that, Paul?

855
00:53:07,309 --> 00:53:12,188
Six, five, four, three, two...

856
00:53:12,356 --> 00:53:13,481
- ...one.
- VTA?

857
00:53:13,649 --> 00:53:17,277
This has been the most divisive
meeting the oil states have ever had.

858
00:53:20,406 --> 00:53:24,158
The 13 nations of OPEC have still
not been able to decide by how much...

859
00:53:24,326 --> 00:53:26,619
...to increase the price of oil.
Saudi Arabian...

860
00:53:27,746 --> 00:53:29,497
How much time we got?

861
00:53:29,665 --> 00:53:32,417
--yesterday for further consultations
with his government.

862
00:53:32,585 --> 00:53:33,918
He returned to the Vienna...

863
00:53:35,963 --> 00:53:39,132
- This is Ed Fletcher in Vienna.
- Take two, cue Howard.

864
00:53:39,300 --> 00:53:42,802
I don't have to tell you things are bad,
everybody knows things are bad.

865
00:53:42,970 --> 00:53:44,804
It's a depression.

866
00:53:44,972 --> 00:53:48,808
Everybody's out of work
or scared of losing their job.

867
00:53:49,310 --> 00:53:51,144
The dollar buys a nickel's worth.

868
00:53:51,312 --> 00:53:54,480
Banks are going bust.
Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter.

869
00:53:54,648 --> 00:53:56,399
Punks are running wild in the streets.

870
00:53:56,567 --> 00:54:00,236
There's nobody anywhere who seems to
know what to do, and there's no end to it.

871
00:54:00,821 --> 00:54:05,325
We know the air is unfit to breathe
and our food is unfit to eat.

872
00:54:05,492 --> 00:54:08,661
We sit watching our TVs while
some local newscaster tells us...

873
00:54:08,829 --> 00:54:12,332
...that today we had 15 homicides
and 63 violent crimes...

874
00:54:12,499 --> 00:54:15,627
...as if that's the way it's supposed to be.
We know things are bad.

875
00:54:15,794 --> 00:54:17,670
Worse than bad, they're crazy.

876
00:54:17,838 --> 00:54:21,132
Everything everywhere is going crazy,
so we don't go out anymore.

877
00:54:21,300 --> 00:54:24,594
We sit in the house and the world
we're living in is getting smaller...

878
00:54:24,762 --> 00:54:28,264
...and all we say is, "Please,
at least leave us alone in our living rooms.

879
00:54:28,432 --> 00:54:31,392
Let me have my toaster and my TV,
and my steel-belted radials...

880
00:54:31,560 --> 00:54:33,853
...and I won't say anything.
Just leave us alone!"

881
00:54:34,021 --> 00:54:37,440
Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!

882
00:54:38,525 --> 00:54:40,360
I don't want you to protest, to riot.

883
00:54:40,527 --> 00:54:43,571
Don't write to your congressmen.
I wouldn't know what to tell you.

884
00:54:43,739 --> 00:54:46,074
I don't know what to do about the depression...

885
00:54:46,241 --> 00:54:48,534
...and the Russians,
and the crime in the street.

886
00:54:48,702 --> 00:54:51,371
All I know is that first, you've got to get mad.

887
00:54:51,538 --> 00:54:56,626
You've got to say, "I'm a human being,
goddamn it. My life has value."

888
00:54:59,421 --> 00:55:03,675
So I want you to get up now.

889
00:55:03,842 --> 00:55:07,095
I want all of you to get up out of your chairs.

890
00:55:07,262 --> 00:55:10,515
I want you to get up right now
and go to the window...

891
00:55:10,683 --> 00:55:13,935
...open it and stick your head out
and yell:

892
00:55:14,103 --> 00:55:18,648
"I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

893
00:55:18,816 --> 00:55:21,943
- I want you to get up right now, get up...
- Stay with him.

894
00:55:22,111 --> 00:55:25,571
...go to your windows, open them
and stick your head out and yell:

895
00:55:25,739 --> 00:55:28,783
"I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going
to take this anymore!"

896
00:55:28,951 --> 00:55:32,036
- Things have got to change...
- How many stations does this go to?

897
00:55:32,204 --> 00:55:34,455
Sixty-seven.
It goes to Louisville and Atlanta.

898
00:55:34,623 --> 00:55:36,082
"We're not going to take this!"

899
00:55:36,250 --> 00:55:38,918
Then we'll figure out the depression
and the inflation...

900
00:55:39,086 --> 00:55:42,213
...and the oil crisis,
but first get up out of your chairs...

901
00:55:42,381 --> 00:55:45,842
...open the window, stick your head out
and yell and say it!

902
00:55:46,010 --> 00:55:50,471
"I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

903
00:55:50,639 --> 00:55:52,765
- Who are you talking to, Herb?
- WCGG, Atlanta.

904
00:55:52,933 --> 00:55:55,560
- They yelling in Atlanta?
- Are they yelling in Atlanta?

905
00:55:55,728 --> 00:55:58,521
But first you've got to get mad.
You've gotta say:

906
00:55:58,689 --> 00:56:02,233
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not going
to take this anymore!"

907
00:56:02,401 --> 00:56:05,445
- They're yelling in Baton Rouge.
- Goddamn it.

908
00:56:05,612 --> 00:56:07,405
Get up, get up out of your chairs.

909
00:56:07,573 --> 00:56:10,658
Son of a bitch, we struck the mother lode!

910
00:56:10,826 --> 00:56:13,453
Stick your head out of the window,
stick your head out.

911
00:56:13,620 --> 00:56:15,204
And keep yelling and yell:

912
00:56:15,372 --> 00:56:18,875
"I'm as mad as hell.
I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

913
00:56:19,126 --> 00:56:21,919
Just get up from your chairs,
right now, go to the window!

914
00:56:22,087 --> 00:56:24,505
- Where you going?
- I wanna see if anybody's yelling.

915
00:56:24,673 --> 00:56:28,134
Open it, and stick your head out,
and yell, and keep yelling--

916
00:56:29,636 --> 00:56:34,432
I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!

917
00:56:34,600 --> 00:56:38,811
I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

918
00:56:38,979 --> 00:56:41,689
I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take it anymore!

919
00:56:41,857 --> 00:56:44,484
I'm as mad as hell.
I'm not gonna take it anymore!

920
00:56:44,651 --> 00:56:47,070
I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take it anymore.

921
00:56:47,237 --> 00:56:49,489
I'm not gonna take it anymore.
I'm mad as hell!

922
00:56:49,656 --> 00:56:51,157
I'm mad as hell!

923
00:56:54,161 --> 00:56:55,995
I'm mad as hell!

924
00:56:56,163 --> 00:56:57,205
I'm mad as hell!

925
00:56:57,372 --> 00:56:59,290
I'm mad as hell!

926
00:56:59,917 --> 00:57:01,584
I'm mad as hell!

927
00:57:01,752 --> 00:57:06,339
I'm mad as hell!
I'm not gonna take this anymore.

928
00:57:06,507 --> 00:57:09,383
I'm mad as hell!
I'm not gonna take this anymore.

929
00:57:41,291 --> 00:57:42,667
By mid-October...

930
00:57:42,835 --> 00:57:45,211
...the Howard Beale Show
had settled in on a 42 share...

931
00:57:45,379 --> 00:57:49,006
...more than equaling all the other
network news shows combined.

932
00:57:49,174 --> 00:57:51,384
In the Nielsen ratings, the Howard Beale Show...

933
00:57:51,552 --> 00:57:54,387
...was listed as the fourth highest
rated show of the month...

934
00:57:54,555 --> 00:57:56,889
...surpassed only
by The Six Million Dollar Man...

935
00:57:57,057 --> 00:57:58,850
...All in the Family and Phyllis.

936
00:57:59,017 --> 00:58:01,811
A phenomenal state of affairs for a news show.

937
00:58:01,979 --> 00:58:05,481
And on October 15,
Diana Christensen flew to Los Angeles...

938
00:58:05,649 --> 00:58:08,025
...for what the trade calls
powwows and confabs...

939
00:58:08,193 --> 00:58:10,153
...with our West Coast
programming execs...

940
00:58:10,320 --> 00:58:13,531
...and to get production rolling
on the shows for the coming season.

941
00:58:13,699 --> 00:58:15,283
Christ.

942
00:58:15,450 --> 00:58:18,744
You brought half the William Morris
West Coast office along with you.

943
00:58:18,912 --> 00:58:23,749
Hi, I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey
of the imperialist ruling circles.

944
00:58:23,917 --> 00:58:26,502
I'm Laureen Hobbs,
a bad-ass commie nigger.

945
00:58:26,670 --> 00:58:30,256
Sounds like the basis of a firm friendship.
We're gonna need more chairs.

946
00:58:30,424 --> 00:58:32,133
- Anybody want coffee?
- I'd love some.

947
00:58:32,301 --> 00:58:33,342
You changed your tailor.

948
00:58:33,510 --> 00:58:35,178
Coffee? Okay.

949
00:58:35,345 --> 00:58:37,930
Want to come take some coffee orders?

950
00:58:39,766 --> 00:58:43,769
This is my lawyer, Sam Haywood,
and his associate, Merrill Grant.

951
00:58:46,106 --> 00:58:50,234
Ms. Christensen,
just what the hell's this all about?

952
00:58:50,402 --> 00:58:53,529
Because when a national television network...

953
00:58:53,697 --> 00:58:57,283
...in the person of booby here,
comes to me...

954
00:58:57,492 --> 00:59:01,120
...and says they want to put the ongoing
struggle of the oppressed masses...

955
00:59:01,288 --> 00:59:05,416
...on prime-time television,
I have to regard this askance.

956
00:59:05,584 --> 00:59:08,961
What Mr. Haywood was saying,
Ms. Christensen, was that our client...

957
00:59:09,129 --> 00:59:14,800
...Ms. Hobbs, wants it up-front
that the political content of the show...

958
00:59:14,968 --> 00:59:16,802
...has to be entirely in her control.

959
00:59:17,095 --> 00:59:20,431
She can have it. I don't give a damn
about the political content.

960
00:59:21,516 --> 00:59:25,811
- What kind of show did you have in mind?
- I'm interested in a weekly dramatic series...

961
00:59:25,979 --> 00:59:29,440
...based on the Ecumenical Liberation Army.
And I'll tell you right now...

962
00:59:29,608 --> 00:59:32,526
...what the first show has to be:
a special on Mary Ann Gifford.

963
00:59:32,694 --> 00:59:34,028
Let me tell you what I want.

964
00:59:34,196 --> 00:59:37,740
I want a lot more film like the bank rip-off
the Ecumenical sent in.

965
00:59:37,908 --> 00:59:40,534
The way I see the series is...

966
00:59:40,702 --> 00:59:45,831
...each week we open with an authentic act
of political terrorism...

967
00:59:45,999 --> 00:59:48,000
...taken on the spot,
in the actual moment.

968
00:59:48,168 --> 00:59:50,836
Then we go to the drama
behind the opening film footage.

969
00:59:51,004 --> 00:59:53,256
That's your job, Ms. Hobbs.

970
00:59:53,674 --> 00:59:57,301
You gotta get the Ecumenicals to bring in
that film footage for us.

971
00:59:57,469 --> 01:00:01,264
The network can't deal with them directly.
They are, after all, wanted criminals.

