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

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

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the grand old man of news...

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

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In 1969, however, his fortunes
began to decline.

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He fell to a 22 share.

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

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with an 8 rating
and a 12 share.

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He became morose and isolated,
began to drink heavily.

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

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effective in two weeks.

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

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who was the president
of the News Division at UBS.

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The two old friends
got properly pissed.

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I was at CBS
with Ed Murrow in 1951.

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Must've been 1950.

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I was at NBC.
Associate producer.

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

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

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We were doing a remote from there.

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And nobody told me.

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

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

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

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I run downstairs
and out into the street...

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hail a cab and say to the cabbie...

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

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The cabbie turns around and says...

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

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

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Didn't I tell you that before?

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I'm gonna kill myself.

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Shit, Howard.

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

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

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

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Fifty share easy.

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- You think so?
- Sure.

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

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Why limit ourselves?
"Execution of the Week. "

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"Terrorist of the Week. "

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They'll love it.

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Suicides. Assassinations.

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Mad bombers.

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Mafia hit men.

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Automobile smashups.

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"The Death Hour. "

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

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Lt'd put fucking Disney
right off the air.

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

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

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

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The film I saw
was of the chief of detectives.

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

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The whole thing is 1:25.

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

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

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Squeaky boarded the airport bus.

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You using a map on him
for San Francisco?

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I'd prefer newspapers.

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What've we got left?

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Gun control.
Patty Hearst affidavit.

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Guerillas in Chad.
OPEC in Guiana.

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Hello, Howard.
How are you?

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

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

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and again yesterday in San Francisco.

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

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

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a hostage
of would-be assassins.

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The American people
are good people.

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Democrats, Independents,
Republicans and others.

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

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

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Ready two.

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Two. Cue Howard.

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

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

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because of poor ratings.

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

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I have decided to kill myself.

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

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Ten seconds to commercial.

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Tune in next Tuesday.

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

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

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Fifty share easy.

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

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

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

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Howard said he was going
to kill himself next Tuesday.

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

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He was supposed to do a tag.

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

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What's going on?

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

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What the fuck's going on?

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

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

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

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

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

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He's going on live!

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

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Go to standby!

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

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

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I could barely get in.

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- Arthur, anything?
- Not so far.

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

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So far over 900
fucking phone calls...

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complaining about the foul language.

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

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

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That goes for you, too, Marty.

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You're off the air.

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

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

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Let's see how the other networks
handle this.

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

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They'll all make it
their lead story.

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

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to announce he was going
to kill himself.

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An unusual thing happened
at a sister network...

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UBS, this evening.

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

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

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

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at which we will announce
the restructuring of management plan.

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

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

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

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

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I've got surprises for you, too!

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

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and it's annual
$33 million deficit!

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Keep your hands off
my News Division, Frank.

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We're responsible to corporate level,
not you.

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We'll goddamn well see about that.

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

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

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We've got a limo at the freight exit.

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

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I want Snowden here by noon...

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have Lester
cover the CIA hearings...

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and give the White House
to Doris.

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You're late for your screening, Max.

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Right. Okay.

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

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

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Diana asked if she could sit in on this.

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Fine. How's it going?

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

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Max Schumacher.

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Goddamn it! When?

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Did he say anything?

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All right, thank you.

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

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is the consolidation
of the revolutionary...

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radical and democratic movements...

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Harry, Howard Beale left my house
20 minutes ago.

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Has he come in yet?

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Let me know when he arrives.

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

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This is from a David Susskind thing
a while back.

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I think we can use some of this stuff.

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

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

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by a terrorist group called
the Ecumenical Liberation Army.

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

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

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No, that's the Symbionese
Liberation Army.

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This is the Ecumenical
Liberation Army.

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

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

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and a lot of kidnapped heiresses.

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This is Mary Ann Gifford.

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

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

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Wait till you see it.

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

183
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This is terrific stuff!
Where did you get it?

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I got everything
through Laureen Hobbs.

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She's my contact
for all this stuff.

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

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I've got Max on four. Pick up.

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I'd like another shot.

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

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

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and then turn the show over
to Jack Snowden.

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

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

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

195
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I think it'll take the strain
off the show.

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- What do you think?
- Well, okay.

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And no booze today, Howard!

198
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No booze.

199
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George, can you come into my office
for a minute?

200
00:13:20,408 --> 00:13:24,829
Barbara, is Tommy around?
I'd like to see the two of you.

201
00:13:32,712 --> 00:13:36,549
This is Bill Herron from our West Coast
Special Programs Department.

202
00:13:36,591 --> 00:13:39,677
George Bosch. Barbara Schlesinger.
Tommy Pellegrino.

203
00:13:39,761 --> 00:13:43,723
I just saw footage of a special Bill's
doing on the revolutionary underground.

204
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Most of it's tedious stuff of
Laureen Hobbs and two fatigue jackets...

205
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muttering mutilated Marxism...

206
00:13:48,978 --> 00:13:53,107
but he's got eight minutes
of a bank robbery...

207
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that is sensational!

208
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Authentic stuff shot
while the robbery was going on.

209
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Remember the Mary Ann Gifford
kidnapping?

210
00:14:01,866 --> 00:14:05,703
It's that bunch of nuts. She's in
the movie shooting off machine guns.

211
00:14:05,787 --> 00:14:08,081
This is really terrific footage.

212
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We can get a movie of the week
out of it, maybe even a series.

213
00:14:13,252 --> 00:14:15,171
A series?
What are we talking about?

214
00:14:15,254 --> 00:14:19,759
We've got a bunch of hobgoblin radicals,
the Ecumenical Liberation Army...

215
00:14:19,842 --> 00:14:23,012
who go around taking home movies
of themselves robbing banks.

216
00:14:23,096 --> 00:14:26,557
Maybe they'll take movies of themselves
kidnapping heiresses...

217
00:14:26,641 --> 00:14:28,601
hijacking 747 s...

218
00:14:28,643 --> 00:14:30,812
bombing bridges,
assassinating ambassadors.

219
00:14:32,981 --> 00:14:35,942
We'd open each week's segment
with their authentic footage...

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

221
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A series about a bunch
of bank-robbing guerrillas?

222
00:14:45,827 --> 00:14:48,705
What will we call it,
the "Mao Tse-Tung Hour"?

223
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Why not?

224
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They've got "Strike Force,"
"Task Force," "SWAT."

225
00:14:52,750 --> 00:14:55,878
Why not Che Guevara
and his own little "Mod Squad"?

226
00:14:55,962 --> 00:15:00,508
I sent you all a concept analysis report
yesterday. Did any of you read it?

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Well, in a nutshell it said...

228
00:15:04,721 --> 00:15:06,764
"The American people
are turning sullen. "

229
00:15:06,848 --> 00:15:10,602
They've been clobbered on all sides
by Vietnam, Watergate, inflation.

230
00:15:10,685 --> 00:15:13,896
They've turned off, shot up, fucked
themselves limp, and nothing helps.

231
00:15:13,980 --> 00:15:17,525
So this concept analysis report
concludes...

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

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I've told you since I took this job
six months ago that I want angry shows.

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00:15:27,869 --> 00:15:30,038
I don't want conventional programming.

235
00:15:30,121 --> 00:15:32,790
I want counterculture.
I want antiestablishment.

236
00:15:35,877 --> 00:15:39,839
I don't want to play butch boss
with you people...

237
00:15:39,881 --> 00:15:41,966
but when I took over
this department...

238
00:15:42,050 --> 00:15:44,636
it had the worst programming record
in television history.

239
00:15:44,719 --> 00:15:47,513
This network hasn't one show
in the top 20.

240
00:15:47,555 --> 00:15:49,641
This network is an industry joke.

241
00:15:49,724 --> 00:15:53,019
We better start putting together
one winner for next September.

242
00:15:53,061 --> 00:15:55,021
I want a show developed...

243
00:15:55,063 --> 00:15:58,691
based on the activities
of a terrorist group.

244
00:15:58,733 --> 00:16:01,152
"Joseph Stalin and His Merry Band
of Bolsheviks. "

245
00:16:01,236 --> 00:16:04,572
I want ideas from you.
That is what you're paid for.

246
00:16:04,656 --> 00:16:08,409
By the way, the next time I send
an audience research report around...

247
00:16:08,493 --> 00:16:10,912
you'd better read it,
or I'll sack the lot of you.

248
00:16:10,995 --> 00:16:12,622
Is that clear?

249
00:16:12,705 --> 00:16:18,378
I'll be on the coast in four weeks. Can
you set up a meeting with Laureen Hobbs?

250
00:16:18,419 --> 00:16:22,048
The business of management
is management.

251
00:16:22,090 --> 00:16:25,468
At the time CCA took control,
the UBS TV network was foundering...

252
00:16:25,552 --> 00:16:29,055
with less than seven percent
of national television revenues...

253
00:16:29,138 --> 00:16:32,016
most network programs being sold
at station rates.

254
00:16:32,100 --> 00:16:35,687
I am pleased to announce I am submitting
to the board of directors a plan...

255
00:16:35,770 --> 00:16:38,481
for the coordination
of the main profit centers...

256
00:16:38,565 --> 00:16:41,526
and with the specific intention
of making each division...

257
00:16:41,609 --> 00:16:44,404
more responsive to management.

258
00:16:44,445 --> 00:16:45,905
Point one.

259
00:16:47,282 --> 00:16:50,785
"The division producing the lowest rate
of return has been the News Division...

260
00:16:50,869 --> 00:16:56,416
with its $98 million budget and its
average annual deficit of $32 million. "

261
00:16:57,625 --> 00:17:00,920
I know, historically, news divisions
are expected to lose money.

262
00:17:01,004 --> 00:17:03,840
To our minds, this philosophy
is a wanton fiscal affront...

263
00:17:03,923 --> 00:17:07,594
to be resolutely resisted.

264
00:17:07,677 --> 00:17:13,141
The new plan calls for local news to be
transferred to Owned Stations Divisions.

265
00:17:13,224 --> 00:17:16,728
News Radio would be transferred to
the UBS Radio Division...

266
00:17:16,811 --> 00:17:20,899
and the News Division would be reduced
from an independent division...

267
00:17:20,982 --> 00:17:25,487
to a department accountable
to network.

268
00:17:30,408 --> 00:17:33,870
- What was that all about, Ed?
- This is not the time.

269
00:17:33,953 --> 00:17:35,872
Why wasn't I told about this?

270
00:17:35,955 --> 00:17:40,251
Why was I led up onto that podium and
humiliated in front of the stockholders?

271
00:17:40,335 --> 00:17:42,754
Goddamn it! I spoke to John Wheeler
this morning...

272
00:17:42,837 --> 00:17:45,465
and he assured me
that the News Division was safe.

273
00:17:45,507 --> 00:17:47,759
If you want me to resign,
that's a bad way to do it.

274
00:17:47,842 --> 00:17:50,720
We'll talk about this tomorrow
at our regular morning meeting.

275
00:18:02,857 --> 00:18:04,818
Roll VTA.

276
00:18:04,859 --> 00:18:07,111
Bring it up on one.
Ready now.

277
00:18:07,987 --> 00:18:11,950
In five, four, three, two...

278
00:18:12,033 --> 00:18:14,202
- One.
- One TVA.

279
00:18:15,662 --> 00:18:17,080
And...

280
00:18:18,915 --> 00:18:20,333
cue announcer.

281
00:18:20,416 --> 00:18:22,377
The "UBS Evening News"...

282
00:18:23,586 --> 00:18:25,630
with Howard Beale.

283
00:18:25,713 --> 00:18:27,590
Ready two.

284
00:18:27,674 --> 00:18:29,175
Two. Cue power.

285
00:18:29,259 --> 00:18:33,304
Good evening.
Today is Wednesday, September 24...

286
00:18:33,388 --> 00:18:35,306
and this is my last broadcast.

287
00:18:36,724 --> 00:18:38,685
Yesterday I announced
on this program...

288
00:18:38,726 --> 00:18:41,729
that I was going to commit
public suicide...

289
00:18:41,771 --> 00:18:44,315
admittedly an act of madness.

290
00:18:44,399 --> 00:18:47,527
I'll tell you what happened.
I just ran out of bullshit.

291
00:18:47,569 --> 00:18:49,863
- Cut him off.
- Leave him on.

292
00:18:51,322 --> 00:18:52,740
Am I still on?

293
00:18:52,824 --> 00:18:55,910
If this is how he wants to go out,
this is how he goes out.

294
00:18:55,994 --> 00:18:58,246
I just ran out of bullshit.

295
00:18:58,329 --> 00:19:00,790
Mr. Schumacher's here.
Do you want to talk to him?

296
00:19:00,874 --> 00:19:02,792
Bullshit is all the reasons
we give for living.

297
00:19:02,876 --> 00:19:07,172
If we can't think up reasons of our own,
we always have the God bullshit.

298
00:19:07,255 --> 00:19:09,090
- We don't know why we go through...
- What is it?

299
00:19:09,174 --> 00:19:11,634
Pointless pain,
humiliation and decay.

300
00:19:11,718 --> 00:19:15,638
There better be someone, somewhere
who does know. That's the God bullshit.

301
00:19:15,722 --> 00:19:19,142
He's saying that life is bullshit.
It is. What are you screaming about?

302
00:19:19,225 --> 00:19:22,645
Man is a noble creature who can order
his own world. Who needs God?

303
00:19:23,855 --> 00:19:27,734
If there's anybody who can look around
this demented world we live in...

304
00:19:27,776 --> 00:19:30,820
and tell me man
is a noble creature...

305
00:19:30,904 --> 00:19:33,198
believe me,
that man is full of bullshit.

306
00:19:34,282 --> 00:19:37,911
- What's so goddamn funny?
- I can't help it. It's funny.

307
00:19:39,662 --> 00:19:42,624
This is going out live
to 67 affiliates.

308
00:19:42,707 --> 00:19:44,125
Leave him on.

309
00:19:44,209 --> 00:19:48,713
And I was married for 33 years
of shrill, shrieking fraud.

310
00:19:48,797 --> 00:19:52,383
- Mr. Hackett's trying to reach you.
- Tell Mr. Hackett to go fuck himself.

311
00:19:52,467 --> 00:19:55,428
So I don't have any bullshit left.

312
00:19:56,596 --> 00:19:59,557
I just ran out of it, you see.

313
00:20:05,313 --> 00:20:07,774
Mr. Ruddy, could we have
one statement, please?

314
00:20:07,816 --> 00:20:09,943
Sorry, I don't have
all the information yet.

315
00:20:13,405 --> 00:20:17,325
If we could just have one statement
about Mr. Beale.

316
00:20:27,335 --> 00:20:28,795
Max?

317
00:20:37,595 --> 00:20:39,514
I'll want to see Mr. Beale
after this.

318
00:20:42,058 --> 00:20:44,644
The way I hear it,
you were primarily responsible...

319
00:20:44,728 --> 00:20:47,063
for this colossally
stupid prank.

320
00:20:47,814 --> 00:20:50,108
- Is that the fact?
- That's the fact.

321
00:20:50,191 --> 00:20:52,736
It was unconscionable.

322
00:20:56,114 --> 00:20:59,534
- There is nothing more to say.
- I have something to say.

323
00:21:00,702 --> 00:21:03,538
I want to know why that debasement
of the News Division...

324
00:21:03,621 --> 00:21:07,250
announced at the meeting this afternoon
was kept secret from me?

325
00:21:08,501 --> 00:21:10,837
You and I go back 20 years.

326
00:21:10,879 --> 00:21:13,423
I took this job
with your personal assurance...

327
00:21:13,506 --> 00:21:17,260
that you'd back my autonomy
against any encroachment.

328
00:21:17,343 --> 00:21:22,057
But ever since CCA acquired control
of UBS Systems ten months ago...

329
00:21:22,140 --> 00:21:24,476
Hackett's been taking over everything.

330
00:21:24,559 --> 00:21:28,730
Who is running this network?
You or some conglomerate called CCA?

331
00:21:28,813 --> 00:21:31,608
You're president
of the Systems Group.

332
00:21:31,691 --> 00:21:35,236
Hackett's nothing
but a hatchet man for CCA.

333
00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:37,989
Nelson here,
president of the network...

334
00:21:38,073 --> 00:21:40,825
and he hasn't a damned thing to say
about anything anymore.

335
00:21:40,909 --> 00:21:43,495
I told you
at the stockholders' meeting...

336
00:21:43,578 --> 00:21:47,374
that we would discuss all that
at our regular meeting tomorrow morning.

337
00:21:47,457 --> 00:21:49,793
If you had been patient,
I would have explained...

338
00:21:49,876 --> 00:21:52,420
that I, too, thought
Frank Hackett precipitate...

339
00:21:52,504 --> 00:21:55,382
and that the reorganization of the
News Division would not be executed...

340
00:21:55,465 --> 00:21:58,009
until everyone,
specifically you, Max...

341
00:21:58,093 --> 00:22:01,012
had been consulted and satisfied.

342
00:22:01,971 --> 00:22:03,890
Instead, you sulked off
like a child...

343
00:22:03,973 --> 00:22:07,018
and engaged this network
in a shocking and disgraceful episode.

344
00:22:07,102 --> 00:22:09,062
Your position
is no longer tenable...

345
00:22:09,145 --> 00:22:11,481
regardless of how management
is restructured.

346
00:22:13,566 --> 00:22:15,777
I will expect your resignation
at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

347
00:22:15,860 --> 00:22:19,572
We will coordinate our statements
to the least detriment of everyone.

348
00:22:21,741 --> 00:22:25,203
Bob McDonough will take over the News
Division until we sort all this out.

349
00:22:27,288 --> 00:22:30,083
I'd like to see Mr. Beale now.

350
00:22:30,125 --> 00:22:32,919
They're looking for him.
They don't know where he is.

351
00:22:34,254 --> 00:22:37,924
Well, every day, five days a week
for 15 years...

352
00:22:38,008 --> 00:22:41,553
I've been sitting behind that desk,
the dispassionate pundit...

353
00:22:41,636 --> 00:22:44,639
reporting with seemly detachment...

354
00:22:44,723 --> 00:22:48,310
the daily parade of lunacies
that constitute the news.

355
00:22:48,393 --> 00:22:49,811
Just once...

356
00:22:49,894 --> 00:22:51,896
I wanted to say
what I really felt.

357
00:22:51,980 --> 00:22:53,606
Knock it off.

358
00:22:53,648 --> 00:22:55,525
It was, after all, my last one.

359
00:23:12,584 --> 00:23:15,253
- Have the overnight ratings come in?
- They're on your desk.

360
00:23:15,337 --> 00:23:17,255
Have you got
yesterday's overnights?

361
00:23:17,339 --> 00:23:19,549
- Shall I bring them in?
- Yeah.

362
00:23:25,263 --> 00:23:28,350
These are the outlines submitted
by Universal for an hour series.

363
00:23:28,433 --> 00:23:31,478
You needn't bother to read them.
I'll tell them to you.

364
00:23:31,561 --> 00:23:36,149
The first one is set in an eastern
law school, presumably Harvard.

365
00:23:36,232 --> 00:23:39,361
The series is irresistibly entitled
"The New Lawyers. "

366
00:23:39,444 --> 00:23:42,822
The running characters are: A crusty
but benign ex-Supreme Court justice...

367
00:23:42,864 --> 00:23:46,326
presumably Oliver Wendell Holmes
by way of Dr. Zorba...

368
00:23:46,368 --> 00:23:49,829
a beautiful girl graduate student,
and the local district attorney...

369
00:23:49,871 --> 00:23:51,831
who is brilliant
and sometimes cuts corners.

370
00:23:51,873 --> 00:23:53,792
Next one.

371
00:23:53,875 --> 00:23:55,835
The second one's called
"The Amazon Squad. "

372
00:23:55,919 --> 00:23:57,462
Lady cops.

373
00:23:57,545 --> 00:24:00,382
Running characters include a crusty
but benign police lieutenant...

374
00:24:00,465 --> 00:24:02,759
who's always getting heat
from the commissioner...

375
00:24:02,842 --> 00:24:06,554
a tough, hard-drinking detective who
thinks women belong in the kitchen...

376
00:24:06,638 --> 00:24:10,350
and a brilliant, beautiful young cop
who's fighting the feminist battle.

377
00:24:10,392 --> 00:24:12,477
We're up to our ears in lady cops.

378
00:24:12,560 --> 00:24:15,647
Next is another one of those
investigative reporter shows.

379
00:24:15,730 --> 00:24:18,358
A crusty but benign managing editor
who's always getting...

380
00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:20,527
You know, Barbara...

381
00:24:20,568 --> 00:24:24,864
the Arabs have decided to jack up
the price of oil another 20 percent.

382
00:24:25,865 --> 00:24:29,661
The CIA has been caught opening
Senator Humphrey's mail.

383
00:24:29,744 --> 00:24:33,665
There's a civil war in Angola.
Another one in Beirut.

384
00:24:34,958 --> 00:24:37,502
New York City's still facing default.

385
00:24:37,586 --> 00:24:40,422
They finally caught up
with Patricia Hearst.

386
00:24:40,505 --> 00:24:44,217
And the whole front page
of the Daily News is Howard Beale.

387
00:24:45,343 --> 00:24:49,306
There's also a two-column story
on page one of the Times.

388
00:24:52,100 --> 00:24:54,436
Helen?
Call Mr. Hackett's office.

389
00:24:54,519 --> 00:24:56,938
See if he can give me
a few minutes this morning.

390
00:25:03,570 --> 00:25:07,908
KTNS Kansas City refuses to carry
our "Network News Show" anymore...

391
00:25:07,991 --> 00:25:09,951
unless Beale is taken off the air.

392
00:25:09,993 --> 00:25:12,120
Did you see the overnights
on the "Network News"?

393
00:25:12,203 --> 00:25:14,915
It has an 8 in New York,
a 9 in L. A...

394
00:25:14,998 --> 00:25:17,417
and a 27 share in both cities.

395
00:25:17,500 --> 00:25:20,712
Last night, Howard Beale went on the air
and yelled "bullshit" for two minutes.

396
00:25:20,795 --> 00:25:25,008
I can tell you tonight's show
will get a 30 share at least.

397
00:25:25,091 --> 00:25:28,303
- I think we've lucked into something.
- For God sakes, Diana!

398
00:25:28,386 --> 00:25:31,598
Are you suggesting we put that lunatic
back on the air yelling "bullshit"?

399
00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:35,143
Yes, I think we should put Beale back
on the air tonight and keep him on.

400
00:25:35,227 --> 00:25:38,021
Did you see the news this morning?
Did you see the Times?

401
00:25:38,104 --> 00:25:40,732
We got press coverage on this
you couldn't buy for a million dollars.

402
00:25:40,815 --> 00:25:46,738
That show jumped 5 points in one night.
Tonight's show will be at least 15.

403
00:25:46,821 --> 00:25:51,368
We've just increased our audience by
20 or 30 million people in one night!

404
00:25:51,451 --> 00:25:54,204
You won't get something like this dumped
into your lap the rest of your days.

405
00:25:54,287 --> 00:25:58,416
You can't piss it away. Howard said
last night what every American feels.

406
00:25:58,500 --> 00:26:03,547
He's tired of all the bullshit!
He's articulating the popular rage!

407
00:26:03,630 --> 00:26:05,632
I want that show, Frank.

408
00:26:05,715 --> 00:26:07,926
I can turn that show
into the biggest smash on TV.

409
00:26:08,009 --> 00:26:10,971
It's a news show.
It's not your department.

410
00:26:11,054 --> 00:26:13,807
I see Howard Beale
as a latter-day prophet...

411
00:26:13,849 --> 00:26:17,978
a messianic figure inveighing
against the hypocrisies of our times!

412
00:26:18,019 --> 00:26:20,605
A strip Savonarola
Monday through Friday...