972
01:00:02,307 --> 01:00:05,184
The Ecumenical Liberation Army
is an ultra-left sect...

973
01:00:05,352 --> 01:00:10,106
...creating political confusion with wildcat
violence and pseudo-insurrectionary acts...

974
01:00:10,274 --> 01:00:12,400
...which the Communist Party
does not endorse.

975
01:00:12,859 --> 01:00:15,695
The American masses are not yet ready
for open revolt.

976
01:00:16,196 --> 01:00:18,698
We would not want to produce
a television show...

977
01:00:18,865 --> 01:00:22,118
...celebrating historically
deviational terrorism.

978
01:00:22,286 --> 01:00:24,996
I'm offering an hour
of prime-time television every week...

979
01:00:25,163 --> 01:00:27,581
...into which you can stick
whatever propaganda.

980
01:00:27,749 --> 01:00:30,376
The Ecumenicals are an undisciplined
ultra-left gang...

981
01:00:30,544 --> 01:00:33,087
...whose leader is an eccentric,
to say the least.

982
01:00:33,255 --> 01:00:36,924
He calls himself the Great Ahmed Kahn
and wears a hussar's shako.

983
01:00:37,092 --> 01:00:41,429
Ms. Hobbs, we're talking about
30 to 50 million people a shot.

984
01:00:41,596 --> 01:00:43,389
It's a lot better than handing out...

985
01:00:43,557 --> 01:00:46,058
...mimeographed pamphlets
on ghetto street corners.

986
01:00:52,357 --> 01:00:55,359
I'll have to take this matter
to the central Committee...

987
01:00:56,528 --> 01:00:59,155
...and I'd better check it out
with the Great Ahmed Kahn.

988
01:01:00,782 --> 01:01:05,244
I'll be in L.A. until Saturday,
and I'd like to get it rolling.

989
01:01:24,806 --> 01:01:26,390
Okay?

990
01:01:39,321 --> 01:01:43,741
Well, Ahmed, you ain't gonna believe this.

991
01:01:44,117 --> 01:01:46,744
But I'm gonna make a TV star out of you.

992
01:01:46,912 --> 01:01:50,748
Just like Archie Bunker.

993
01:01:50,916 --> 01:01:53,542
You gonna be a household word.

994
01:01:55,295 --> 01:01:57,588
What the fuck are you talking about?

995
01:01:58,131 --> 01:02:00,341
- Thirty seconds.
- All right, ready VTA.

996
01:02:00,509 --> 01:02:02,635
One, you have the audience to pan.

997
01:02:02,803 --> 01:02:05,388
- Two, you have the window to pull.
Twenty-five.

998
01:02:05,555 --> 01:02:07,473
Three, you're on the announcer.

999
01:02:07,641 --> 01:02:09,266
Twenty.

1000
01:02:11,478 --> 01:02:12,603
Stand by, VTA.

1001
01:02:12,771 --> 01:02:16,649
Fifteen, 14, 13, 12...

1002
01:02:16,817 --> 01:02:21,487
- ...eleven, 10, nine, eight, seven...
- Roll VTA.

1003
01:02:21,655 --> 01:02:25,324
...six, five, four, three...

1004
01:02:25,492 --> 01:02:28,160
- ...two, one.
- Three, cue announcer.

1005
01:02:28,453 --> 01:02:31,747
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it.
How do you feel?

1006
01:02:31,915 --> 01:02:36,585
We're mad as hell
and we're not going to take this anymore!

1007
01:02:36,753 --> 01:02:40,548
Ladies and gentlemen, the Network
News Hour with Sibyl the Soothsayer!

1008
01:02:44,845 --> 01:02:48,305
Jim Webbing and his
It's-the-Emes Truth Department.

1009
01:02:52,018 --> 01:02:54,562
Ms. Mata Hari
and her Skeletons in the Closet.

1010
01:02:58,525 --> 01:03:02,027
And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi.

1011
01:03:05,574 --> 01:03:10,119
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

1012
01:03:24,634 --> 01:03:26,886
Edward George Ruddy died today.

1013
01:03:27,053 --> 01:03:29,763
Edward George Ruddy
was the chairman of the board...

1014
01:03:29,931 --> 01:03:34,727
...of the Union Broadcasting Systems
and he died at 11:00 this morning...

1015
01:03:34,895 --> 01:03:39,440
...of a heart condition, and woe is us,
we're in a lot of trouble.

1016
01:03:43,028 --> 01:03:48,741
So a rich little man with white hair died.

1017
01:03:48,909 --> 01:03:51,494
What has that got to do
with the price of rice, right?

1018
01:03:51,661 --> 01:03:53,579
And why is that woe to us?

1019
01:03:55,457 --> 01:03:57,416
Because you people...

1020
01:03:57,584 --> 01:04:01,545
...and 62 million other Americans
are listening to me right now.

1021
01:04:01,713 --> 01:04:05,883
Because less than 3 percent
of you people read books.

1022
01:04:07,010 --> 01:04:10,429
Because less than 15 percent of you
read newspapers.

1023
01:04:10,597 --> 01:04:14,266
Because the only truth you know
is what you get over this tube.

1024
01:04:14,434 --> 01:04:17,937
Right now, there is a whole
and entire generation...

1025
01:04:18,104 --> 01:04:21,732
...that never knew anything
that didn't come out of this tube.

1026
01:04:22,526 --> 01:04:26,779
This tube is the Gospel.
The ultimate revelation.

1027
01:04:26,947 --> 01:04:31,659
This tube can make or break presidents,
popes, prime ministers!

1028
01:04:31,826 --> 01:04:35,412
This tube is the most awesome goddamn force...

1029
01:04:35,580 --> 01:04:37,081
...in the whole godless world!

1030
01:04:37,249 --> 01:04:40,292
And woe is us if it ever falls
into the hands of the wrong people.

1031
01:04:40,460 --> 01:04:44,004
And that's why woe is us
that Edward George Ruddy died.

1032
01:04:44,172 --> 01:04:47,299
Because this company is now
in the hands of CCA...

1033
01:04:47,467 --> 01:04:49,969
...the Communication Corporation
of America.

1034
01:04:50,136 --> 01:04:53,097
There's a new chairman.
A man called Frank Hackett...

1035
01:04:53,265 --> 01:04:55,599
...sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office
on the 20th floor!

1036
01:04:55,767 --> 01:04:58,811
And when the 12th largest company
in the world...

1037
01:04:58,979 --> 01:05:03,482
...controls the most awesome,
goddamn propaganda force...

1038
01:05:03,650 --> 01:05:05,442
...in the whole godless world...

1039
01:05:05,610 --> 01:05:09,488
...who knows what shit will be peddled
for truth on this network.

1040
01:05:09,656 --> 01:05:15,327
So you listen to me. Listen to me!
Television is not the truth.

1041
01:05:15,495 --> 01:05:17,871
Television's a goddamned amusement park.

1042
01:05:18,039 --> 01:05:22,376
Television is a circus, a carnival,
a traveling troupe of acrobats...

1043
01:05:22,544 --> 01:05:26,964
...storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers,
sideshow freaks, lion-tamers...

1044
01:05:27,132 --> 01:05:31,510
...and football players.
We're in the boredom-killing business.

1045
01:05:33,513 --> 01:05:37,516
So if you want the truth, go to God.

1046
01:05:37,684 --> 01:05:39,602
Go to your gurus.

1047
01:05:40,186 --> 01:05:41,937
Go to yourselves.

1048
01:05:42,105 --> 01:05:45,858
Because that's the only place
you're ever gonna find any real truth.

1049
01:05:47,861 --> 01:05:51,572
But, man, you're never gonna get
any truth from us.

1050
01:05:51,865 --> 01:05:54,700
We'll tell you anything you want to hear.
We lie like hell.

1051
01:05:54,868 --> 01:05:57,786
We'll tell you that, uh,
Kojak always gets the killer...

1052
01:05:57,954 --> 01:06:00,873
...and that nobody ever gets cancer
in Archie Bunker's house.

1053
01:06:01,041 --> 01:06:03,667
No matter how much trouble
the hero is in, don't worry...

1054
01:06:03,835 --> 01:06:06,879
...just look at your watch,
at the end of the hour he's gonna win!

1055
01:06:07,047 --> 01:06:09,673
We'll tell you any shit you want to hear.

1056
01:06:10,258 --> 01:06:13,302
We deal in illusions, man.
None of it is true.

1057
01:06:13,470 --> 01:06:17,806
But you people sit there,
day after day, night after night...

1058
01:06:17,974 --> 01:06:20,559
...all ages, colors, creeds.

1059
01:06:20,727 --> 01:06:22,061
We're all you know.

1060
01:06:22,228 --> 01:06:25,064
You're beginning to believe
the illusions we're spinning here.

1061
01:06:25,231 --> 01:06:28,984
You're beginning to think the tube is
reality and that your own lives are unreal.

1062
01:06:29,152 --> 01:06:31,111
You do whatever the tube tells you.

1063
01:06:31,279 --> 01:06:33,364
Dress like the tube, you eat like the tube...

1064
01:06:33,531 --> 01:06:36,533
...raise your children like the tube,
you think like the tube.

1065
01:06:36,743 --> 01:06:39,912
This is mass madness, you maniacs.

1066
01:06:40,080 --> 01:06:42,790
In God's name, you people are the real thing.

1067
01:06:42,957 --> 01:06:45,042
We are the illusion.

1068
01:06:45,210 --> 01:06:48,545
So turn off your television sets.
Turn them off now.

1069
01:06:48,713 --> 01:06:52,049
Turn them off right now.
Turn them off and leave them off.

1070
01:06:52,217 --> 01:06:56,011
Turn them off right in the middle of
the sentence I'm speaking to you now.

1071
01:06:56,179 --> 01:06:58,097
Turn them off!

1072
01:07:12,195 --> 01:07:14,738
UBS was running
at a cash flow break-even point...

1073
01:07:14,906 --> 01:07:17,241
...after taking into account
$110 million...

1074
01:07:17,409 --> 01:07:19,410
...of negative cash flow
from the network.

1075
01:07:19,577 --> 01:07:23,038
It was clear the fat on the network
had to be flitched off.

1076
01:07:23,331 --> 01:07:26,458
Please note an increase in projected
initial programming revenues...

1077
01:07:26,626 --> 01:07:28,585
...in the amount of $21 million...

1078
01:07:28,753 --> 01:07:33,257
...due to the phenomenal success
of the Howard Beale Show.

1079
01:07:33,842 --> 01:07:38,345
I expect a positive cash flow
for the entire complex of 45 million...

1080
01:07:38,513 --> 01:07:43,767
...achievable in this fiscal year,
a year, in short, ahead of schedule.

1081
01:07:44,144 --> 01:07:45,978
I go beyond that.

1082
01:07:46,396 --> 01:07:49,273
This network may well be
the most significant profit center...

1083
01:07:49,441 --> 01:07:51,567
...of the communications complex.

1084
01:07:51,735 --> 01:07:55,738
And based upon the projected rate
of return on invested capital...

1085
01:07:55,905 --> 01:07:58,657
...and if merger
is eventually accomplished...

1086
01:07:58,825 --> 01:08:00,993
...the communications complex
may well become...

1087
01:08:01,161 --> 01:08:03,787
...the towering and most profitable center...