413
00:26:20,689 --> 00:26:23,024
that will just go through the roof!

414
00:26:23,108 --> 00:26:27,070
And I'm talking about
a six-dollar cost per thousand show.

415
00:26:27,153 --> 00:26:30,198
I'm talking about
130,000 dollar minutes.

416
00:26:30,282 --> 00:26:34,035
Figure out the revenues of a strip show
that sells for $100,000 a minute!

417
00:26:34,119 --> 00:26:37,873
One show like that could pull
this network out of the hole!

418
00:26:37,956 --> 00:26:41,168
It's being handed to us on a plate.
Let's not blow it.

419
00:26:42,544 --> 00:26:44,462
Yes.

420
00:26:44,546 --> 00:26:46,715
Tell him I'll be a few minutes.

421
00:26:49,301 --> 00:26:52,512
- Let me think it over.
- Let's not go to committee on this.

422
00:26:52,554 --> 00:26:56,391
It's 10:20. We want Beale in the studio
by 6:30. We don't want to lose momentum.

423
00:26:56,474 --> 00:27:00,562
For God sakes, we're talking about
putting an irresponsible man...

424
00:27:00,645 --> 00:27:03,148
on national television.

425
00:27:12,908 --> 00:27:15,660
I'd like to talk to Legal Affairs,
Herb Thackery...

426
00:27:15,744 --> 00:27:18,330
and Joe Donnelly
in Standards and Practices.

427
00:27:19,998 --> 00:27:23,210
You know I'll be eyeball to eyeball
with Mr. Ruddy on this.

428
00:27:23,251 --> 00:27:26,463
If I'm going to the mat with Ruddy,
I want to be sure of my ground.

429
00:27:26,546 --> 00:27:28,757
My ass is going on the line.

430
00:27:32,177 --> 00:27:34,095
I'll get back to you.

431
00:27:37,849 --> 00:27:39,851
I don't believe the top brass...

432
00:27:39,935 --> 00:27:43,980
of a national television network
is sitting around their Caesar salads...

433
00:27:44,064 --> 00:27:46,399
Top brass of a bankrupt
national television network...

434
00:27:46,441 --> 00:27:49,110
with projected losses
of $150 million.

435
00:27:49,194 --> 00:27:50,612
I don't care!

436
00:27:52,072 --> 00:27:55,992
You can't be seriously proposing,
and the rest of us considering...

437
00:27:56,076 --> 00:27:58,578
putting on a pornographic
network news show.

438
00:27:58,662 --> 00:28:00,914
- The FCC would kill us.
- Sit down, Nelson.

439
00:28:00,956 --> 00:28:03,917
The FCC can't do anything
except rap our knuckles.

440
00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:07,170
I don't even want to think about
the litigious possibilities.

441
00:28:07,254 --> 00:28:10,549
- We could be up to our ears in lawsuits.
- The affiliates won't carry it.

442
00:28:10,632 --> 00:28:13,635
The affiliates will kiss your ass
if you can hand them a hit show.

443
00:28:13,718 --> 00:28:15,971
- But popular reaction...
- We don't know the popular reaction.

444
00:28:16,054 --> 00:28:19,266
- That's what we have to find out.
- The New York Times...

445
00:28:19,307 --> 00:28:22,769
The New York Times doesn't advertise
on our network.

446
00:28:24,688 --> 00:28:29,025
All I know is, this violates
every canon of respectable broadcasting.

447
00:28:29,109 --> 00:28:32,320
We're not a respectable network.
We're a whorehouse network.

448
00:28:32,404 --> 00:28:34,573
We have to take whatever we can get.

449
00:28:35,991 --> 00:28:37,951
I don't want any part of it.

450
00:28:38,034 --> 00:28:40,495
I don't fancy myself
the president of a whorehouse.

451
00:28:40,579 --> 00:28:43,373
That's commendable of you, Nelson.
Now sit down.

452
00:28:44,499 --> 00:28:46,460
Your indignation
has been duly recorded.

453
00:28:46,501 --> 00:28:48,462
You can always resign tomorrow.

454
00:28:50,714 --> 00:28:54,634
What in substance are we proposing?

455
00:28:54,676 --> 00:28:58,638
Merely to add editorial comment
to our network news show.

456
00:28:58,722 --> 00:29:02,476
Brinkley, Sevareid, Reasoner
all have their comments.

457
00:29:02,559 --> 00:29:04,644
Now Howard Beale will have his.

458
00:29:04,728 --> 00:29:08,774
I think we ought to give it a shot,
see what happens tonight. Telephone.

459
00:29:08,857 --> 00:29:12,319
I don't want to be the messenger
who has to tell Schumacher about this.

460
00:29:12,402 --> 00:29:16,156
He doesn't work at this network anymore.
Mr. Ruddy fired him last night.

461
00:29:16,239 --> 00:29:19,201
Bob McDonough is running
the News Division now.

462
00:29:20,619 --> 00:29:22,621
Bob McDonough in News, please.

463
00:29:24,122 --> 00:29:26,249
I don't know.

464
00:29:26,333 --> 00:29:28,794
I may teach or write a book...

465
00:29:28,877 --> 00:29:32,964
whatever the hell one does when one
approaches the autumn of one's years.

466
00:29:35,759 --> 00:29:37,677
My God! Is that me?

467
00:29:38,470 --> 00:29:40,972
Was I ever that young?

468
00:29:41,056 --> 00:29:43,475
No, Howard brought in a picture
of Ed Murrow...

469
00:29:43,558 --> 00:29:46,019
and the CBS gang
when we were there.

470
00:29:46,103 --> 00:29:47,646
You wouldn't believe it!

471
00:29:47,729 --> 00:29:49,856
Walter Cronkite, Harry Reasoner...

472
00:29:49,898 --> 00:29:51,942
Hollenbeck, Bob Trout.

473
00:29:52,025 --> 00:29:53,944
Is that you?

474
00:29:55,112 --> 00:29:58,865
Yeah. Okay, Dick,
we'll be in touch.

475
00:29:58,949 --> 00:30:03,370
Remember this kid you sent to interview
Cleveland Amory on vivisection?

476
00:30:07,082 --> 00:30:09,334
What's so funny?

477
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:15,465
I jump out of bed in my pajamas,
I grab my raincoat, I run downstairs.

478
00:30:15,549 --> 00:30:18,176
I run out to the street
and hail a cab.

479
00:30:18,260 --> 00:30:23,265
I yell at the driver, "Take me to the
middle of the George Washington Bridge. "

480
00:30:25,392 --> 00:30:29,062
And the driver says,
"Don't do it, buddy. Don't do it!

481
00:30:29,146 --> 00:30:31,648
You're young. You've got
your whole life ahead of you. "

482
00:30:32,607 --> 00:30:34,943
Wait a minute.

483
00:30:35,027 --> 00:30:39,531
If you think that's funny,
wait till you hear this.

484
00:30:39,614 --> 00:30:41,575
I've come from Hackett's office.

485
00:30:41,616 --> 00:30:44,411
He wants to put Howard
back on the air tonight.

486
00:30:44,453 --> 00:30:47,539
Apparently the ratings went up
five points last night...

487
00:30:47,622 --> 00:30:50,917
and he wants Howard to go back on
and do his "angry man" thing.

488
00:30:50,959 --> 00:30:53,086
What are you talking about?

489
00:30:53,128 --> 00:30:56,214
They want Howard to go back on
and yell "bullshit. "

490
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:00,761
They want Howard to go on...

491
00:31:00,802 --> 00:31:02,804
spontaneously letting out
his anger.

492
00:31:02,888 --> 00:31:05,849
A latter-day prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

493
00:31:05,932 --> 00:31:08,143
That sounds pretty good!

494
00:31:09,061 --> 00:31:10,479
Who's "they"?

495
00:31:10,562 --> 00:31:13,231
Hackett. Chaney was there.

496
00:31:13,315 --> 00:31:16,443
The Legal Affairs guy.
Oh, and that girl from programming.

497
00:31:16,485 --> 00:31:18,945
Christensen?
What's she got to do with this?

498
00:31:18,987 --> 00:31:21,782
- Are you kidding?
- I'm not kidding.

499
00:31:21,823 --> 00:31:25,577
I said, "We're running
a news department here, not a circus.

500
00:31:25,661 --> 00:31:28,205
And Howard Beale's
not a bearded lady.

501
00:31:28,288 --> 00:31:30,916
If you think I'll go along with
this bastardization of the news...

502
00:31:30,999 --> 00:31:34,419
you can have my resignation
along with Max Schumacher's.

503
00:31:34,503 --> 00:31:40,300
- I'm speaking for Howard Beale and... "
- That's my job you're turning down.

504
00:31:40,384 --> 00:31:43,220
I'd go nuts
without some kind of work.

505
00:31:43,303 --> 00:31:47,307
What's wrong with being an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

506
00:31:47,391 --> 00:31:49,101
What do you think, Max?

507
00:31:49,184 --> 00:31:53,397
Do you want to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times?

508
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,943
Yeah, I'd like to be an angry prophet
denouncing the hypocrisies of our times.

509
00:31:59,236 --> 00:32:01,238
Then grab it!

510
00:32:07,703 --> 00:32:09,663
- Afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.
- Afternoon.

511
00:32:09,705 --> 00:32:11,665
Good afternoon, Mr. Ruddy.

512
00:32:14,793 --> 00:32:17,129
- He's waiting for you.
- Thank you.

513
00:32:23,427 --> 00:32:26,805
Nelson Chaney tells me Beale
may actually go on the air this evening.

514
00:32:28,598 --> 00:32:30,934
As far as I know,
Howard's going to do it.

515
00:32:33,562 --> 00:32:36,273
- Are you gonna sit still for this?
- Yes.

516
00:32:36,356 --> 00:32:39,067
I think Hackett's overstepped himself.

517
00:32:39,151 --> 00:32:41,695
There's some kind of
corporate maneuvering going on.

518
00:32:41,778 --> 00:32:44,323
Hackett is clearly forcing
a confrontation.

519
00:32:44,406 --> 00:32:46,575
That would account for his behavior
at the stockholders' meeting.

520
00:32:46,658 --> 00:32:51,246
However, I think he's making a serious
mistake with this Beale business.

521
00:32:51,330 --> 00:32:54,458
I suspect CCA will be upset...

522
00:32:54,541 --> 00:32:56,501
at Hackett's presumptuousness.

523
00:32:56,585 --> 00:32:58,712
Certainly Mr. Jensen will.

524
00:32:58,795 --> 00:33:02,341
So I'm going to let Hackett
have his head for a while.

525
00:33:02,424 --> 00:33:05,093
He just might lose it
over this Beale business.

526
00:33:09,306 --> 00:33:12,100
I'd like you to reconsider
your resignation.

527
00:33:12,184 --> 00:33:14,686
I assume Hackett
wouldn't take such steps...

528
00:33:14,770 --> 00:33:17,064
without some support
on the CCA board.

529
00:33:17,105 --> 00:33:19,983
I'll have to go directly to Mr. Jensen.

530
00:33:20,067 --> 00:33:23,278
When that happens, I'm going to need
every friend I've got...

531
00:33:23,362 --> 00:33:27,074
and I don't want Hackett's people
in all the divisional positions.

532
00:33:27,115 --> 00:33:29,326
So I'd like you to stay on.

533
00:33:33,872 --> 00:33:35,290
Of course.

534
00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:39,753
Thank you, Max.

535
00:33:39,795 --> 00:33:42,256
This has been
the "UBS Evening News"...

536
00:33:42,339 --> 00:33:44,758
with Howard Beale.

537
00:33:44,841 --> 00:33:47,469
The initial response to the new
"Howard Beale Show"...

538
00:33:47,552 --> 00:33:49,596
was not auspicatory.

539
00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:51,723
The press was,
without exception, hostile...

540
00:33:51,807 --> 00:33:53,976
and industry reaction negative.

541
00:33:54,059 --> 00:33:56,395
The ratings for the Thursday
and Friday shows...

542
00:33:56,478 --> 00:33:58,981
were both 14,
but Monday's rating dropped a point...

543
00:33:59,064 --> 00:34:02,317
clearly suggesting the novelty
was wearing off.

544
00:34:04,152 --> 00:34:06,321
Did you know there are
a number of psychics...

545
00:34:06,405 --> 00:34:09,324
working as licensed brokers
on Wall Street?

546
00:34:09,408 --> 00:34:11,827
Some counsel their clients
by use of tarot cards.

547
00:34:11,910 --> 00:34:15,622
They're all pretty successful,
even in a bear market and selling short.

548
00:34:15,706 --> 00:34:19,293
I met one of them last week
and thought of doing a show around her.

549
00:34:19,376 --> 00:34:22,004
"The Wayward Witch of Wall Street. "
Something like that.

550
00:34:22,087 --> 00:34:24,590
But if her tips were any good,
she could wreck the market.

551
00:34:24,673 --> 00:34:30,220
I called her this morning and asked her
how she was on predicting the future.

552
00:34:30,304 --> 00:34:32,973
She said she was
occasionally prescient.

553
00:34:33,056 --> 00:34:37,686
"For example," she said,
"I just had a vision of you...

554
00:34:37,769 --> 00:34:40,772
sitting in an office
with a craggy, middle-aged man...

555
00:34:40,856 --> 00:34:44,276
with whom you are
or will be emotionally involved. "

556
00:34:44,359 --> 00:34:45,944
And here I am.

557
00:34:48,405 --> 00:34:50,949
She does all this with tarot cards?

558
00:34:51,033 --> 00:34:53,911
This one operates
on parapsychology.

559
00:34:53,994 --> 00:34:58,290
She has trance-like episodes
and feels things in her energy field.

560
00:34:59,249 --> 00:35:02,961
- This lady could be very useful to you.
- In what way?

561
00:35:03,003 --> 00:35:05,631
You put on a news show.

562
00:35:05,714 --> 00:35:08,926
And here's somebody who can predict
tomorrow's news for you.

563
00:35:09,009 --> 00:35:11,345
Her name, aptly enough, is Sibyl.

564
00:35:11,386 --> 00:35:13,347
Sibyl the Soothsayer.

565
00:35:13,388 --> 00:35:15,974
You could give her
two minutes of trance...

566
00:35:16,058 --> 00:35:18,685
at the end of the "Howard Beale Show,"
say once a week, Friday...

567
00:35:18,727 --> 00:35:21,188
which is suggestively occult,
and she could oraculate.

568
00:35:22,397 --> 00:35:25,359
Then next week everyone tunes in to see
how good her predictions were.

569
00:35:26,485 --> 00:35:28,487
Maybe she could do the weather.

570
00:35:30,822 --> 00:35:33,784
Your "Network News Show" will need help
if it's going to hold.

571
00:35:33,867 --> 00:35:36,328
Beale doesn't do the "angry man" thing
well at all.

572
00:35:36,411 --> 00:35:38,455
He's too kvetchy.
He's being irascible.

573
00:35:38,539 --> 00:35:41,708
We want a prophet, not a curmudgeon.
He should do more apocalyptic doom.

574
00:35:41,750 --> 00:35:45,587
I think you should have some writers
write some jeremiads for him.

575
00:35:46,964 --> 00:35:49,216
I see you don't fancy my suggestions.

576
00:35:51,426 --> 00:35:53,262
You're not serious?

577
00:35:53,345 --> 00:35:55,055
I'm serious.

578
00:35:56,598 --> 00:35:59,101
The fact is, I could make
your Beale show...

579
00:35:59,184 --> 00:36:03,146
the highest-rated news show in TV
if you'd let me have a crack at it.

580
00:36:04,106 --> 00:36:06,358
What do you mean,
"have a crack at it"?

581
00:36:06,441 --> 00:36:08,277
I'd like to program it for you.

582
00:36:08,360 --> 00:36:09,945
Develop it.

583
00:36:10,028 --> 00:36:14,741
I wouldn't interfere with
the news itself, but TV is show biz...

584
00:36:14,783 --> 00:36:18,745
and even the news has to have
a little showmanship.

585
00:36:18,787 --> 00:36:21,081
My God, you are serious.

586
00:36:21,123 --> 00:36:25,294
I watched your six o'clock news today.
It's straight tabloid.

587
00:36:25,377 --> 00:36:28,881
You had a minute and a half of that lady
riding naked in Central Park...

588
00:36:28,964 --> 00:36:32,050
but you had less than a minute
of hard national and international news.

589
00:36:32,134 --> 00:36:34,845
It was all sex, scandal,
brutal crime, sports...

590
00:36:34,928 --> 00:36:38,265
children with incurable diseases
and lost puppies.

591
00:36:38,307 --> 00:36:41,727
So I won't listen to protestations
of high standards of journalism...

592
00:36:41,810 --> 00:36:44,646
when you're on the streets, soliciting
audiences like the rest of us.

593
00:36:44,730 --> 00:36:48,734
All I'm saying is, if you're going
to hustle, at least do it right.

594
00:36:48,817 --> 00:36:51,904
I'm going to bring this up at tomorrow's
meeting, but I don't like hassles.

595
00:36:51,987 --> 00:36:55,365
I was hoping we could work this out
between us. That's why I'm here.

596
00:36:56,909 --> 00:37:00,287
And I was hoping you were looking for
an emotional involvement...

597
00:37:00,329 --> 00:37:02,539
with a craggy, middle-aged man.

598
00:37:04,082 --> 00:37:06,084
I wouldn't rule that out entirely.

599
00:37:09,505 --> 00:37:11,840
All right, Diana...

600
00:37:11,924 --> 00:37:15,636
bring up all your ideas at the meeting,
because if you don't, I will.

601
00:37:17,137 --> 00:37:19,640
I think Howard's making
a goddamn fool of himself...

602
00:37:19,681 --> 00:37:23,811
and so does everybody that Howard
and I know in this industry.

603
00:37:23,894 --> 00:37:26,271
It was a fluke.
Didn't work.

604
00:37:27,523 --> 00:37:30,609
So tomorrow, Howard goes back
to the old format...

605
00:37:30,692 --> 00:37:34,571
and all of this gutter depravity
comes to an end.

606
00:37:46,250 --> 00:37:48,127
I don't get it.

607
00:37:49,586 --> 00:37:52,589
You hung around until 7:30
and then came down here...

608
00:37:52,673 --> 00:37:55,592
just to pitch a couple
of loony show-biz ideas...

609
00:37:55,676 --> 00:37:59,555
when you knew goddamn well
I'd laugh you right out of the office.

610
00:37:59,638 --> 00:38:02,015
I don't get it.

611
00:38:02,099 --> 00:38:04,935
What's your scam in this?

612
00:38:05,018 --> 00:38:10,399
My visit here tonight was a gesture made
out of your stature in the industry...

613
00:38:11,733 --> 00:38:14,403
and because I personally admired you
since I was a kid...

614
00:38:14,486 --> 00:38:16,989
majoring in speech
at the University of Missouri.

615
00:38:18,282 --> 00:38:22,035
Sooner or later, with or without you,
I'm going to take over your news show.

616
00:38:22,119 --> 00:38:24,663
I figured I might as well start tonight.

617
00:38:25,914 --> 00:38:28,625
I think I once gave a lecture...

618
00:38:28,709 --> 00:38:31,962
at the University of Missouri.

619
00:38:32,045 --> 00:38:36,717
I was in the audience. I had
a schoolgirl crush on you for months.

620
00:38:38,343 --> 00:38:41,722
If we could get back for a moment
to that gypsy who predicted...

621
00:38:41,764 --> 00:38:46,018
all that about emotional involvements
and middle-aged men...

622
00:38:47,227 --> 00:38:49,646
what are you doing
for dinner tonight?

623
00:38:58,947 --> 00:39:01,658
I can't make it tonight.
Call me tomorrow.

624
00:39:04,161 --> 00:39:07,331
- Do you have a favorite restaurant?
- I eat anything.

625
00:39:08,707 --> 00:39:10,918
I get a feeling I'm being made.

626
00:39:10,959 --> 00:39:12,419
You are.

627
00:39:13,587 --> 00:39:16,757
I've got to warn you.
I don't do anything on my first date.

628
00:39:16,799 --> 00:39:18,258
We'll see.

629
00:39:24,264 --> 00:39:26,517
Schmuck, what are you getting into?

630
00:39:47,996 --> 00:39:52,042
I was married for four years
and pretended to be happy.

631
00:39:52,126 --> 00:39:54,753
I had six years of analysis
and pretended to be sane.

632
00:39:56,547 --> 00:39:59,216
My husband ran off
with his boyfriend...

633
00:39:59,299 --> 00:40:03,887
and I had an affair with my analyst who
told me I was the worst lay he ever had.

634
00:40:05,180 --> 00:40:08,058
I can't tell you how many men
have told me what a lousy lay I am.

635
00:40:08,934 --> 00:40:11,353
I apparently have
a masculine temperament.

636
00:40:11,437 --> 00:40:15,315
I arouse quickly,
consummate prematurely...

637
00:40:15,357 --> 00:40:18,444
and I can't wait to get my clothes
back on and get out of that bedroom.

638
00:40:19,653 --> 00:40:23,615
I seem to be inept at everything
except my work.

639
00:40:24,491 --> 00:40:26,744
I'm good at my work.

640
00:40:26,827 --> 00:40:29,371
So I confine myself to that.

641
00:40:29,455 --> 00:40:32,916
All I want out of life
is a 30 share and a 20 rating.

642
00:40:34,501 --> 00:40:36,628
You're married, surely?

643
00:40:38,213 --> 00:40:39,631
Twenty-five years.

644
00:40:40,674 --> 00:40:43,969
I have a married daughter in Seattle
who's six months pregnant...

645
00:40:44,053 --> 00:40:49,183
and a younger girl who's starting
at Northwestern in January.

646
00:40:52,061 --> 00:40:53,979
Well, Max, here we are.

647
00:40:56,065 --> 00:40:58,817
Middle-aged man reaffirming
his middle-aged manhood...

648
00:40:58,901 --> 00:41:01,862
and a terrified young woman
with a father complex.

649
00:41:01,945 --> 00:41:04,448
What sort of script
can we make out of this?

650
00:41:06,533 --> 00:41:10,913
Corridor gossip says that you're
Frank Hackett's backstage girl.

651
00:41:11,955 --> 00:41:13,374
I'm not.

652
00:41:15,084 --> 00:41:18,420
Frank's a corporation man,
body and soul.

653
00:41:18,504 --> 00:41:20,506
He has no loves, lusts
or allegiances...

654
00:41:20,547 --> 00:41:24,009
that are not consummately directed
toward becoming a CCA board member.

655
00:41:24,093 --> 00:41:26,929
Why should he bother with me?
I'm not even a stockholder.

656
00:41:28,806 --> 00:41:33,060
What about your loves,
lusts and allegiances?

657
00:41:33,143 --> 00:41:35,312
Is your wife in town?

658
00:41:35,396 --> 00:41:36,814
Yes.

659
00:41:38,107 --> 00:41:40,567
Then we better go to my place.

660
00:41:41,944 --> 00:41:44,905
I can't hear you.
You'll have to talk a little louder.

661
00:41:51,620 --> 00:41:54,665
Yes, I hear you.

662
00:41:58,252 --> 00:41:59,670
Yes.

663
00:42:02,464 --> 00:42:03,924
Yes.

664
00:42:09,847 --> 00:42:11,307
Why me?

665
00:42:13,267 --> 00:42:15,477
I said, "Why me?"

666
00:42:35,831 --> 00:42:37,791
Howard in his office?

667
00:42:38,959 --> 00:42:44,006
I'm killing this whole screwball
"angry prophet" thing.

668
00:42:44,089 --> 00:42:46,300
Tonight we go back to straight news.

669
00:42:53,182 --> 00:42:56,769
Yeah? Max, I'm telling you he's fine.

670
00:42:56,810 --> 00:42:59,897
He's been sharp all day.
He's been as funny as hell.