1088
01:08:04,372 --> 01:08:07,374
...in the entire CCA empire.

1089
01:08:08,918 --> 01:08:11,837
I await your questions and comments.

1090
01:08:12,464 --> 01:08:14,214
Mr. Jensen?

1091
01:08:14,716 --> 01:08:17,760
Very good, Frank. Exemplary. Keep it up.

1092
01:08:43,536 --> 01:08:45,496
Buy you a cup of coffee?

1093
01:08:47,582 --> 01:08:49,291
Hell, yes.

1094
01:08:50,210 --> 01:08:54,671
- Do you have to get back to the office?
- Nothing that can't wait.

1095
01:09:07,393 --> 01:09:08,769
I...

1096
01:09:08,937 --> 01:09:11,688
I drop down to the news studios
every now and then...

1097
01:09:11,856 --> 01:09:15,275
...and ask Howard Beale about you,
and he says you're doing fine. Are you?

1098
01:09:15,443 --> 01:09:16,777
No.

1099
01:09:17,237 --> 01:09:20,948
- Are you keeping busy?
- Oh, in a fashion.

1100
01:09:21,115 --> 01:09:25,118
This is the, uh, third funeral
I've been to in two weeks.

1101
01:09:25,286 --> 01:09:30,207
I have two other friends
in the hospital whom I visit regularly...

1102
01:09:30,375 --> 01:09:33,502
...and, uh, been to a couple of christenings.

1103
01:09:33,670 --> 01:09:37,923
All my friends seem to be dying
or having grandchildren.

1104
01:09:38,591 --> 01:09:40,801
You should be a grandfather yourself about now.

1105
01:09:40,969 --> 01:09:43,595
You have a pregnant daughter
in Seattle, don't you?

1106
01:09:43,763 --> 01:09:48,600
Any day now.
My wife's out there for the occasion.

1107
01:09:52,814 --> 01:09:56,775
I've thought many times of calling you.

1108
01:09:58,111 --> 01:10:00,112
I wish you had.

1109
01:10:03,449 --> 01:10:07,411
You know, I bumped into Sibyl
the Soothsayer in the elevator last week.

1110
01:10:07,579 --> 01:10:11,123
I said, "You know, Sibyl,
about four months ago you predicted...

1111
01:10:11,291 --> 01:10:14,918
...I would get involved
with a craggy, middle-aged man...

1112
01:10:15,086 --> 01:10:18,630
...and so far, all that's happened
has been one many-splendored night.

1113
01:10:18,798 --> 01:10:21,717
I don't call that 'getting involved."'

1114
01:10:22,343 --> 01:10:26,221
And she said, "Don't worry, you will."

1115
01:10:28,641 --> 01:10:32,477
It was a many-splendored night,
wasn't it, Max?

1116
01:10:34,230 --> 01:10:36,189
Yes, it was.

1117
01:10:38,484 --> 01:10:40,986
Are we going to get involved, Max?

1118
01:10:43,531 --> 01:10:44,907
Yes.

1119
01:10:45,617 --> 01:10:50,746
I need to become involved very much.
How about you?

1120
01:10:52,498 --> 01:10:55,167
I've reached for the phone to call you
a hundred times.

1121
01:10:55,335 --> 01:10:58,545
I was sure you hated me for my part
in taking your news show away.

1122
01:11:00,340 --> 01:11:03,342
I probably did. I don't know anymore.

1123
01:11:03,927 --> 01:11:08,680
All I know is, I can't get you out of my mind.

1124
01:11:13,227 --> 01:11:15,395
Marty.
Marty, I know what NBC offered them...

1125
01:11:15,563 --> 01:11:18,023
...so I'm saying go to 3.5...

1126
01:11:18,191 --> 01:11:21,109
...and I want an option
for a third run on all of them.

1127
01:11:21,277 --> 01:11:25,155
Marty, I'm in a big hurry and you and Charlie
are supposed to be negotiating this...

1128
01:11:25,323 --> 01:11:27,950
...so goodbye, good luck,
I'll see you Monday.

1129
01:11:30,370 --> 01:11:32,955
Jimmy Caan's agent just called
and says absolutely nix.

1130
01:11:33,122 --> 01:11:35,540
- Can't win them all.
- Where can I reach you later?

1131
01:11:35,708 --> 01:11:37,542
You can't. I'll be gone all weekend.

1132
01:11:42,632 --> 01:11:44,883
NBC's offering $3.25 mil...

1133
01:11:45,051 --> 01:11:47,260
...per package
of five James Bond movies...

1134
01:11:47,428 --> 01:11:52,641
...and I think I'm gonna steal them
for $3.5 million with a third run.

1135
01:12:01,067 --> 01:12:03,485
And I'm gonna stick
The Mao Tse-Tung Hour in at 8...

1136
01:12:03,653 --> 01:12:06,947
...because we're having a lot of trouble
selling The Mao Tse-Tung Hour.

1137
01:12:07,115 --> 01:12:08,699
This way...

1138
01:12:16,749 --> 01:12:21,795
That Mao Tse-Tung Hour's
turning into one big pain in the ass.

1139
01:12:22,922 --> 01:12:27,175
We're having heavy legal problems
with the federal government right now.

1140
01:12:28,261 --> 01:12:31,054
Two FBI guys turned up
in Hackett's office last week...

1141
01:12:31,222 --> 01:12:33,724
...and served us with a subpoena.

1142
01:12:34,851 --> 01:12:39,438
They heard about our Flagstaff bank
rip-off film and they want it.

1143
01:12:40,523 --> 01:12:43,316
Hackett told the FBI to fuck off.

1144
01:12:48,531 --> 01:12:50,365
No, but we're getting around the FBI...

1145
01:12:50,533 --> 01:12:54,036
...by doing the show in collaboration
with the news division.

1146
01:12:54,203 --> 01:12:57,080
We're standing on the First Amendment,
Freedom of the Press...

1147
01:12:57,248 --> 01:12:59,124
...and the right to protect our sources.

1148
01:12:59,292 --> 01:13:02,586
Walter thinks we can knock out
the misprision of felony charge. Ha, ha.

1149
01:13:10,470 --> 01:13:13,555
But he says absolutely nix on going to series.

1150
01:13:13,723 --> 01:13:18,685
They'll hit us with conspiracy
and inducement to commit a crime.

1151
01:13:18,853 --> 01:13:21,188
Christ, it's cold in here.

1152
01:13:21,355 --> 01:13:24,524
See, we're paying these nuts
from the Ecumenical Liberation Army...

1153
01:13:24,692 --> 01:13:27,778
...$10,000 a week in order to turn in
authentic film footage...

1154
01:13:27,945 --> 01:13:29,946
...of their revolutionary activities...

1155
01:13:30,114 --> 01:13:33,325
...and that can constitute inducement
to commit a crime.

1156
01:13:33,493 --> 01:13:37,788
And Walter says we'll all wind up
in federal prison.

1157
01:13:38,164 --> 01:13:41,208
I said, "Walter, let the government sue us.

1158
01:13:41,375 --> 01:13:45,378
Let the federal government sue us.
We'll take them to the Supreme Court.

1159
01:13:45,546 --> 01:13:49,007
We'll be front page, mm, for months.

1160
01:13:49,258 --> 01:13:52,052
The New York Times and The Washington Post...

1161
01:13:52,220 --> 01:13:55,180
...will be writing two editorials a week
about us.

1162
01:13:55,348 --> 01:13:58,600
We'll be front page for months.
We'll have more press than Watergate."

1163
01:13:58,768 --> 01:14:03,313
All I need is six weeks' federal litigation...

1164
01:14:03,481 --> 01:14:07,025
...and The Mao Tse-Tung Hour
can start carrying its own time slot.

1165
01:14:23,626 --> 01:14:27,587
What's really bugging me now
is my daytime programming.

1166
01:14:28,589 --> 01:14:31,174
NBC's got a lock on daytime...

1167
01:14:31,342 --> 01:14:33,468
...with their lousy game shows...

1168
01:14:34,011 --> 01:14:36,388
...and I'd like to bust them.

1169
01:14:36,806 --> 01:14:40,058
I'm thinking of doing a homosexual soap opera.

1170
01:14:40,226 --> 01:14:41,935
The Dykes.

1171
01:14:42,728 --> 01:14:46,231
The heart-rendering saga
about a woman hopelessly in love...

1172
01:14:46,399 --> 01:14:50,694
...with her husband's mistress.
What do you think?

1173
01:15:02,748 --> 01:15:04,207
How long has it been going on?

1174
01:15:06,669 --> 01:15:08,253
A month.

1175
01:15:10,256 --> 01:15:13,466
I thought it was a transient thing,
blow over in a week.

1176
01:15:14,886 --> 01:15:20,473
And I still pray to God
it's just a menopausal infatuation.

1177
01:15:21,392 --> 01:15:24,769
But it is an infatuation, Louise.

1178
01:15:26,355 --> 01:15:30,150
There's no sense in my saying
I won't see her again, because I will.

1179
01:15:34,238 --> 01:15:38,533
Do you want me to leave?
Check into a hotel?

1180
01:15:41,287 --> 01:15:42,954
Do you love her?

1181
01:15:46,626 --> 01:15:48,585
I don't know how I feel.

1182
01:15:50,963 --> 01:15:52,547
I'm grateful I can feel anything.

1183
01:15:57,303 --> 01:15:59,095
I know I'm obsessed with her.

1184
01:16:01,390 --> 01:16:03,183
Then say it.

1185
01:16:04,143 --> 01:16:07,896
Don't keep telling me that
you're obsessed, that you're infatuated.

1186
01:16:08,064 --> 01:16:10,315
Say that you're in love with her.

1187
01:16:12,860 --> 01:16:14,236
I'm in love with her.

1188
01:16:15,404 --> 01:16:17,197
Then get out!

1189
01:16:17,365 --> 01:16:20,992
Go anywhere you want. Go to a hotel,
go live with her, but don't come back.

1190
01:16:21,160 --> 01:16:22,827
Because after 25 years...

1191
01:16:22,995 --> 01:16:26,748
...of building a home and raising a family
and all the senseless pain...

1192
01:16:26,916 --> 01:16:30,669
...that we have inflicted on each other,
I'm damned if I'm gonna stand here...

1193
01:16:30,836 --> 01:16:33,505
...and have you tell me
you're in love with somebody else.

1194
01:16:34,090 --> 01:16:38,718
Because this isn't a convention weekend
with your secretary, is it?

1195
01:16:38,886 --> 01:16:43,181
Or some broad that you picked up
after three belts of booze.

1196
01:16:43,349 --> 01:16:46,101
This is your great winter romance, isn't it?

1197
01:16:46,269 --> 01:16:50,188
Your last roar of passion before you settle
into your emeritus years.

1198
01:16:50,356 --> 01:16:52,065
Is that what's left for me?

1199
01:16:52,233 --> 01:16:56,278
Is that my share? She gets
the winter passion and I get the dotage.

1200
01:16:56,445 --> 01:16:57,696
What am I supposed to do?

1201
01:16:57,863 --> 01:17:01,574
Am I supposed to sit home knitting
and purling while you slink back...

1202
01:17:01,742 --> 01:17:03,868
...like some penitent drunk?

1203
01:17:04,328 --> 01:17:06,079
I'm your wife, damn it.

1204
01:17:06,247 --> 01:17:08,373
If you can't work up a winter passion for me...