671
00:42:59,980 --> 00:43:02,191
Had everybody cracking up
at the rundown meeting.

672
00:43:02,274 --> 00:43:04,276
I told him!

673
00:43:05,069 --> 00:43:06,487
Cue VTA.

674
00:43:07,279 --> 00:43:08,697
Ready two.

675
00:43:10,991 --> 00:43:14,286
- Cue announcer.
- The "UBS Evening News"...

676
00:43:14,370 --> 00:43:16,372
with Howard Beale.

677
00:43:17,373 --> 00:43:21,210
Last night I was awakened
from a fitful sleep...

678
00:43:21,293 --> 00:43:23,963
shortly after 2:00 in the morning...

679
00:43:24,004 --> 00:43:27,091
by a shrill, sibilant,
faceless voice.

680
00:43:27,174 --> 00:43:30,803
I couldn't make it out at first
in the dark bedroom.

681
00:43:32,346 --> 00:43:34,974
I said, "I'm sorry.
You'll have to talk a little louder. "

682
00:43:35,015 --> 00:43:38,727
- What do you want me to do?
- Nothing.

683
00:43:38,811 --> 00:43:42,106
The voice said to me,
"I want you to tell the truth.

684
00:43:42,189 --> 00:43:45,025
Not easy to do, because the people
don't want to know the truth. "

685
00:43:45,109 --> 00:43:47,861
I said, "You're kidding?

686
00:43:47,903 --> 00:43:49,863
What should I know about the truth?"

687
00:43:49,905 --> 00:43:54,493
But the voice said to me,
"Don't worry about the truth. "

688
00:43:54,535 --> 00:43:56,537
I will put the words in your mouth. "

689
00:43:57,580 --> 00:43:59,540
I said,
"Is this the burning bush?

690
00:43:59,582 --> 00:44:01,041
I'm not Moses. "

691
00:44:01,083 --> 00:44:04,378
The voice said, "I'm not God.
What has that got to do with it?"

692
00:44:04,420 --> 00:44:08,799
The voice said, "We're not talking
about eternal, absolute truth.

693
00:44:08,883 --> 00:44:11,594
We're talking about impermanent,
transient, human truth!

694
00:44:11,677 --> 00:44:14,555
I don't expect people
to be capable of truth...

695
00:44:14,638 --> 00:44:17,182
but at least you're capable
of self-preservation. "

696
00:44:18,267 --> 00:44:22,021
I said, "Why me?"

697
00:44:22,062 --> 00:44:24,815
The voice said, "Because you're
on television, dummy. "

698
00:44:24,899 --> 00:44:27,109
Beautiful.

699
00:44:27,193 --> 00:44:30,321
"Forty million Americans listen to you,
and after the show, maybe 50 million.

700
00:44:30,404 --> 00:44:34,617
I'm not asking you to walk the land
in sackcloth preaching the Armageddon.

701
00:44:34,700 --> 00:44:36,118
You're on TV."

702
00:44:36,869 --> 00:44:39,121
I thought about it for a moment.

703
00:44:40,581 --> 00:44:43,083
Then I said, "Okay. "

704
00:45:03,729 --> 00:45:05,648
Close the door, Harry.

705
00:45:09,109 --> 00:45:11,987
Howard, I'm taking you off the air.

706
00:45:13,239 --> 00:45:16,450
I think you're having a breakdown,
require treatment.

707
00:45:18,869 --> 00:45:22,122
This is not a psychotic episode.

708
00:45:22,164 --> 00:45:24,834
This is a cleansing moment of clarity.

709
00:45:29,213 --> 00:45:30,673
I'm imbued.

710
00:45:31,966 --> 00:45:36,053
I'm imbued with some special spirit.
It's not a religious feeling at all.

711
00:45:36,136 --> 00:45:39,765
It's a shocking eruption
of great electrical energy.

712
00:45:39,807 --> 00:45:42,268
I feel vivid and flashing...

713
00:45:42,309 --> 00:45:47,481
as if suddenly I'd been plugged
into a great electromagnetic field.

714
00:45:49,358 --> 00:45:52,069
I feel connected to all living things.

715
00:45:52,153 --> 00:45:55,281
To flowers, birds...

716
00:45:56,407 --> 00:45:58,409
all the animals of the world...

717
00:46:00,202 --> 00:46:05,666
and even to some great,
unseen living force...

718
00:46:05,749 --> 00:46:08,502
what I think the Hindus
call "prana. "

719
00:46:09,753 --> 00:46:11,964
But it's not a breakdown.

720
00:46:12,006 --> 00:46:14,758
I've never felt more orderly
in my life.

721
00:46:14,842 --> 00:46:19,054
It is a shattering
and beautiful sensation.

722
00:46:19,930 --> 00:46:23,684
It is the exalted flow
of the space-time continuum...

723
00:46:23,767 --> 00:46:27,021
save that it is spaceless
and timeless...

724
00:46:28,439 --> 00:46:30,357
and such loveliness.

725
00:46:31,859 --> 00:46:37,323
I feel on the verge
of some great ultimate truth.

726
00:46:42,203 --> 00:46:47,541
And you will not take me off the air
for now or any other spaceless time!

727
00:46:54,757 --> 00:46:56,926
- Is he okay?
- He's just fainted.

728
00:46:57,009 --> 00:47:00,012
I better get him back to my house
again tonight.

729
00:47:00,096 --> 00:47:02,181
Help me get him up.

730
00:47:22,910 --> 00:47:24,870
This is crazy.

731
00:47:26,288 --> 00:47:29,708
The whole place has gone crazy.
They just seem to hassle me.

732
00:48:50,081 --> 00:48:53,042
Wake up, Max,
because Howard's gone.

733
00:48:54,210 --> 00:48:57,296
I'll make you some coffee.

734
00:48:57,338 --> 00:48:59,465
You don't know where he is?
The son of a bitch is a hit!

735
00:48:59,548 --> 00:49:02,176
Goddamn it!
Over 2,000 phone calls!

736
00:49:02,259 --> 00:49:06,680
In the mail room, over 14,000 telegrams!
The response is sensational!

737
00:49:06,722 --> 00:49:08,974
Tell him.
Herb's phone hasn't stopped ringing.

738
00:49:09,016 --> 00:49:14,355
Every affiliate from Albuquerque
to Sandusky! Response is sensational!

739
00:49:14,397 --> 00:49:16,774
Yes. All right.

740
00:49:16,857 --> 00:49:19,151
For you, Herb.
Go to your office.

741
00:49:19,193 --> 00:49:22,655
Moldanian called me. Joe Donnelly
called me. We've got a goddamn hit!

742
00:49:22,738 --> 00:49:26,867
Show him the Times. We even got
an editorial in the New York Times.

743
00:49:26,951 --> 00:49:29,203
- "A Call to Morality. "
- I don't know where he is.

744
00:49:29,245 --> 00:49:32,289
That crazy Beale has caught on. Don't
tell me you don't know where he is.

745
00:49:32,373 --> 00:49:34,959
He could be jumping off a roof
for all I know!

746
00:49:35,042 --> 00:49:38,462
The man is insane!
He's not responsible for himself!

747
00:49:38,546 --> 00:49:40,506
He needs care and treatment.

748
00:49:40,589 --> 00:49:44,802
All you grave robbers think about
is that he's a hit.

749
00:49:44,885 --> 00:49:47,430
It's just possible
that he isn't insane...

750
00:49:47,513 --> 00:49:50,683
that he is, in fact,
imbued with some special spirit.

751
00:49:50,725 --> 00:49:54,311
I'm supposed to be the romantic!
You're the hard-bitten realist!

752
00:49:54,395 --> 00:49:57,440
All right. Howard Beale
obviously fills a void.

753
00:49:57,523 --> 00:49:59,483
The audience
obviously wants a prophet...

754
00:49:59,567 --> 00:50:02,403
even a manufactured one...
even if he's as mad as Moses.

755
00:50:02,445 --> 00:50:05,114
By tomorrow he'll have a 50 share,
maybe a 60.

756
00:50:05,197 --> 00:50:07,158
Howard Beale
is processed instant God.

757
00:50:07,241 --> 00:50:10,036
It looks like he may go over bigger
than Mary Tyler Moore.

758
00:50:10,077 --> 00:50:12,872
I am not putting Howard
back on the air!

759
00:50:12,913 --> 00:50:14,915
It's not your show anymore.
It's mine.

760
00:50:17,960 --> 00:50:19,545
I gave her the show.

761
00:50:19,587 --> 00:50:22,798
I'm putting the "Network News Show"
under programming.

762
00:50:22,882 --> 00:50:26,010
Mr. Ruddy had a heart attack
and is not taking calls.

763
00:50:26,093 --> 00:50:29,055
In his absence,
I'm making all network decisions...

764
00:50:29,096 --> 00:50:32,725
including one I've been wanting to make
a long time: You're fired.

765
00:50:33,517 --> 00:50:35,436
I want you out of this building
by noon.

766
00:50:35,519 --> 00:50:38,814
I'll call security and have you
thrown out if you're still here.

767
00:50:42,318 --> 00:50:44,070
Well, let's say
fuck you, Hackett.

768
00:50:44,111 --> 00:50:46,197
You want me out of here...

769
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:50,159
you'll have to drag me and the whole
News Division out kicking and screaming.

770
00:50:50,242 --> 00:50:52,912
You think they'll quit their jobs
for you? Not in this recession.

771
00:50:52,954 --> 00:50:54,914
Ruddy will have your ass.

772
00:50:54,956 --> 00:50:58,459
I got a hit!
Ruddy doesn't count anymore!

773
00:50:58,542 --> 00:51:01,420
He was hoping I'd fall on my face
with this Beale show, but I didn't.

774
00:51:01,462 --> 00:51:04,465
It's a big, fat, big-titted hit...

775
00:51:04,548 --> 00:51:06,717
and I don't have to waffle around
with Ruddy anymore.

776
00:51:06,801 --> 00:51:09,095
If he wants to take me before
the CCA board, let him.

777
00:51:09,136 --> 00:51:12,056
Do you think Ruddy is stupid enough
to go to the CCA board and say...

778
00:51:12,139 --> 00:51:14,433
"I'm taking our one hit show
off the air. "

779
00:51:14,475 --> 00:51:19,272
Come November 14, I'll be at the annual
CCA Management Review Meeting...

780
00:51:19,313 --> 00:51:21,816
and I'll announce projected earnings
for this network...

781
00:51:21,899 --> 00:51:24,068
for the first time in five years!

782
00:51:24,151 --> 00:51:28,197
Believe me, Mr. Jensen will be
sitting there, rocking back and forth...

783
00:51:28,281 --> 00:51:32,743
and he'll say, "That's very good, Frank.
Keep it up. "

784
00:51:32,827 --> 00:51:36,289
So don't have illusions about who's
running this network. You're fired.

785
00:51:36,372 --> 00:51:40,084
I want you out of your office before
noon, or I'll have you thrown out.

786
00:51:44,338 --> 00:51:45,923
You go along with this?

787
00:51:47,300 --> 00:51:49,760
I told you I didn't want
a network hassle.

788
00:51:49,844 --> 00:51:53,431
I told you I'd much rather
work the Beale show out between us.

789
00:51:55,349 --> 00:51:57,685
Well, let's just say
fuck you, too, honey.

790
00:51:59,520 --> 00:52:01,856
Howard Beale may be my best friend.
I'll go to court.

791
00:52:01,939 --> 00:52:05,067
I'll put him in a hospital before I let
you exploit him like a carnival freak.

792
00:52:05,151 --> 00:52:06,986
You get your psychiatrist.
I'll get mine.

793
00:52:07,028 --> 00:52:10,489
I'm gonna spread this reeking business
in every newspaper...

794
00:52:10,531 --> 00:52:13,409
on every network, group and affiliate
in this country!

795
00:52:13,492 --> 00:52:15,661
I'm gonna make
a lot of noise about this!

796
00:52:15,703 --> 00:52:18,039
We need all the press we can get!

797
00:52:20,917 --> 00:52:23,002
Something going on
between you and Schumacher?

798
00:52:24,545 --> 00:52:26,172
Not anymore.

799
00:52:44,649 --> 00:52:46,901
- How do you do, Mr. Beale?
- I must make my witness.

800
00:52:46,984 --> 00:52:49,070
Sure thing, Mr. Beale.

801
00:52:52,615 --> 00:52:55,326
Oil ministers of the OPEC nations
meeting in Vienna...

802
00:52:55,409 --> 00:52:59,789
still haven't decided how much
to increase the price of oil.

803
00:52:59,872 --> 00:53:03,000
Yeah? He came in the building
five minutes ago.

804
00:53:03,084 --> 00:53:05,836
Tell Snowden when he comes in
to let him go on.

805
00:53:05,920 --> 00:53:07,838
Did you get that, Paul?

806
00:53:09,090 --> 00:53:13,302
More on that story
from Edward Fletcher in Vienna.

807
00:53:13,386 --> 00:53:17,223
This has been the most divisive meeting
the oil states have ever had.

808
00:53:20,101 --> 00:53:22,645
The 13 nations of OPEC
have still not...

809
00:53:22,728 --> 00:53:25,856
been able to decide by how much
to increase the price of oil.

810
00:53:27,525 --> 00:53:29,485
How much time we got?

811
00:53:30,778 --> 00:53:32,738
We've got five seconds.
Hurry up.

812
00:53:37,243 --> 00:53:39,120
Take two. Cue Howard.

813
00:53:39,203 --> 00:53:42,748
I don't have to tell you things are bad.
Everybody knows things are bad.

814
00:53:42,790 --> 00:53:44,750
It's a depression.

815
00:53:44,792 --> 00:53:49,130
Everybody's out of work
or scared of losing their job.

816
00:53:49,171 --> 00:53:52,174
The dollar buys a nickel's worth.
Banks are going bust.

817
00:53:52,258 --> 00:53:56,345
Shopkeepers keep guns under the counter.
Punks are running wild in the street.

818
00:53:56,429 --> 00:53:59,223
Nobody anywhere seems to know
what to do, and there's no end to it.

819
00:54:00,641 --> 00:54:05,354
We know the air is unfit to breathe
and our food is unfit to eat.

820
00:54:05,438 --> 00:54:08,649
We sit watching our TVs
while some newscaster tells us...

821
00:54:08,733 --> 00:54:12,320
that today we had 15 homicides
and 63 violent crimes...

822
00:54:12,403 --> 00:54:14,322
as if that's the way
it's supposed to be!

823
00:54:14,405 --> 00:54:17,783
We know things are bad.
Worse than bad. They're crazy.

824
00:54:17,825 --> 00:54:21,162
Everything everywhere is going crazy,
so we don't go out anymore.

825
00:54:21,245 --> 00:54:24,665
We sit in the house. Slowly the world
we're living in is getting smaller.

826
00:54:24,707 --> 00:54:28,169
All we say is, "Please. At least
leave us alone in our living rooms.

827
00:54:28,211 --> 00:54:31,672
Let me have my toaster, my TV
my steel-belted radials.

828
00:54:31,756 --> 00:54:33,799
I won't say anything
Just leave us alone. "

829
00:54:33,883 --> 00:54:37,386
I'm not gonna leave you alone.
I want you to get mad!

830
00:54:38,471 --> 00:54:40,973
I don't want you to protest or riot.

831
00:54:41,057 --> 00:54:43,643
Don't write to your congressman.
I don't know what to tell you to write.

832
00:54:43,726 --> 00:54:46,270
I don't know what to do
about depression, inflation...

833
00:54:46,354 --> 00:54:48,314
the Russians,
the crime in the streets.

834
00:54:48,397 --> 00:54:51,359
All I know is that first
you've got to get mad!

835
00:54:51,442 --> 00:54:54,487
You've got to say,
"I'm a human being, goddamn it!

836
00:54:54,529 --> 00:54:56,572
My life has value!"

837
00:54:59,200 --> 00:55:03,663
So, I want you to get up now.

838
00:55:03,746 --> 00:55:07,124
I want all of you to get up
out of your chairs.

839
00:55:07,208 --> 00:55:10,545
I want you to get up now
and go to the window...

840
00:55:10,586 --> 00:55:13,881
open it,
stick your head out and yell...

841
00:55:13,923 --> 00:55:18,469
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take this anymore!"

842
00:55:18,553 --> 00:55:20,471
I want you to get up right now.

843
00:55:20,555 --> 00:55:23,182
- Stay with him.
- Sit up! Go to your windows.

844
00:55:23,224 --> 00:55:25,518
Open them,
stick your head out and yell...

845
00:55:25,560 --> 00:55:28,688
"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take this anymore!"

846
00:55:29,730 --> 00:55:32,150
- How many stations does it go out live?
- Sixty-seven.

847
00:55:34,443 --> 00:55:36,404
"I'm not gonna take this anymore. "

848
00:55:36,445 --> 00:55:40,241
Then we'll figure out what to do
about the depression and the oil crisis.

849
00:55:40,283 --> 00:55:42,160
First, get out of your chairs...

850
00:55:42,243 --> 00:55:45,788
open the window,
stick your head out and yell...

851
00:55:45,872 --> 00:55:47,999
"I'm as mad as hell...

852
00:55:48,082 --> 00:55:50,418
and I'm not gonna
take this anymore!"

853
00:55:50,460 --> 00:55:52,670
- Who are you talking to?
- Atlanta.

854
00:55:52,753 --> 00:55:55,506
Are they yelling in Atlanta?

855
00:55:55,590 --> 00:55:57,550
But first you've gotta get mad.

856
00:55:57,592 --> 00:56:02,180
You've gotta say, "I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!"

857
00:56:02,263 --> 00:56:04,182
They're yelling in Baton Rouge.

858
00:56:05,433 --> 00:56:06,851
Get up!

859
00:56:06,934 --> 00:56:10,563
Son of a bitch!
We've struck the mother lode!

860
00:56:10,646 --> 00:56:14,609
Stick your head out of the window
and keep yelling.

861
00:56:14,692 --> 00:56:17,278
Yell, "I'm as mad as hell.

862
00:56:17,361 --> 00:56:19,113
I'm not gonna take this anymore. "

863
00:56:19,197 --> 00:56:21,741
Just get up from your chairs.

864
00:56:21,783 --> 00:56:24,035
- Where you going?
- I want to see if anybody's yelling.

865
00:56:24,118 --> 00:56:26,078
Open it and stick your head out.

866
00:56:26,162 --> 00:56:28,122
Yell and keep yelling...

867
00:56:29,457 --> 00:56:31,751
I'm mad as hell!

868
00:56:31,793 --> 00:56:33,878
I'm not gonna take this anymore!

869
00:56:38,841 --> 00:56:41,719
I'm mad as hell, and I'm
not gonna take it anymore!

870
00:57:01,614 --> 00:57:06,327
I'm mad as hell, and I'm not
going to take this anymore!

871
00:57:41,279 --> 00:57:45,158
By mid-October, the "Howard Beale Show"
had settled in at a 42 share...

872
00:57:45,241 --> 00:57:49,245
more than equaling all the other
network news shows combined.

873
00:57:49,328 --> 00:57:51,789
In the Nielsen ratings,
the "Howard Beale Show"...

874
00:57:51,873 --> 00:57:54,208
was the fourth-highest-rated show
of the month...

875
00:57:54,292 --> 00:57:57,754
surpassed only by "The Six Million
Dollar Man," "All in the Family"...

876
00:57:57,837 --> 00:57:59,088
and "Phyllis"...

877
00:57:59,172 --> 00:58:01,924
a phenomenal state of affairs
for a news show.

878
00:58:01,966 --> 00:58:05,428
On October 15, Diana Christensen
flew to Los Angeles...

879
00:58:05,511 --> 00:58:07,889
for what the trade calls
powwows and confabs...

880
00:58:07,972 --> 00:58:10,349
with her West Coast
programming execs...

881
00:58:10,433 --> 00:58:13,644
and to get production rolling
on the shows for the coming season.

882
00:58:13,728 --> 00:58:18,775
Christ! You brought half the William
Morris West Coast Office along with you.

883
00:58:18,858 --> 00:58:23,654
I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey
of the imperialist ruling circles.

884
00:58:23,738 --> 00:58:26,449
I'm Laureen Hobbs,
a bad-ass commie nigger.

885
00:58:26,532 --> 00:58:29,160
Sounds like the basis
of a firm friendship.

886
00:58:29,243 --> 00:58:31,579
- We'll need more chairs.
- Anybody want coffee?

887
00:58:31,662 --> 00:58:33,956
I'd love some.

888
00:58:39,629 --> 00:58:43,174
This is my lawyer, Sam Haywood,
and his associate, Merrill Grant.

889
00:58:45,510 --> 00:58:50,139
Miss Christensen, just what the hell's
this all about?

890
00:58:50,223 --> 00:58:53,518
Because, when a national
television network...

891
00:58:53,601 --> 00:58:58,022
in the person of booby here
comes to me and says...

892
00:58:58,064 --> 00:59:01,234
they want to put the ongoing struggle
of the oppressed masses...

893
00:59:01,317 --> 00:59:03,277
on prime-time television...

894
00:59:03,361 --> 00:59:05,279
I have to regard this askance!

895
00:59:05,363 --> 00:59:10,284
Mr. Haywood was saying
that our client, Miss Hobbs...

896
00:59:10,368 --> 00:59:14,414
wants it up front that
the political content of the show...

897
00:59:14,497 --> 00:59:16,749
has to be in her control.

898
00:59:16,833 --> 00:59:20,378
She can have it. I don't give a damn
about the political content.

899
00:59:21,337 --> 00:59:22,964
What kind of show?

900
00:59:23,047 --> 00:59:26,050
I'm interested in doing
a weekly dramatic series...

901
00:59:26,134 --> 00:59:28,594
based on the
Ecumenical Liberation Army...

902
00:59:28,678 --> 00:59:32,473
and the first show has to be
a two-hour special on Mary Ann Gifford.

903
00:59:32,557 --> 00:59:38,021
I want a lot more film like the bank
rip-off the Ecumenical sent in.

904
00:59:38,062 --> 00:59:40,690
The way I see the series is...

905
00:59:40,773 --> 00:59:45,653
each week we open with an authentic act
of political terrorism...

906
00:59:45,737 --> 00:59:48,031
taken on the spot
and in the actual moment.

907
00:59:48,072 --> 00:59:50,992
Then we go to the drama behind
the opening film footage.

908
00:59:51,075 --> 00:59:53,202
That's your job, Miss Hobbs.

909
00:59:53,286 --> 00:59:57,248
You've got to get the Ecumenicals
to bring in that film footage for us.

910
00:59:57,332 --> 01:00:01,252
The network can't deal with them.
They are wanted criminals.

911
01:00:02,253 --> 01:00:05,214
The Ecumenical Liberation Army
is an ultra-left sect...

912
01:00:05,298 --> 01:00:06,841
creating political confusion...

913
01:00:06,924 --> 01:00:10,094
with wildcat violence
and pseudo-insurrectionary acts...

914
01:00:10,178 --> 01:00:12,347
which the Communist Party
does not endorse.

915
01:00:12,430 --> 01:00:15,642
The American masses are not yet ready
for open revolt.

916
01:00:15,725 --> 01:00:18,603
We would not want to produce
a television show...

917
01:00:18,686 --> 01:00:22,106
celebrating historically
deviational terrorism.

918
01:00:22,148 --> 01:00:25,068
I'm offering you an hour
of prime-time television every week...

919
01:00:25,109 --> 01:00:27,111
into which you can stick
whatever propaganda you want.

920
01:00:27,195 --> 01:00:30,573
The Ecumenicals are an undisciplined
ultra-left gang...

921
01:00:30,615 --> 01:00:33,159
whose leader is an eccentric,
to say the least.

922
01:00:33,242 --> 01:00:38,039
He calls himself the Great Ahmed Khan
and wears a hussar's shako.