1205
01:17:08,541 --> 01:17:11,543
...the least I require
is respect and allegiance.

1206
01:17:24,056 --> 01:17:27,434
I hurt, don't you understand that?

1207
01:17:29,562 --> 01:17:32,105
I hurt badly.

1208
01:17:40,740 --> 01:17:42,824
Oh, say something, for God's sake.

1209
01:17:52,585 --> 01:17:54,794
I've got nothing to say.

1210
01:18:05,598 --> 01:18:08,099
I won't give you up easily, Max.

1211
01:18:14,273 --> 01:18:17,108
I think perhaps it is better if you move out.

1212
01:18:22,990 --> 01:18:25,200
Does she love you, Max?

1213
01:18:29,163 --> 01:18:32,832
I'm not sure she's capable of any real feelings.

1214
01:18:33,000 --> 01:18:37,087
She's television generation.
She learned life from Bugs Bunny.

1215
01:18:37,254 --> 01:18:41,257
The only reality she knows
comes to her over the TV set.

1216
01:18:42,635 --> 01:18:45,428
She's very carefully devised
a number of scenarios...

1217
01:18:45,596 --> 01:18:49,349
...for all of us to play,
like the Movie of the Week.

1218
01:18:52,311 --> 01:18:54,646
My God, look at us, Louise.

1219
01:18:55,022 --> 01:18:58,441
Here we are going through
the obligatory middle of Act 2...

1220
01:18:58,609 --> 01:19:02,445
...scorned-wife-throws
peccant-husband-out scene.

1221
01:19:02,613 --> 01:19:05,824
But don't worry,
I'll come back to you in the end.

1222
01:19:05,991 --> 01:19:08,284
All of her plot outlines have me leaving her...

1223
01:19:08,452 --> 01:19:11,204
...and coming back to you,
because the audience won't buy...

1224
01:19:11,372 --> 01:19:14,082
...a rejection
of the happy American family.

1225
01:19:16,919 --> 01:19:20,171
She does have one script in which I kill myself.

1226
01:19:20,464 --> 01:19:25,218
An adapted for television version
of Anna Karenina...

1227
01:19:26,554 --> 01:19:29,055
...where she's Count Vronsky
and I'm Anna.

1228
01:19:34,228 --> 01:19:36,438
You're in for some dreadful grief, Max.

1229
01:19:39,275 --> 01:19:40,817
I know.

1230
01:19:41,277 --> 01:19:44,112
The Mao Tse-Tung Hour
went on the air March 14.

1231
01:19:44,280 --> 01:19:46,531
It received a 47 share.

1232
01:19:46,699 --> 01:19:50,618
The network promptly committed
to 15 shows with an option for 10 more.

1233
01:19:50,786 --> 01:19:53,037
There were the usual contractual difficulties.

1234
01:19:53,205 --> 01:19:57,000
"Equal to 20 percent, 20, except that
such percentages shall be 30 percent, 30...

1235
01:19:57,168 --> 01:19:59,669
...for 90-minute or longer
television programs."

1236
01:19:59,879 --> 01:20:01,754
Have we settled that sublicensing thing?

1237
01:20:01,922 --> 01:20:05,175
- No.
- We want a clear definition here.

1238
01:20:06,302 --> 01:20:10,680
"Gross proceeds should consist
of all funds the sublicensee receives...

1239
01:20:10,848 --> 01:20:15,643
...not merely the net amount remitted after
payment to the sublicensee or distributor."

1240
01:20:15,811 --> 01:20:19,481
We're not sitting still for overhead charges
as a cost prior to distribution.

1241
01:20:19,648 --> 01:20:22,942
Don't fuck with my distribution costs.

1242
01:20:23,110 --> 01:20:24,944
I'm making a lousy 215 per segment.

1243
01:20:25,112 --> 01:20:27,530
I'm already deficiting $25,000 a week
with Metro!

1244
01:20:27,698 --> 01:20:29,949
I'm paying William Morris
10 percent off the top!

1245
01:20:30,117 --> 01:20:33,244
I'm giving this turkey $10,000
and another five to this fruitcake.

1246
01:20:33,412 --> 01:20:35,371
Don't start no shit with me about a piece.

1247
01:20:35,539 --> 01:20:39,626
I'm paying Metro 20 percent for all foreign
and Canadian distribution after recoupment.

1248
01:20:39,793 --> 01:20:43,463
The Communist Party's not gonna see
a nickel until we go into syndication!

1249
01:20:43,631 --> 01:20:47,050
Come on, Laureen. The Party's in
for 7500 a week production expenses.

1250
01:20:47,218 --> 01:20:50,637
I'm not giving this pseudo-insurrectionary
sectarian a piece of my show.

1251
01:20:50,804 --> 01:20:54,849
I'm not giving him script approval. I'm not
cutting him in on my distribution charges.

1252
01:20:55,017 --> 01:20:56,851
You fucking fascist!

1253
01:20:57,019 --> 01:20:59,771
Did you see the film we made
of San Marino jail breakout...

1254
01:20:59,939 --> 01:21:03,441
...demonstrating the rising up of
the seminal prisoner-class infrastructure?

1255
01:21:03,609 --> 01:21:06,736
You can blow the seminal prisoner-class
infrastructure out your ass!

1256
01:21:06,904 --> 01:21:09,489
I'm not knocking down
my goddamn distribution charges.

1257
01:21:10,783 --> 01:21:15,245
Man, give her the fucking overhead clause.

1258
01:21:15,412 --> 01:21:17,997
How did I get here?
Who's gonna believe this?

1259
01:21:18,165 --> 01:21:20,625
I'm sitting here in a goddamn farmhouse
in Encino...

1260
01:21:20,793 --> 01:21:26,339
Let's get back to Page 22,
5, small "A", Subsidiary Rights.

1261
01:21:26,840 --> 01:21:27,882
Where are we now?

1262
01:21:28,050 --> 01:21:30,301
Page 22, middle of the page.
Subsidiary Rights.

1263
01:21:30,469 --> 01:21:34,097
"'Subsidiary rights' means
without limitation any and all rights..."

1264
01:21:45,317 --> 01:21:49,821
Over the past two days, you've all had
opportunity to meet Diana Christensen...

1265
01:21:49,989 --> 01:21:53,074
...our vice president
in charge of programming.

1266
01:21:53,242 --> 01:21:57,787
This afternoon, you all saw some of
the stuff she's set up for the new season.

1267
01:22:07,172 --> 01:22:10,967
You all know that she is the woman
behind the Howard Beale Show.

1268
01:22:19,768 --> 01:22:21,477
We all know she's beautiful.

1269
01:22:22,563 --> 01:22:24,772
We all know she's brainy.

1270
01:22:25,357 --> 01:22:30,987
I was thinking, before we start digging
into our Chateaubriands...

1271
01:22:32,197 --> 01:22:34,907
...let's show her how we feel about her.

1272
01:22:50,299 --> 01:22:52,884
We have the number-one show
in television!

1273
01:22:56,305 --> 01:22:58,056
At next year's affiliates' meeting...

1274
01:22:58,223 --> 01:23:00,975
...I'll be standing here telling you
we've got the top five.

1275
01:23:07,232 --> 01:23:10,068
Last year, we were
the number-four network...

1276
01:23:10,569 --> 01:23:12,570
...next year we're number one!

1277
01:23:13,322 --> 01:23:17,408
We're number one! We're number one!

1278
01:23:17,576 --> 01:23:19,202
We're number one!

1279
01:23:19,370 --> 01:23:25,416
We're number one!

1280
01:23:28,420 --> 01:23:31,714
It is exactly 7:00 here in Los Angeles.

1281
01:23:31,924 --> 01:23:35,927
And right now, over a million homes
using television in this city...

1282
01:23:36,095 --> 01:23:40,598
...are turning their dials to Channel 3
and that's our channel!

1283
01:23:47,898 --> 01:23:49,524
Howard Beale!

1284
01:23:52,611 --> 01:23:54,487
Stop it, stop it!

1285
01:23:55,322 --> 01:23:56,447
Now you listen to me.

1286
01:23:56,615 --> 01:24:02,286
And listen carefully because this is your
goddamn life I'm talking about today.

1287
01:24:03,205 --> 01:24:06,499
In this country, when one company wants
to take over another company...

1288
01:24:06,667 --> 01:24:08,960
...they buy up a controlling share
of the stock...

1289
01:24:09,128 --> 01:24:11,796
...but first they have to file notice
with the government.

1290
01:24:11,964 --> 01:24:14,716
That's how CCA took over the company
that owns this network.

1291
01:24:14,883 --> 01:24:17,885
But now, somebody's buying up CCA.

1292
01:24:18,053 --> 01:24:21,597
Somebody called
the Western World Funding Corporation.

1293
01:24:21,765 --> 01:24:23,391
They filed the notice this morning.

1294
01:24:23,559 --> 01:24:28,187
Well, just who in the hell is
the Western World Funding Corporation?

1295
01:24:28,397 --> 01:24:31,733
It is a consortium of banks
and insurance companies...

1296
01:24:31,900 --> 01:24:35,361
...who are not buying CCA for themselves,
but as agents for somebody else.

1297
01:24:35,529 --> 01:24:37,739
Who is this somebody else?
They won't tell you.

1298
01:24:37,906 --> 01:24:40,199
They won't tell you,
they won't tell the Senate...

1299
01:24:40,367 --> 01:24:44,370
...they won't tell the SEC, the FTC,
they won't tell the Justice Department...

1300
01:24:44,538 --> 01:24:47,248
This is Mr. Hackett.
Do you have a New York call for me?

1301
01:24:47,416 --> 01:24:50,168
- The hell it ain't!
- Do you wanna turn that down, please?

1302
01:24:50,335 --> 01:24:52,712
I will tell you who they're buying CCA for.

1303
01:24:54,339 --> 01:24:58,050
They're buying it for the Saudi Arabian
Investment Corporation.

1304
01:24:58,218 --> 01:25:00,219
They're buying it for the Arabs!

1305
01:25:00,512 --> 01:25:01,846
Clarence? Frank Hackett here.

1306
01:25:02,014 --> 01:25:05,308
How's everything back in New York?
How's the good lady?

1307
01:25:08,353 --> 01:25:12,356
All right, Clarence, take it easy.
I don't know what you're talking about.

1308
01:25:12,524 --> 01:25:18,362
When? Tonight's show?
Clarence, take it easy.

1309
01:25:19,531 --> 01:25:21,699
The Howard Beale Show is just going on out here.

1310
01:25:21,867 --> 01:25:25,203
You guys get it three hours earlier
in New York. Clarence, take it easy.

1311
01:25:25,370 --> 01:25:28,372
How the hell could I see it?
It's just going on now!

1312
01:25:28,540 --> 01:25:32,210
And there's not a single law
in the books to stop them.

1313
01:25:33,545 --> 01:25:36,005
When did Mr. Jensen call?

1314
01:25:36,673 --> 01:25:42,887
We all know that the Arabs control
$16 billion in this country.

1315
01:25:43,055 --> 01:25:44,931
They own a chunk of 5th Avenue...

1316
01:25:45,098 --> 01:25:49,393
...twenty downtown pieces of Boston.
A part of the port of New Orleans.

1317
01:25:49,561 --> 01:25:52,021
An industrial park in Salt Lake City.

1318
01:25:52,189 --> 01:25:57,318
They own big hunks of the Atlanta Hilton,
the Arizona Land and Cattle Company...

1319
01:25:57,486 --> 01:25:59,237
...part of a bank in California...

1320
01:25:59,404 --> 01:26:01,364
...the Bank of the Commonwealth
in Detroit.

1321
01:26:01,532 --> 01:26:05,910
They control Aramco, so that puts
them into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil.

1322
01:26:06,078 --> 01:26:10,289
They're all over! New Jersey,
Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri...

1323
01:26:10,457 --> 01:26:12,375
...and that's only what we know about.

1324
01:26:12,543 --> 01:26:15,127
There's a hell of a lot more
we don't know about.

1325
01:26:15,295 --> 01:26:17,755
Because all of those Arab petrol dollars...

1326
01:26:17,923 --> 01:26:20,258
...are washed through
Switzerland and Canada...

1327
01:26:20,425 --> 01:26:22,343
...and the biggest banks in this country.

1328
01:26:22,511 --> 01:26:26,222
For example, what we don't know
about is this CCA deal...

1329
01:26:26,890 --> 01:26:29,392
...and all the other CCA deals.

1330
01:26:29,852 --> 01:26:33,688
Right now the Arabs have screwed us
out of enough American dollars...

1331
01:26:33,856 --> 01:26:37,233
...to come right back and, with our
own money, buy General Motors...

1332
01:26:37,401 --> 01:26:41,612
...IBM, ITT, ATandT, Dupont, U.S. Steel...

1333
01:26:41,780 --> 01:26:44,073
...and 20 other American companies.

1334
01:26:44,241 --> 01:26:49,537
Hell, they already own half of England.
So listen to me.

1335
01:26:49,705 --> 01:26:53,958
Listen to me, goddamn it.
The Arabs are simply buying us.

1336
01:26:54,793 --> 01:26:57,628
There's only one thing
that can stop them. You!

1337
01:26:58,589 --> 01:27:00,339
You!

1338
01:27:00,591 --> 01:27:03,384
So I want you to get up now.

1339
01:27:03,594 --> 01:27:06,304
I want you to get up out of your chairs.

1340
01:27:06,471 --> 01:27:09,265
I want you to get up right now
and go to the phone.

1341
01:27:09,433 --> 01:27:13,311
I want you to get up from your chairs,
go to the phone, get in your cars...

1342
01:27:13,478 --> 01:27:15,980
...drive into the Western Union
offices in town.

1343
01:27:16,148 --> 01:27:19,483
I want you to send a telegram
to the White House.

1344
01:27:19,651 --> 01:27:22,028
- Oh, my God.
- By midnight tonight...

1345
01:27:22,195 --> 01:27:24,989
...I want a million telegrams
in the White House.

1346
01:27:25,157 --> 01:27:29,118
I want them wading knee-deep
in telegrams at the White House.

1347
01:27:29,369 --> 01:27:34,415
I want you to get up right now and write
a telegram to President Ford saying:

1348
01:27:34,583 --> 01:27:38,461
"I'm as mad as hell
and I'm not gonna take this anymore.

1349
01:27:38,629 --> 01:27:41,672
I don't want the banks
selling my country to the Arabs.

1350
01:27:41,840 --> 01:27:45,009
I want the CCA deal stopped now.

1351
01:27:45,177 --> 01:27:48,429
I want the CCA deal stopped now.
Come on.

1352
01:27:48,597 --> 01:27:51,849
I want the CCA deal stopped now!

1353
01:27:52,017 --> 01:28:00,524
I want the CCA deal stopped now!

1354
01:28:14,873 --> 01:28:17,708
- Look, could we have the room?
- Sure.

1355
01:28:26,134 --> 01:28:30,221
Well, I'd like to see a typescript
and run through a couple more times.

1356
01:28:30,806 --> 01:28:33,891
But as for this whole CCA deal
with the Saudis...

1357
01:28:34,059 --> 01:28:36,727
...you'd know a lot more
about that, Frank, than I would.

1358
01:28:36,895 --> 01:28:38,646
Is it true?

1359
01:28:42,234 --> 01:28:46,070
The CCA has 2 billion in loans
with the Saudis...

1360
01:28:46,279 --> 01:28:49,240
...and they hold every pledge we've got.

1361
01:28:50,492 --> 01:28:53,244
We need that Saudi money bad.

1362
01:28:55,414 --> 01:28:58,332
Disaster. The show is a disaster.

1363
01:28:59,751 --> 01:29:02,920
Unmitigated disaster. The death knell.

1364
01:29:04,423 --> 01:29:08,259
I'm ruined. I'm dead. Finished.

1365
01:29:08,927 --> 01:29:12,847
Maybe we're overstating
Beale's clout with the public.

1366
01:29:14,016 --> 01:29:16,600
An hour ago, Clarence McElheny
called me from New York.

1367
01:29:16,768 --> 01:29:19,979
It was 10:00 in the east and our people
in the White House report...

1368
01:29:20,147 --> 01:29:22,982
...they were already knee-deep in telegrams.

1369
01:29:23,150 --> 01:29:28,029
By tomorrow morning,
they'll be suffocating in telegrams.

1370
01:29:28,196 --> 01:29:30,823
- Can the government stop the deal?
- They can hold it up.

1371
01:29:30,991 --> 01:29:34,410
The SEC could hold this deal up
for 20 years, if they wanted to.

1372
01:29:34,661 --> 01:29:36,037
I'm finished.

1373
01:29:36,204 --> 01:29:39,707
Any second that phone's gonna ring
and Clarence McElheny is gonna tell me...

1374
01:29:39,875 --> 01:29:42,710
...Mr. Jensen wants me in his office
tomorrow morning...

1375
01:29:42,878 --> 01:29:46,338
...so he can personally chop my head off.

1376
01:29:47,007 --> 01:29:49,383
Four hours ago, I was the sun god at CCA.

1377
01:29:49,551 --> 01:29:53,637
Mr. Jensen's hand-picked golden boy,
the heir apparent.

1378
01:29:53,805 --> 01:29:58,392
Now, ha, ha, I'm a man without a corporation.

1379
01:29:59,478 --> 01:30:01,645
Let's get back to Howard Beale.

1380
01:30:02,981 --> 01:30:06,150
You're not seriously gonna pull Beale
off the air?

1381
01:30:10,447 --> 01:30:14,450
Mr. Jensen's unhappy with Howard Beale
and wants him discontinued.

1382
01:30:14,618 --> 01:30:16,994
But he may be unhappy,
but he isn't stupid enough...

1383
01:30:17,162 --> 01:30:20,039
...to withdraw the number-one show
on television out of pique.

1384
01:30:20,207 --> 01:30:23,084
Two billion dollars isn't pique!
That's the wrath of God!

1385
01:30:23,251 --> 01:30:25,586
And the wrath of God wants Howard Beale fired!

1386
01:30:25,754 --> 01:30:28,255
Every other network will grab him
the minute he walks.

1387
01:30:28,423 --> 01:30:31,133
He'll be back on the air for ABC
and we'll lose 20 points--

1388
01:30:31,301 --> 01:30:33,844
I'm gonna impale the son of a bitch
with a sharp stick!

1389
01:30:34,012 --> 01:30:36,680
- Forty million loss in revenues.
- I'll take out a contract.

1390
01:30:36,848 --> 01:30:40,142
- Let's not discount federal action...
- I'll hire professional killers.

1391
01:30:40,310 --> 01:30:45,481
No, I'll do it myself.
I'll strangle him with a sash cord!

1392
01:30:45,816 --> 01:30:48,984
--and a breach of the consent decree.
I don't think Jensen's gonna fire anybody.

1393
01:30:54,783 --> 01:30:56,200
Hackett.

1394
01:30:58,411 --> 01:31:01,872
Yes, Clarence.
I've already booked my flight.

1395
01:31:03,583 --> 01:31:05,918
Uh, well, can you give me
a little more time than that?

1396
01:31:06,086 --> 01:31:08,796
I've got the red-eye flight,
I won't be back in New York...

1397
01:31:08,964 --> 01:31:11,132
...till 6 tomorrow morning.

1398
01:31:13,093 --> 01:31:15,136
That'll be just fine.

1399
01:31:15,387 --> 01:31:17,054
I'll see you then.

1400
01:31:25,689 --> 01:31:28,983
Mr. Jensen wants to meet
Howard Beale personally.

1401
01:31:29,526 --> 01:31:33,279
He wants Mr. Beale in his office
at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

1402
01:31:39,786 --> 01:31:42,496
The final revelation is at hand.

1403
01:31:42,664 --> 01:31:46,750
I have seen the shattering fulgurations
of ultimate clarity.

1404
01:31:46,918 --> 01:31:51,755
The light is impending.
I bear witness to the light!

1405
01:32:12,569 --> 01:32:14,153
Good morning, Mr. Beale.

1406
01:32:14,321 --> 01:32:17,031
- They tell me you're a madman.
- Only desultorily.

1407
01:32:17,199 --> 01:32:19,533
- How are you now?
- I'm as mad as a hatter.

1408
01:32:19,701 --> 01:32:21,368
Who isn't?

1409
01:32:21,953 --> 01:32:24,121
I'm going to take you into our conference room.

1410
01:32:24,289 --> 01:32:27,625
Seems more seemly a setting
for what I have to say to you.

1411
01:32:28,960 --> 01:32:31,378
I started as a salesman, Mr. Beale.

1412
01:32:31,546 --> 01:32:34,423
I sold sewing machines and automobile parts...

1413
01:32:34,591 --> 01:32:37,509
...hairbrushes and electronic equipment.

1414
01:32:37,677 --> 01:32:40,012
They say I can sell anything.

1415
01:32:40,847 --> 01:32:44,099
I'd like to try to sell something to you.

1416
01:32:47,687 --> 01:32:51,315
Valhalla, Mr. Beale. Please, sit down.

1417
01:33:20,804 --> 01:33:25,599
You have meddled with the primal forces
of nature, Mr. Beale.

1418
01:33:25,767 --> 01:33:30,104
And I won't have it! Is that clear?

1419
01:33:30,397 --> 01:33:32,856
You think you've merely stopped a business deal.

1420
01:33:33,024 --> 01:33:34,566
That is not the case.

1421
01:33:34,734 --> 01:33:37,653
The Arabs have taken billions of dollars
out of this country...

1422
01:33:37,821 --> 01:33:39,697
...and now they must put it back!

1423
01:33:39,864 --> 01:33:45,035
It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity,
it is ecological balance.

1424
01:33:46,621 --> 01:33:48,372
You are an old man...

1425
01:33:48,540 --> 01:33:52,376
...who thinks in terms
of nations and peoples.

1426
01:33:52,544 --> 01:33:55,921
There are no nations, there are no peoples.
There are no Russians.

1427
01:33:56,089 --> 01:33:58,549
There are no Arabs.
There are no Third Worlds.

1428
01:33:58,717 --> 01:33:59,883
There is no West!

1429
01:34:00,051 --> 01:34:05,014
There is only one holistic system of systems.

1430
01:34:05,181 --> 01:34:07,391
One vast and immane...

1431
01:34:07,559 --> 01:34:10,394
...interwoven, interacting, multi-variate...

1432
01:34:10,562 --> 01:34:13,731
...multinational dominion of dollars.