923
01:00:38,122 --> 01:00:41,250
We're talking about
30 to 50 million people a shot.

924
01:00:41,292 --> 01:00:43,294
It's better than handing out...

925
01:00:43,378 --> 01:00:46,005
mimeographed pamphlets
on ghetto street corners.

926
01:00:52,220 --> 01:00:55,265
I'll have to take this matter
to the Central Committee.

927
01:00:56,432 --> 01:00:59,102
And I'd better check it out
with the Great Ahmed Khan.

928
01:01:00,770 --> 01:01:04,941
I'll be in L.A. Until Saturday,
and I'd like to get it rolling.

929
01:01:39,309 --> 01:01:42,854
Well, Ahmed,
you ain't gonna believe this...

930
01:01:44,188 --> 01:01:47,233
but I'm gonna make
a TV star outta you.

931
01:01:47,317 --> 01:01:50,653
Just like Archie Bunker.

932
01:01:50,695 --> 01:01:53,406
You gonna be a household word.

933
01:01:55,074 --> 01:01:57,535
What the fuck are you talking about?

934
01:01:57,619 --> 01:02:00,455
- Thirty seconds.
- Ready VTA.

935
01:02:00,538 --> 01:02:02,707
One, you have the audience to pan.

936
01:02:02,790 --> 01:02:05,460
Two, you have the window to pull.

937
01:02:05,543 --> 01:02:07,670
Three, you're on the announcer.

938
01:02:07,754 --> 01:02:09,213
Twenty.

939
01:02:11,341 --> 01:02:12,634
Stand by VTA.

940
01:02:12,717 --> 01:02:16,054
Fifteen, 14, 13, 12...

941
01:02:16,095 --> 01:02:18,723
- Ready A.
- Roll VTA.

942
01:02:18,806 --> 01:02:21,392
Nine, 8, 7...

943
01:02:21,476 --> 01:02:24,520
6, 5, 4...

944
01:02:24,562 --> 01:02:26,564
3, 2, 1.

945
01:02:26,648 --> 01:02:28,233
Three, cue announcer!

946
01:02:28,316 --> 01:02:31,736
Ladies and gentlemen, let's hear it!
How do you feel?

947
01:02:31,778 --> 01:02:33,571
We're mad as hell...

948
01:02:33,655 --> 01:02:36,574
and we're not gonna take this anymore!

949
01:02:36,616 --> 01:02:38,576
Ladies and gentlemen,
the "Network News Hour"...

950
01:02:38,618 --> 01:02:40,495
with Sybil the Soothsayer...

951
01:02:44,707 --> 01:02:48,294
Jim Webbing and his
It's-The-Emmes-Truth Department...

952
01:02:51,965 --> 01:02:54,509
Miss Mata Hari
and her skeletons in the closet.

953
01:02:58,888 --> 01:03:01,266
Plus tonight, another segment
of "Vox Populi. "

954
01:03:05,436 --> 01:03:09,566
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

955
01:03:24,706 --> 01:03:27,125
Edward George Ruddy died today!

956
01:03:27,208 --> 01:03:29,794
Edward George Ruddy
was the chairman of the board...

957
01:03:29,878 --> 01:03:32,547
of the Union Broadcasting Systems...

958
01:03:32,630 --> 01:03:36,092
and he died at 11:00 this morning
of a heart condition.

959
01:03:36,134 --> 01:03:39,470
Woe is us!
We're in a lot of trouble!

960
01:03:42,932 --> 01:03:47,854
So, a rich little man
with white hair died.

961
01:03:48,646 --> 01:03:51,441
What does that got to do
with the price of rice, right?

962
01:03:51,482 --> 01:03:53,526
And why is that woe to us?

963
01:03:55,487 --> 01:03:57,572
Because you people...

964
01:03:57,655 --> 01:04:01,618
and 62 million other Americans
are listening to me right now.

965
01:04:01,701 --> 01:04:05,497
Because less than three percent
of you people read books.

966
01:04:06,915 --> 01:04:10,585
Because less than 15 percent of you
read newspapers.

967
01:04:10,668 --> 01:04:14,422
Because the only truth you know
is what you get over this tube.

968
01:04:14,506 --> 01:04:18,009
Right now, there is a whole
and entire generation...

969
01:04:18,092 --> 01:04:21,304
that never knew anything
that didn't come out of this tube!

970
01:04:22,514 --> 01:04:26,768
This tube is the Gospel.
The ultimate revelation.

971
01:04:26,851 --> 01:04:29,020
This tube can make or break...

972
01:04:29,103 --> 01:04:31,815
presidents, popes, prime ministers.

973
01:04:31,898 --> 01:04:37,070
This tube is the most awesome goddamn
force in the whole godless world...

974
01:04:37,153 --> 01:04:40,031
and woe is us if it ever falls
into the hands of the wrong people!

975
01:04:40,073 --> 01:04:43,368
And that's why woe is us
that Edward George Ruddy died.

976
01:04:44,285 --> 01:04:47,330
Because this company is now
in the hands of CCA...

977
01:04:47,413 --> 01:04:50,041
the Communication Corporation
of America.

978
01:04:50,125 --> 01:04:53,503
There's a new chairman of the board,
a man called Frank Hackett...

979
01:04:53,545 --> 01:04:55,547
sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office
on the 20th floor.

980
01:04:55,630 --> 01:04:59,884
And when the 12th largest company
in the world...

981
01:04:59,968 --> 01:05:03,388
controls the most awesome,
goddamn propaganda force...

982
01:05:03,471 --> 01:05:05,390
in the whole godless world...

983
01:05:05,473 --> 01:05:09,519
who knows what shit will be peddled
for truth on this network!

984
01:05:09,602 --> 01:05:12,605
So you listen to me.
Listen to me!

985
01:05:12,689 --> 01:05:15,442
Television is not the truth.

986
01:05:15,525 --> 01:05:18,027
Television's
a goddamned amusement park!

987
01:05:18,069 --> 01:05:22,323
Television is a circus, a carnival,
a traveling troupe of acrobats...

988
01:05:22,407 --> 01:05:25,994
storytellers, dancers, singers,
jugglers, sideshow freaks...

989
01:05:26,077 --> 01:05:28,913
lion tamers and football players.

990
01:05:28,955 --> 01:05:31,416
We're in the boredom-killing business.

991
01:05:33,460 --> 01:05:37,464
So if you want the truth,
go to God.

992
01:05:37,547 --> 01:05:39,924
Go to your gurus.

993
01:05:40,008 --> 01:05:42,051
Go to yourselves!

994
01:05:42,093 --> 01:05:46,222
Because that's the only place
you're ever gonna find any real truth.

995
01:05:47,599 --> 01:05:51,728
But, man, you're never gonna get
any truth from us.

996
01:05:51,811 --> 01:05:54,731
We'll tell you anything you wanna hear.
We lie like hell.

997
01:05:54,773 --> 01:05:57,817
We'll tell you that Kojak
always gets the killer...

998
01:05:57,901 --> 01:06:01,112
and that nobody ever gets cancer
in Archie Bunker's house.

999
01:06:01,196 --> 01:06:03,531
And no matter how much trouble
the hero is in, don't worry.

1000
01:06:03,615 --> 01:06:06,326
Look at your watch.
At the end of the hour he'll win!

1001
01:06:06,409 --> 01:06:09,871
We'll tell you any shit
you want to hear!

1002
01:06:09,954 --> 01:06:13,708
We deal in illusions.
None of it is true!

1003
01:06:13,792 --> 01:06:17,754
But you people sit there,
day after day, night after night.

1004
01:06:17,837 --> 01:06:22,008
You're all ages, colors, creeds.
We're all you know.

1005
01:06:22,092 --> 01:06:25,011
You're beginning to believe
the illusions we're spinning here.

1006
01:06:25,095 --> 01:06:28,890
You're beginning to think the tube is
reality and your own lives are unreal.

1007
01:06:28,973 --> 01:06:31,059
You do whatever the tube tells you!

1008
01:06:31,142 --> 01:06:33,269
You dress like the tube,
eat like the tube...

1009
01:06:33,353 --> 01:06:36,481
raise your children like the tube,
even think like the tube.

1010
01:06:36,564 --> 01:06:40,110
This is mass madness, you maniacs!

1011
01:06:40,151 --> 01:06:42,904
In God's name, you people
are the real thing!

1012
01:06:42,987 --> 01:06:45,156
We are the illusion!

1013
01:06:45,240 --> 01:06:50,036
So turn off your television sets.
Turn them off right now.

1014
01:06:50,120 --> 01:06:52,122
Turn them off and leave them off.

1015
01:06:52,163 --> 01:06:55,375
Turn them off in the middle
of this sentence.

1016
01:06:55,458 --> 01:06:57,460
Turn them off!

1017
01:07:11,891 --> 01:07:14,769
UBS was running at a cash flow
of break-even point...

1018
01:07:14,853 --> 01:07:19,357
after taking into account $110 million
of negative cash flow from the network.

1019
01:07:19,441 --> 01:07:22,986
It was clear the fat on the network
had to be flitched off.

1020
01:07:23,069 --> 01:07:26,322
Please note an increase in projected
initial programming revenues...

1021
01:07:26,406 --> 01:07:28,491
in the amount of $21 million...

1022
01:07:28,533 --> 01:07:32,203
due to the phenomenal success
of the "Howard Beale Show. "

1023
01:07:33,747 --> 01:07:38,460
I expect a positive cash flow
for the entire complex of 45 million...

1024
01:07:38,543 --> 01:07:40,795
achievable in this fiscal year...

1025
01:07:40,879 --> 01:07:43,465
a year, in short,
ahead of schedule.

1026
01:07:44,257 --> 01:07:46,301
Beyond that...

1027
01:07:46,384 --> 01:07:49,220
this network may be
the most significant profit center...

1028
01:07:49,262 --> 01:07:51,681
of the communications complex...

1029
01:07:51,723 --> 01:07:55,852
and based upon the projected rate
of return on invested capital...

1030
01:07:55,935 --> 01:07:59,773
and if merger is accomplished,
the communications complex...

1031
01:07:59,856 --> 01:08:04,194
may well become the towering
and most profitable center...

1032
01:08:04,235 --> 01:08:06,905
in the entire CCA empire.

1033
01:08:08,907 --> 01:08:12,243
I await your questions and comments.

1034
01:08:12,327 --> 01:08:13,828
Mr. Jensen?

1035
01:08:14,621 --> 01:08:17,707
Very good, Frank. Exemplary.
Keep it up.

1036
01:08:43,400 --> 01:08:45,902
Buy you a cup of coffee?

1037
01:08:47,570 --> 01:08:49,114
Hell, yes.

1038
01:08:50,156 --> 01:08:52,575
Do you have to get back
to the office?

1039
01:08:52,617 --> 01:08:54,953
Nothing that can't wait.

1040
01:09:07,424 --> 01:09:11,011
I drop down to the news studios
now and then...

1041
01:09:11,094 --> 01:09:13,179
and ask Howard Beale about you.

1042
01:09:13,263 --> 01:09:16,433
He says you're doing fine.
Are you?

1043
01:09:17,183 --> 01:09:19,269
Are you keeping busy?

1044
01:09:19,311 --> 01:09:21,104
In a fashion.

1045
01:09:21,187 --> 01:09:25,442
This is the third funeral
I've been to in two weeks.

1046
01:09:25,483 --> 01:09:30,322
I have two other friends in the hospital
whom I visit regularly.

1047
01:09:30,363 --> 01:09:33,575
I've been to a couple of christenings.

1048
01:09:33,658 --> 01:09:37,412
All my friends seem to be dying
or having grandchildren.

1049
01:09:38,455 --> 01:09:40,790
You should be a grandfather yourself
about now.

1050
01:09:40,832 --> 01:09:43,627
You have a pregnant daughter
in Seattle, don't you?

1051
01:09:43,710 --> 01:09:45,754
Any day now.

1052
01:09:45,837 --> 01:09:48,340
My wife's out there
for the occasion.