1433
01:34:13,898 --> 01:34:17,026
Petrol dollars, electro-dollars,
multi-dollars.

1434
01:34:17,193 --> 01:34:22,948
Reichsmarks, rins, rubles, pounds and shekels.

1435
01:34:24,284 --> 01:34:28,746
It is the international system of currency
which determines...

1436
01:34:28,913 --> 01:34:32,291
...the totality of life on this planet.

1437
01:34:33,251 --> 01:34:37,755
That is the natural order of things today.

1438
01:34:38,882 --> 01:34:42,634
That is the atomic...

1439
01:34:42,802 --> 01:34:44,928
...and subatomic...

1440
01:34:45,096 --> 01:34:50,434
...and galactic structure
of things today.

1441
01:34:51,186 --> 01:34:53,270
And you have meddled...

1442
01:34:53,438 --> 01:34:57,983
...with the primal forces of nature!

1443
01:34:58,276 --> 01:35:03,781
And you will atone.

1444
01:35:04,407 --> 01:35:06,784
Am I getting it through to you, Mr. Beale?

1445
01:35:10,246 --> 01:35:14,792
You get up on your little 21-inch screen...

1446
01:35:15,502 --> 01:35:20,381
...and howl about America
and democracy.

1447
01:35:20,965 --> 01:35:25,302
There is no America.
There is no democracy.

1448
01:35:25,470 --> 01:35:30,974
There is only IBM and ITT and ATandT...

1449
01:35:31,142 --> 01:35:36,730
...and Dupont, Dow,
Union Carbide, and Exxon.

1450
01:35:36,898 --> 01:35:40,484
Those are the nations of the world today.

1451
01:35:40,860 --> 01:35:44,988
What do you think the Russians talk about
in their councils of state? Karl Marx?

1452
01:35:45,156 --> 01:35:47,491
They get out their linear programming charts...

1453
01:35:47,659 --> 01:35:50,160
...statistical decision theories,
minimax solutions...

1454
01:35:50,328 --> 01:35:53,789
...and compute price-cost probabilities
of transactions and investments...

1455
01:35:53,957 --> 01:35:54,998
...just like we do.

1456
01:35:55,500 --> 01:35:59,753
We no longer live in a world of nations
and ideologies, Mr. Beale.

1457
01:35:59,921 --> 01:36:04,591
The world is a college of corporations...

1458
01:36:05,260 --> 01:36:12,141
...inexorably determined
by the immutable bylaws of business.

1459
01:36:14,227 --> 01:36:17,187
The world is a business, Mr. Beale.

1460
01:36:19,107 --> 01:36:23,068
It has been since man crawled out of the slime.

1461
01:36:25,864 --> 01:36:30,784
And our children will live, Mr. Beale...

1462
01:36:32,162 --> 01:36:33,745
...to see that...

1463
01:36:36,040 --> 01:36:38,792
...perfect world...

1464
01:36:39,794 --> 01:36:43,005
...in which there's no war or famine...

1465
01:36:43,173 --> 01:36:46,508
...oppression or brutality.

1466
01:36:47,552 --> 01:36:51,513
One vast and ecumenical holding company...

1467
01:36:51,681 --> 01:36:55,976
...for whom all men will work
to serve a common profit...

1468
01:36:56,144 --> 01:37:00,397
...in which all men will hold
a share of stock...

1469
01:37:01,649 --> 01:37:04,568
...all necessities provided...

1470
01:37:05,278 --> 01:37:09,114
...all anxieties tranquillized...

1471
01:37:10,074 --> 01:37:13,994
...all boredom amused.

1472
01:37:19,959 --> 01:37:24,546
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale...

1473
01:37:24,714 --> 01:37:27,216
...to preach this evangel.

1474
01:37:27,884 --> 01:37:29,510
Why me?

1475
01:37:30,762 --> 01:37:33,597
Because you're on television, dummy.

1476
01:37:34,474 --> 01:37:39,937
Sixty million people watch you every night
of the week, Monday through Friday.

1477
01:37:40,813 --> 01:37:43,106
I have seen the face of God.

1478
01:37:45,652 --> 01:37:48,237
You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

1479
01:37:49,781 --> 01:37:52,115
That evening, Howard Beale went on the air...

1480
01:37:52,283 --> 01:37:54,952
...to preach the corporate cosmology
of Arthur Jensen.

1481
01:37:55,119 --> 01:37:57,996
Last night I got up here and asked you people...

1482
01:37:58,164 --> 01:38:02,459
...to stand up and fight for your heritage,
and you did, and it was beautiful.

1483
01:38:02,627 --> 01:38:05,629
Six million telegrams were received
at the White House.

1484
01:38:05,797 --> 01:38:08,966
The Arab takeover of CCA has been stopped.

1485
01:38:09,133 --> 01:38:14,805
The people spoke, the people won.
It was a radiant eruption of democracy.

1486
01:38:14,973 --> 01:38:19,017
But I think that was it, fellas.

1487
01:38:19,185 --> 01:38:21,895
That sort of thing is not likely
to happen again.

1488
01:38:22,105 --> 01:38:25,065
Because at the bottom
of all our terrified souls...

1489
01:38:25,233 --> 01:38:28,277
...we know that democracy
is a dying giant...

1490
01:38:28,444 --> 01:38:33,240
...a sick, sick, dying, decaying,
political concept writhing in its final pain.

1491
01:38:33,408 --> 01:38:36,994
I don't mean that the United States
is finished as a world power.

1492
01:38:37,161 --> 01:38:39,329
The States is the richest and most powerful...

1493
01:38:39,497 --> 01:38:42,457
...the most advanced country,
light years ahead of any country.

1494
01:38:42,625 --> 01:38:45,335
I don't mean the communists
are gonna take over the world.

1495
01:38:45,503 --> 01:38:48,839
The communists are deader than we are.
What is finished...

1496
01:38:50,466 --> 01:38:53,927
...is the idea that this great country
is dedicated to the freedom...

1497
01:38:54,095 --> 01:38:57,806
...and flourishing of every individual in it.

1498
01:38:58,891 --> 01:39:01,852
It's the individual that's finished.

1499
01:39:02,270 --> 01:39:06,189
It's the single, solitary, human being
that's finished.

1500
01:39:07,066 --> 01:39:11,111
It's every single one of you out there
that's finished.

1501
01:39:11,654 --> 01:39:13,864
Because this is no longer...

1502
01:39:14,032 --> 01:39:17,743
...a nation of independent individuals.

1503
01:39:18,036 --> 01:39:20,829
It's a nation of some 200-odd million...

1504
01:39:20,997 --> 01:39:23,540
...transistorized, deodorized...

1505
01:39:23,708 --> 01:39:29,212
...whiter than white steel-belted bodies,
totally unnecessary as human beings...

1506
01:39:29,380 --> 01:39:32,758
...and as replaceable as piston rods.

1507
01:39:43,394 --> 01:39:46,605
Well, the time has come to say...

1508
01:39:46,773 --> 01:39:49,941
...is "dehumanization" such a bad word?

1509
01:39:50,318 --> 01:39:53,403
Whether it's good or bad, that's what is so.

1510
01:39:53,571 --> 01:39:58,742
The whole world is becoming humanoid,
creatures that look human but aren't.

1511
01:39:59,202 --> 01:40:00,577
The whole world, not just us.

1512
01:40:00,745 --> 01:40:04,915
We're just the most advanced country,
so we're getting there first.

1513
01:40:05,583 --> 01:40:10,545
The whole world's people are becoming
mass-produced, programmed...

1514
01:40:10,713 --> 01:40:12,464
...numbered insensate things.

1515
01:40:12,882 --> 01:40:14,925
It was a perfectly admissible argument...

1516
01:40:15,093 --> 01:40:17,678
...that Howard Beale advanced
in the days that followed.

1517
01:40:17,845 --> 01:40:20,722
It was, however, also a very depressing one.

1518
01:40:20,890 --> 01:40:24,226
Nobody particularly cared to hear
his life was utterly valueless.

1519
01:40:24,394 --> 01:40:26,228
By the end of the first week in June...

1520
01:40:26,396 --> 01:40:29,147
...the Howard Beale Show
dropped one point in the ratings...

1521
01:40:29,315 --> 01:40:33,944
...and its trend of shares dipped under 48
for the first time since last November.

1522
01:40:34,112 --> 01:40:38,115
You're his goddamn agent. I'm counting
on you to talk some sense into the lunatic.

1523
01:40:38,282 --> 01:40:41,785
Nobody wants to hear about
dying democracy and dehumanization.

1524
01:40:42,412 --> 01:40:43,495
I'm sorry I'm late.

1525
01:40:43,663 --> 01:40:45,872
We're starting to get rumbles from the agencies.

1526
01:40:46,040 --> 01:40:48,834
Another couple of weeks
and the sponsors will be bailing out!

1527
01:40:49,001 --> 01:40:52,129
This is a breach of contract.
This isn't the Howard Beale we signed.

1528
01:40:52,296 --> 01:40:56,591
Get him off that corporate universe kick,
or so help me, I'll pull it off the air!

1529
01:40:56,759 --> 01:40:59,886
I told him, Lou! I've been telling him
every day for a week!

1530
01:41:00,054 --> 01:41:03,140
I'm sick of telling him. Now you tell him!

1531
01:41:11,023 --> 01:41:12,399
Jesus Christ.

1532
01:41:15,903 --> 01:41:18,238
You could help me out
with Howard if you wanted to.

1533
01:41:18,406 --> 01:41:20,657
He listens to you. You're his best friend.

1534
01:41:20,825 --> 01:41:23,285
I'm tired of all this hysteria
about Howard Beale.

1535
01:41:23,453 --> 01:41:26,121
Every time you come
from seeing somebody in your family...

1536
01:41:26,289 --> 01:41:28,623
...you come back in one of these
middle-aged moods.

1537
01:41:28,791 --> 01:41:31,835
I'm tired of finding you on the telephone
every time I turn around.

1538
01:41:32,003 --> 01:41:34,838
I'm tired of being an accessory in your life.

1539
01:41:35,298 --> 01:41:37,841
And I'm tired of pretending to write
this dumb book...

1540
01:41:38,009 --> 01:41:41,178
...about my maverick days
in the great early years of television.

1541
01:41:41,345 --> 01:41:45,015
Every goddamned executive fired
from a network in the last 20 years...

1542
01:41:45,183 --> 01:41:49,186
...has written this dumb book
about the great early years of television.

1543
01:41:49,353 --> 01:41:52,647
And nobody wants a dumb, damn, goddamn book...

1544
01:41:52,815 --> 01:41:55,025
...about the early days of television.

1545
01:41:55,193 --> 01:41:58,236
Terrific, Max! Maybe you can start
a whole new career as an actor.

1546
01:41:58,404 --> 01:42:00,113
It's the truth.

1547
01:42:00,865 --> 01:42:05,619
After living with you for six months,
I'm turning into one of your scripts.

1548
01:42:06,412 --> 01:42:08,872
Well, this is not a script, Diana.

1549
01:42:09,207 --> 01:42:12,834
There's some real, actual life going on here.

1550
01:42:13,628 --> 01:42:17,214
I went to visit my wife today
because she's in a state of depression...

1551
01:42:17,423 --> 01:42:21,051
...so depressed that my daughter flew
all the way from Seattle to be with her.

1552
01:42:21,219 --> 01:42:23,220
And I feel lousy about that.

1553
01:42:23,387 --> 01:42:27,516
I feel lousy about the pain
that I've caused my wife and my kids.

1554
01:42:27,683 --> 01:42:29,601
I feel guilty and conscience-stricken...

1555
01:42:29,769 --> 01:42:32,395
...and all of those things
that you think sentimental...

1556
01:42:32,563 --> 01:42:36,525
...but which my generation
calls simple, human decency.

1557
01:42:40,530 --> 01:42:42,572
And I miss my home...

1558
01:42:43,282 --> 01:42:46,117
...because I'm beginning
to get scared shitless.

1559
01:42:46,285 --> 01:42:49,746
Because all of a sudden it's closer
to the end than it is to the beginning.

1560
01:42:49,914 --> 01:42:52,874
And death is suddenly
a perceptible thing to me...

1561
01:42:53,042 --> 01:42:55,544
...with definable features.

1562
01:42:59,590 --> 01:43:03,969
You're dealing with a man
that has primal doubts, Diana...

1563
01:43:04,303 --> 01:43:06,763
...and you've got to cope with it.

1564
01:43:07,348 --> 01:43:11,434
I'm not some guy discussing male
menopause on the Barbara Walters Show.

1565
01:43:12,103 --> 01:43:15,438
I'm the man that you presumably love.

1566
01:43:16,524 --> 01:43:19,442
I'm part of your life.

1567
01:43:19,610 --> 01:43:23,280
I live here. I'm real.

1568
01:43:24,448 --> 01:43:27,325
You can't switch to another station.

1569
01:43:34,792 --> 01:43:37,627
What exactly is it you want me to do?

1570
01:43:41,632 --> 01:43:44,676
I just want you to love me.

1571
01:43:45,928 --> 01:43:49,389
I just want you to love me,
primal doubts and all.

1572
01:43:51,726 --> 01:43:54,144
You understand that, don't you?

1573
01:43:59,150 --> 01:44:01,443
I don't know how to do that.

1574
01:44:13,164 --> 01:44:15,790
I'll be with you in a minute, Max.

1575
01:44:20,922 --> 01:44:22,422
By the first week in July...

1576
01:44:22,590 --> 01:44:24,716
...the Howard Beale Show
was down 11 points.

1577
01:44:24,884 --> 01:44:26,718
Hysteria swept through the network.

1578
01:44:26,886 --> 01:44:28,553
He's a plague. He's smallpox.

1579
01:44:28,721 --> 01:44:31,222
He's typhoid.
I don't wanna follow his goddamn show.

1580
01:44:31,390 --> 01:44:32,724
I want out of that 8:00 spot.

1581
01:44:32,892 --> 01:44:35,602
I've got enough troubles
without Howard Beale as a lead-in!

1582
01:44:35,770 --> 01:44:37,854
Scheduled me against Tony Orlando and Dawn.

1583
01:44:38,022 --> 01:44:41,274
NBC's got Little House on the Prairie.
ABC's got The Bionic Woman.

1584
01:44:41,442 --> 01:44:44,027
Do something! You gotta do something
about Howard Beale!

1585
01:44:44,195 --> 01:44:46,363
Get him off the air! Get him off!

1586
01:44:46,530 --> 01:44:48,156
Do something! Do anything!

1587
01:44:48,324 --> 01:44:50,325
We're trying to find a replacement for him!

1588
01:44:50,493 --> 01:44:52,535
I'm going to look at audition footage now!

1589
01:44:52,787 --> 01:44:56,247
And how when the sicks heal...

1590
01:44:56,415 --> 01:44:59,376
...man, I tell you I saw it!

1591
01:45:00,211 --> 01:45:05,298
It was heavy, baby.
I saw the earth quake.

1592
01:45:05,466 --> 01:45:09,219
And I saw the moon became like blood.

1593
01:45:09,387 --> 01:45:13,264
And every mountain and island
was moved from its place.

1594
01:45:13,432 --> 01:45:15,684
No, no, no. Damn it.

1595
01:45:15,851 --> 01:45:17,852
If we wanted hellfire we'd get Billy Graham!

1596
01:45:18,020 --> 01:45:21,398
Don't want faith healers, evangelists
or Oberammergau passion players!

1597
01:45:21,565 --> 01:45:24,609
What about that messiah
that ABC was supposed to have signed up...

1598
01:45:24,777 --> 01:45:27,445
- ...as our competition for next year?
- That's him.

1599
01:45:27,613 --> 01:45:31,908
- The bottomless pit is here.
- That's him?

1600
01:45:32,076 --> 01:45:33,952
His ass ending.

1601
01:45:34,120 --> 01:45:36,162
Jesus. Turn him off!

1602
01:45:37,289 --> 01:45:41,084
I've got three more,
but you've already seen the best ones.

1603
01:45:41,252 --> 01:45:44,087
I've got a guru from Spokane
and two more hellfires...

1604
01:45:44,255 --> 01:45:46,047
...who see visions of the Virgin Mary.

1605
01:45:46,215 --> 01:45:50,010
We're not gonna find a replacement for
Howard Beale. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

1606
01:45:50,177 --> 01:45:53,013
Fully fledged messiahs don't come in bunches.

1607
01:45:53,180 --> 01:45:56,349
We either go with Howard Beale
or we go without him.

1608
01:45:56,517 --> 01:45:59,394
My reports say we'll do better without him.

1609
01:45:59,562 --> 01:46:02,439
It would be disaster to let this situation
go on another week.

1610
01:46:02,606 --> 01:46:05,233
By then, he'll be down 16 points...

1611
01:46:05,401 --> 01:46:08,778
...and the trend irreversible,
if it isn't already.

1612
01:46:09,989 --> 01:46:13,074
I think we should fire Howard.

1613
01:46:15,870 --> 01:46:21,624
Arthur Jensen has taken a strong personal
interest in the Howard Beale Show.

1614
01:46:23,627 --> 01:46:27,088
I'm having dinner with him tonight.
Let me have another crack at Jensen...

1615
01:46:27,256 --> 01:46:29,674
...and then let's meet in my office
at 10:00 tonight.

1616
01:46:29,842 --> 01:46:32,635
Diana, give me copies
of all your audience research reports.

1617
01:46:32,803 --> 01:46:36,931
I may need them for Jensen.
Is 10:00 convenient for everyone?

1618
01:47:08,964 --> 01:47:13,218
I think the time has come
to re-evaluate our relationship, Max.

1619
01:47:13,844 --> 01:47:15,512
So I see.

1620
01:47:17,098 --> 01:47:20,475
I don't like the way this script of ours
is turning out.

1621
01:47:20,643 --> 01:47:23,436
It's turning into a seedy little drama.

1622
01:47:23,604 --> 01:47:27,941
Middle-aged man leaves wife and family
for young heartless woman, goes to pot.

1623
01:47:28,109 --> 01:47:31,861
The Blue Angel with Marlene Dietrich
and Emil Jannings. I don't like it.

1624
01:47:32,029 --> 01:47:34,114
- So you're gonna cancel the show.
- Right.

1625
01:47:34,281 --> 01:47:36,199
Here, let me do that.

1626
01:47:37,785 --> 01:47:42,914
The simple fact is, Max,
that you're a family man.

1627
01:47:43,082 --> 01:47:46,835
You like a home and kids. That's beautiful.
I'm incapable of any such commitment.

1628
01:47:47,002 --> 01:47:49,921
All you'll get from me is
a couple months of intermittent sex...

1629
01:47:50,089 --> 01:47:53,466
...and recriminate and ugly little scenes
like the one we had last night.

1630
01:47:53,634 --> 01:47:57,220
I'm sorry for all those things
I said to you last night.

1631
01:47:57,388 --> 01:48:01,724
You're not the worst fuck I've ever had.
Believe me, I've had worse.

1632
01:48:02,226 --> 01:48:05,603
You don't puff or snorkle...

1633
01:48:05,771 --> 01:48:07,480
...and make death-like rattles.

1634
01:48:07,648 --> 01:48:10,441
As a matter of fact,
you're rather serene in the sack.

1635
01:48:11,777 --> 01:48:13,653
Why is it that a woman always thinks...

1636
01:48:13,821 --> 01:48:19,033
...that the most savage thing she can say
to a man is to impugn his cocksmanship?

1637
01:48:20,244 --> 01:48:23,580
Well, I'm sorry I impugned your cocksmanship.

1638
01:48:24,248 --> 01:48:28,042
I gave up comparing genitals
back in the schoolyard.

1639
01:48:37,678 --> 01:48:40,430
You're being docile as hell about this.

1640
01:48:41,473 --> 01:48:44,976
Oh, hell, Diana,
I knew it was over with us weeks ago.

1641
01:48:45,311 --> 01:48:47,979
Will you go back to your wife?

1642
01:48:49,982 --> 01:48:52,775
I'll give it a try,
but I don't think she'll jump at it.

1643
01:48:52,943 --> 01:48:55,195
But don't worry about me. I'll manage.

1644
01:48:55,362 --> 01:48:59,699
I always have, I always will.
I'm more concerned about you.

1645
01:49:00,534 --> 01:49:02,285
You're not the boozer type.

1646
01:49:02,453 --> 01:49:05,997
So I figure a year, maybe two,
before you crack up.

1647
01:49:06,165 --> 01:49:08,833
Or jump out of your 14th floor office window.

1648
01:49:09,001 --> 01:49:12,212
Stop selling, Max. I don't need you.

1649
01:49:23,599 --> 01:49:27,477
I don't want your pain. I don't want
your menopausal decay and death!

1650
01:49:27,645 --> 01:49:28,728
I don't need you, Max.

1651
01:49:28,896 --> 01:49:32,649
- Now get out of here!
- You need me! You need me badly.

1652
01:49:32,816 --> 01:49:35,610
Because I'm your last contact
with human reality.

1653
01:49:35,778 --> 01:49:37,779
I love you.

1654
01:49:37,947 --> 01:49:41,950
And that painful, decaying love
is the only thing between you...

1655
01:49:42,117 --> 01:49:45,036
...and the shrieking nothingness
you live the rest of the day.

1656
01:49:45,204 --> 01:49:46,829
Then don't leave me.

1657
01:49:49,959 --> 01:49:52,168
It's too late, Diana.

1658
01:49:53,295 --> 01:49:56,172
There's nothing left in you
that I can live with.

1659
01:49:58,884 --> 01:50:01,427
You're one of Howard's humanoids...

1660
01:50:01,595 --> 01:50:04,264
...and if I stay with you,
I'll be destroyed.

1661
01:50:04,932 --> 01:50:07,517
Like Howard Beale was destroyed.

1662
01:50:08,018 --> 01:50:10,645
Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed.

1663
01:50:11,188 --> 01:50:15,024
Like everything that you
and the institution of television touch...

1664
01:50:15,192 --> 01:50:17,235
...is destroyed.

1665
01:50:23,033 --> 01:50:25,034
You're television incarnate, Diana.

1666
01:50:26,453 --> 01:50:31,833
Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy.

1667
01:50:33,127 --> 01:50:37,171
All of life is reduced
to the common rubble of banality.

1668
01:50:40,884 --> 01:50:43,803
War, murder, death...

1669
01:50:44,555 --> 01:50:47,724
...all the same to you
as bottles of beer.

1670
01:50:48,267 --> 01:50:52,937
And the daily business of life
is a corrupt comedy.

1671
01:50:54,106 --> 01:50:57,483
You even shatter the sensations
of time and space...

1672
01:50:57,651 --> 01:51:02,405
...into split seconds and instant replays.

1673
01:51:06,160 --> 01:51:07,869
You're madness, Diana.

1674
01:51:09,705 --> 01:51:12,040
Virulent madness.

1675
01:51:13,751 --> 01:51:16,878
And everything you touch dies with you.

1676
01:51:21,717 --> 01:51:23,509
But not me.

1677
01:51:24,470 --> 01:51:30,141
Not as long as I can feel pleasure and pain...

1678
01:51:33,937 --> 01:51:35,646
...and love.

1679
01:51:47,076 --> 01:51:48,159
And it's a happy ending.

1680
01:51:50,454 --> 01:51:54,123
Wayward husband comes to his senses...

1681
01:51:54,750 --> 01:51:56,334
...returns to his wife...

1682
01:51:56,543 --> 01:51:59,545
...with whom he's established
a long and sustaining love.

1683
01:52:00,756 --> 01:52:04,801
Heartless young woman left alone
in her arctic desolation.

1684
01:52:07,846 --> 01:52:10,139
Music up with a swell.

1685
01:52:13,060 --> 01:52:14,852
Final commercial.

1686
01:52:17,481 --> 01:52:21,067
And here are a few scenes from next week's show.

1687
01:52:32,996 --> 01:52:34,872
How did it go?

1688
01:52:51,515 --> 01:52:56,686
Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea
of taking Howard Beale off the air.

1689
01:52:57,938 --> 01:53:01,858
Mr. Jensen thinks Howard Beale
is bringing a very important message...

1690
01:53:02,025 --> 01:53:04,444
...to the American people.

1691
01:53:05,779 --> 01:53:09,365
So he wants Howard Beale on the air
and he wants him kept on.

1692
01:53:11,618 --> 01:53:14,620
Mr. Jensen feels we're too catastrophic
in our thinking.

1693
01:53:14,788 --> 01:53:18,958
I argued that television was a volatile
industry in which success and failure...

1694
01:53:19,126 --> 01:53:21,711
...were determined week by week.

1695
01:53:22,379 --> 01:53:25,882
Mr. Jensen said he did not like
volatile industries and suggested...

1696
01:53:26,049 --> 01:53:29,552
...with a certain sinister silkiness...

1697
01:53:30,429 --> 01:53:34,056
...that volatility in business
usually reflected bad management.

1698
01:53:35,058 --> 01:53:38,311
He didn't care if Howard Beale
was the number-one show or the 50th.

1699
01:53:38,479 --> 01:53:40,938
He didn't really care
if the Beale Show lost money.

1700
01:53:42,149 --> 01:53:46,611
He wants Howard Beale on the air
and he wants him kept on.

1701
01:53:47,321 --> 01:53:51,991
I would describe his position on this
as inflexible.

1702
01:53:52,743 --> 01:53:55,119
Where does that put us, Diana?

1703
01:53:55,996 --> 01:53:59,916
That puts us in the shithouse,
that's where that puts us.

1704
01:54:02,544 --> 01:54:05,379
- Do you want me to go through this?
- Yes.

1705
01:54:06,465 --> 01:54:10,760
The Beale Show Q score's down to 33.

1706
01:54:11,428 --> 01:54:14,889
Most of this loss occurred in the child
and teen and 18-34 categories...

1707
01:54:15,057 --> 01:54:18,309
...which were our key core markets.

1708
01:54:18,519 --> 01:54:21,646
And as the AR department's carefully
considered judgment and mine...

1709
01:54:21,813 --> 01:54:25,191
...that if we get rid of Beale,
we should maintain a respectable share...

1710
01:54:25,359 --> 01:54:28,236
...in the high 20s, possibly 30,
with a comparable Q level.

1711
01:54:28,403 --> 01:54:30,947
The other segments of the show,
Sibyl the Soothsayer...

1712
01:54:31,114 --> 01:54:35,284
...Jim Webbing, the Vox Populi,
have all developed their own audiences.

1713
01:54:35,452 --> 01:54:37,620
Our AR reports show that it is Howard Beale...

1714
01:54:37,788 --> 01:54:40,623
...that is the destructive force here.

1715
01:54:41,208 --> 01:54:46,003
Minimally, we're talking about
a 10-point differential in shares.

1716
01:54:46,964 --> 01:54:49,966
I think Joe ought
to spell it out for us. Joe?

1717
01:54:50,467 --> 01:54:53,594
A 28 share is 80,000-dollar minutes.

1718
01:54:53,762 --> 01:54:56,389
I think we can sell complete positions
on the whole.

1719
01:54:56,557 --> 01:54:59,183
We're just getting
into the pre-Christmas gift sellers...

1720
01:54:59,351 --> 01:55:02,895
...and I'll tell you the agencies are coming
back to me with $4 CPM's.

1721
01:55:03,063 --> 01:55:07,316
If that's any indication, we're talking 40-,
45 million-dollar loss in annual revenues.

1722
01:55:07,484 --> 01:55:09,485
Wanna hear the flak from the affiliates?

1723
01:55:09,653 --> 01:55:11,153
We know all about it, Herb.

1724
01:55:11,321 --> 01:55:15,116
And you would describe Mr. Jensen's
position on Beale as inflexible?

1725
01:55:15,617 --> 01:55:18,119
Intractable and adamantine.

1726
01:55:19,997 --> 01:55:23,165
So, what do we do
about this Beale son of a bitch?

1727
01:55:25,335 --> 01:55:27,420
I suppose we'll have to kill him.

1728
01:55:30,340 --> 01:55:33,426
I don't suppose you have any ideas
on that, Diana?

1729
01:55:40,142 --> 01:55:43,185
Well, what would you fellows say
to an assassination?

1730
01:55:44,688 --> 01:55:48,691
I think I can get the Mao Tse-Tung people
to kill Beale for us...

1731
01:55:48,859 --> 01:55:50,026
...as one of their shows.

1732
01:55:51,236 --> 01:55:55,698
In fact, it'll make a hell of a kickoff show
for the season.

1733
01:55:55,866 --> 01:55:59,368
We're facing heavy opposition on the
other networks for Wednesday nights...

1734
01:55:59,536 --> 01:56:02,955
...and The Mao Tse-Tung Hour
could use a sensational opener.

1735
01:56:04,416 --> 01:56:08,210
It could be done right on camera in the studio.

1736
01:56:09,880 --> 01:56:12,048
We ought to get
a fantastic look-in audience...

1737
01:56:12,215 --> 01:56:16,177
...for the assassination
of Howard Beale as our opening show.

1738
01:56:16,345 --> 01:56:21,057
Well, if Beale dies, what would
our continuing obligation...

1739
01:56:21,224 --> 01:56:23,267
...to the Beale corporation be?

1740
01:56:23,560 --> 01:56:26,395
I know our contract with Beale
contains a buy-out clause...

1741
01:56:26,563 --> 01:56:28,689
...triggered by his death or incapacity.

1742
01:56:28,857 --> 01:56:32,151
There must be a formula
for the computation of the purchase price.

1743
01:56:32,319 --> 01:56:36,280
Offhand, I think it was based
on a multiple 1975 earnings...

1744
01:56:36,490 --> 01:56:38,574
...with the base period in 1975.

1745
01:56:38,992 --> 01:56:43,037
I think it was 50 percent of salary
plus 25 percent of the first year's profit...

1746
01:56:43,205 --> 01:56:46,499
...multiplied by the unexpired portion
of the contract.

1747
01:56:46,667 --> 01:56:49,627
I don't think the show has
any substantial syndication value...

1748
01:56:49,795 --> 01:56:50,961
...would you say, Diana?

1749
01:56:51,129 --> 01:56:52,838
Syndication profits are minimal.

1750
01:56:54,174 --> 01:56:56,842
We're talking about a capital crime here.

1751
01:56:57,969 --> 01:57:00,513
The network can't be implicated.

1752
01:57:11,024 --> 01:57:15,236
I hope you don't have any hidden
tape machines in this office, Frank.

1753
01:57:17,364 --> 01:57:20,241
Well, the issue is,
shall we kill Howard Beale or not?

1754
01:57:20,409 --> 01:57:22,868
I'd like to hear some more opinions on that.

1755
01:57:23,036 --> 01:57:26,455
I don't see we have any option, Frank.
Let's kill the son of a bitch.

1756
01:57:26,707 --> 01:57:30,084
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it.
How do you feel?

1757
01:57:30,252 --> 01:57:34,630
We're mad as hell
and we're not going to take this anymore!

1758
01:57:34,798 --> 01:57:36,882
Ladies and gentlemen, the Network News Hour...

1759
01:57:37,050 --> 01:57:39,301
...with Sibyl the Soothsayer.

1760
01:57:42,139 --> 01:57:45,808
Jim Webbing and his It's-the-Emes
Truth Department.

1761
01:57:48,562 --> 01:57:52,440
Ms. Mata Hari and her
Skeletons in the Closet.

1762
01:57:55,152 --> 01:57:57,486
And tonight, another segment of Vox Populi.

1763
01:58:02,033 --> 01:58:06,662
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

1764
01:58:26,141 --> 01:58:30,519
The Network News anchorman
on the UBS Network News show...

1765
01:58:30,687 --> 01:58:34,565
...known to millions as the Mad Prophet
of the Airways...

1766
01:58:34,733 --> 01:58:38,569
...was shot to death tonight
in a fusillade of automatic-rifle fire...

1767
01:58:38,737 --> 01:58:41,530
...just as he began
this evening's broadcast.

1768
01:58:41,698 --> 01:58:43,783
We never compromise, so why should you?

1769
01:58:43,950 --> 01:58:46,327
Canada Dry mixers, why compromise?

1770
01:58:46,495 --> 01:58:49,538
--identified themselves as
the group responsible for the killing.

1771
01:58:49,706 --> 01:58:53,209
Ahmed Kahn, a massive man of well
over 6 feet, carrying an automatic weapon.

1772
01:58:53,376 --> 01:58:55,044
Supposed to be good for you.

1773
01:58:55,212 --> 01:58:58,756
- Did you try it?
- I'm not gonna try it, you try it.

1774
01:58:58,924 --> 01:59:02,009
- I'm not gonna try it.
- Let's get Mikey.

1775
01:59:02,219 --> 01:59:05,054
Yeah. He won't eat it.
He hates everything.

1776
01:59:05,222 --> 01:59:06,722
The extraordinary incident...

1777
01:59:06,890 --> 01:59:09,141
...occurred in full view
of his millions of viewers.

1778
01:59:09,309 --> 01:59:11,560
The assassins were members
of a terrorist group...

1779
01:59:11,728 --> 01:59:15,815
...called the Ecumenical Liberation Army,
two of whom were apprehended.

1780
01:59:15,982 --> 01:59:19,401
The leader of the group, known
as the Great Ahmed Kahn, escaped.

1781
01:59:19,820 --> 01:59:22,112
This was the story of Howard Beale...

1782
01:59:22,280 --> 01:59:24,824
...the first known instance
of a man who was killed...

1783
01:59:24,991 --> 01:59:26,617
...because he had lousy ratings.