1053
01:09:52,761 --> 01:09:56,306
I've thought many times of calling you.

1054
01:09:58,141 --> 01:10:00,518
I wish you had.

1055
01:10:03,355 --> 01:10:07,567
I bumped into Sybil the Soothsayer
in the elevator last week.

1056
01:10:07,651 --> 01:10:10,612
I said, "You know, Sybil,
about four months ago...

1057
01:10:10,695 --> 01:10:15,033
you predicted I would get involved
with a craggy, middle-aged man.

1058
01:10:15,075 --> 01:10:18,745
So far, all that's happened
has been one many-splendored night.

1059
01:10:18,828 --> 01:10:22,165
I don't call that
getting involved. "

1060
01:10:22,207 --> 01:10:25,669
She said,
"Don't worry. You will. "

1061
01:10:28,546 --> 01:10:32,133
It was a many-splendored night,
wasn't it, Max?

1062
01:10:34,177 --> 01:10:35,971
Yes, it was.

1063
01:10:38,640 --> 01:10:40,934
Are we going to get involved?

1064
01:10:43,561 --> 01:10:47,607
Yes. I need to become involved
very much.

1065
01:10:48,858 --> 01:10:51,027
How about you?

1066
01:10:52,404 --> 01:10:55,365
I've reached for the phone to call you
a hundred times...

1067
01:10:55,448 --> 01:10:58,493
but I was sure you hated me for my part
in taking your news show away.

1068
01:11:00,328 --> 01:11:03,540
I probably did.
I don't know anymore.

1069
01:11:03,582 --> 01:11:08,628
All I know is,
I can't get you out of my mind.

1070
01:11:12,924 --> 01:11:15,594
Marty, I know what NBC offered them.

1071
01:11:15,677 --> 01:11:21,391
Go to 3.5, and I want an option
for a third run on all of them.

1072
01:11:21,433 --> 01:11:24,811
I'm in a big hurry, and you and Charlie
are supposed to be negotiating this.

1073
01:11:24,895 --> 01:11:26,938
Good-bye, good luck.
I'll see you Monday.

1074
01:11:30,525 --> 01:11:33,987
- Jimmy Caan's agent says absolutely nix.
- You can't win them all.

1075
01:11:34,070 --> 01:11:37,532
- Where can I reach you later today?
- You can't. I'll be gone all weekend.

1076
01:11:42,537 --> 01:11:47,459
NBC's offering 3.25 mil
per package of five James Bond movies...

1077
01:11:47,542 --> 01:11:50,587
and I think I'm gonna steal them
for 3.5...

1078
01:11:50,629 --> 01:11:52,756
with a third run.

1079
01:12:01,264 --> 01:12:03,433
I'm gonna stick the "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
in at 8:00...

1080
01:12:03,475 --> 01:12:08,104
because we're having a lot of trouble
selling the "Mao Tse-tung Hour. "

1081
01:12:16,863 --> 01:12:21,743
That "Mao Tse-tung Hour's" turning
into one big pain in the ass.

1082
01:12:22,827 --> 01:12:26,706
We're having heavy legal problems
with the federal government right now.

1083
01:12:28,124 --> 01:12:33,046
Two FBI guys turned up in Hackett's
office and served us with a subpoena.

1084
01:12:35,006 --> 01:12:39,261
They heard about our Flagstaff
bank rip-off film, and they want it.

1085
01:12:40,554 --> 01:12:43,223
Hackett told the FBI to fuck off.

1086
01:12:48,478 --> 01:12:50,397
We're getting around the FBI...

1087
01:12:50,480 --> 01:12:53,859
by doing the show in collaboration
with the news division.

1088
01:12:53,942 --> 01:12:56,236
We're standing on the First Amendment:
Freedom of the press...

1089
01:12:56,319 --> 01:12:58,780
and the right to protect our sources.

1090
01:12:58,864 --> 01:13:02,534
Walter thinks we can knock out
the misprision of felony charge.

1091
01:13:10,333 --> 01:13:13,670
But he says absolutely nix
on going to series.

1092
01:13:13,712 --> 01:13:19,009
They'll hit us with "conspiracy
with an inducement to commit a crime. "

1093
01:13:19,050 --> 01:13:21,178
Christ, it's cold in here.

1094
01:13:21,261 --> 01:13:25,849
We're paying these Ecumencial
Liberation Army nuts $10,000 a week...

1095
01:13:25,932 --> 01:13:29,436
in order to turn in authentic film
of their revolutionary activities.

1096
01:13:29,519 --> 01:13:33,565
That inconstitutes
"inducement to commit a crime"...

1097
01:13:33,648 --> 01:13:37,068
and Walter says we'll all wind up
in federal prison.

1098
01:13:38,069 --> 01:13:43,116
I said, "Walter,
let the federal government sue us.

1099
01:13:43,200 --> 01:13:45,494
We'll take them to the Supreme Court.

1100
01:13:45,577 --> 01:13:47,537
We'll be front page. "

1101
01:13:49,164 --> 01:13:52,000
The New York Times
and the Washington Post...

1102
01:13:52,083 --> 01:13:54,002
will write editorials.

1103
01:13:54,085 --> 01:13:58,507
We'll be front page for months.
We'll have more press than Watergate.

1104
01:13:58,590 --> 01:14:03,428
All I need is six weeks
federal litigation...

1105
01:14:03,470 --> 01:14:07,098
and the "Mao Tse-tung Hour" can start
carrying its own time slot.

1106
01:14:23,532 --> 01:14:27,410
What's really bugging me now
is my daytime programming.

1107
01:14:28,453 --> 01:14:31,123
NBC's got a lock on daytime...

1108
01:14:31,206 --> 01:14:33,917
with their lousy game shows...

1109
01:14:34,000 --> 01:14:36,586
and I'd like to bust them.

1110
01:14:36,670 --> 01:14:41,133
I'm thinking of doing
a homosexual soap opera. "The Dykes. "

1111
01:14:42,634 --> 01:14:45,345
The heartrending saga about a woman...

1112
01:14:45,428 --> 01:14:48,723
hopelessly in love
with her husband's mistress.

1113
01:14:48,807 --> 01:14:50,934
What do you think?

1114
01:15:02,028 --> 01:15:04,156
How long has it been going on?

1115
01:15:06,658 --> 01:15:08,243
A month.

1116
01:15:10,162 --> 01:15:13,415
I thought it was a transient thing,
blow over in a week.

1117
01:15:14,791 --> 01:15:19,796
I still pray to God
it's just a menopausal infatuation.

1118
01:15:21,339 --> 01:15:24,718
But it is an infatuation, Louise.

1119
01:15:26,344 --> 01:15:29,306
There's no sense in my saying
I won't see her again, because I will.

1120
01:15:34,352 --> 01:15:38,023
You want me to leave,
check into a hotel?

1121
01:15:41,026 --> 01:15:43,028
Do you love her?

1122
01:15:46,448 --> 01:15:48,658
I don't know how I feel.

1123
01:15:50,619 --> 01:15:54,331
I'm grateful I can feel anything.

1124
01:15:57,042 --> 01:15:59,044
I know I'm obsessed with her.

1125
01:16:01,546 --> 01:16:03,256
Then say it!

1126
01:16:04,257 --> 01:16:07,761
Don't keep telling me that
you're obsessed, you're infatuated!

1127
01:16:07,844 --> 01:16:10,305
Say that you're in love with her.

1128
01:16:12,933 --> 01:16:16,061
I'm in love with her.

1129
01:16:16,144 --> 01:16:20,565
Then get out! Go anywhere you want.
Go live with her, but don't come back!

1130
01:16:20,607 --> 01:16:25,195
Because after 25 years of building
a home and raising a family...

1131
01:16:25,278 --> 01:16:28,949
and all the senseless pain
that we have inflicted on each other...

1132
01:16:29,032 --> 01:16:32,411
I'm damned if I'll stand and have you
say you're in love with somebody else!

1133
01:16:34,079 --> 01:16:38,917
This isn't the convention weekend
with your secretary, is it?

1134
01:16:38,959 --> 01:16:43,296
Or some broad that you picked up
after three belts of booze.

1135
01:16:43,380 --> 01:16:46,174
This is your great winter romance,
isn't it?

1136
01:16:46,258 --> 01:16:50,387
Your last roar of passion before
you settle into your emeritus years.

1137
01:16:50,470 --> 01:16:53,557
Is that what's left for me?
Is that my share?

1138
01:16:53,640 --> 01:16:56,476
She gets the winter passion,
and I get the dotage?

1139
01:16:56,560 --> 01:17:00,147
Am I supposed to sit home
knitting and purling...

1140
01:17:00,230 --> 01:17:03,859
while you slink back
like some penitent drunk?

1141
01:17:03,942 --> 01:17:06,028
I'm your wife, damn it...

1142
01:17:06,111 --> 01:17:08,238
and if you can't work up
a winter passion for me...

1143
01:17:08,280 --> 01:17:11,491
the least I require
is respect and allegiance!

1144
01:17:23,920 --> 01:17:27,382
I hurt!
Don't you understand that?

1145
01:17:29,468 --> 01:17:32,512
I hurt badly!

1146
01:17:40,479 --> 01:17:42,814
Oh, say something for God's sake.

1147
01:17:52,574 --> 01:17:54,951
I've got nothing to say.

1148
01:18:05,545 --> 01:18:07,964
I won't give you up easily.

1149
01:18:14,388 --> 01:18:17,224
I think perhaps it is better
if you move out.

1150
01:18:22,980 --> 01:18:25,273
Does she love you?

1151
01:18:29,194 --> 01:18:32,990
I'm not sure she's capable
of any real feelings.

1152
01:18:33,031 --> 01:18:37,119
She's television generation.
She learned life from Bugs Bunny.

1153
01:18:37,202 --> 01:18:40,956
The only reality she knows
comes to her from over the TV set.

1154
01:18:42,791 --> 01:18:46,753
She's very carefully devised a number
of scenarios for all of us to play...

1155
01:18:46,837 --> 01:18:49,673
like a movie of the week.

1156
01:18:52,134 --> 01:18:55,053
My God, look at us.

1157
01:18:55,137 --> 01:18:58,432
Here we are going through
the obligatory middle-of-act-two...

1158
01:18:58,515 --> 01:19:02,477
"scorned wife throws
peccant husband out" scene.

1159
01:19:02,561 --> 01:19:05,981
But don't worry,
I'll come back to you in the end.

1160
01:19:06,064 --> 01:19:09,318
All of her plot outlines have me
leaving her and coming back to you...

1161
01:19:09,401 --> 01:19:14,031
because the audience won't buy a
rejection of the happy American family.

1162
01:19:16,908 --> 01:19:20,412
She does have one script
in which I kill myself.

1163
01:19:20,495 --> 01:19:24,708
An adapted-for-television version
of "Anna Karenina"...

1164
01:19:26,335 --> 01:19:29,004
where she's Count Vronsky
and I'm Anna.

1165
01:19:34,176 --> 01:19:36,386
You're in for some dreadful grief.

1166
01:19:39,348 --> 01:19:40,766
I know.

1167
01:19:40,849 --> 01:19:44,269
The "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
went on the air March 14.

1168
01:19:44,311 --> 01:19:46,647
It received a 47 share.

1169
01:19:46,730 --> 01:19:49,900
The network promptly committed
to 15 shows with an option for 10 more.

1170
01:19:49,983 --> 01:19:53,403
There were the usual
contractual difficulties.

1171
01:19:53,445 --> 01:19:57,074
"Equal to 20 percent except that such
a percentage shall be 30 percent...

1172
01:19:57,115 --> 01:19:59,826
for 90 minutes
or longer television programs. "

1173
01:19:59,910 --> 01:20:02,704
Have we settled
that sub-licensing thing?

1174
01:20:02,788 --> 01:20:05,832
We want a clear definition here.

1175
01:20:05,916 --> 01:20:10,003
"Gross proceeds should consist of
all funds the sub-licensee receives...

1176
01:20:10,087 --> 01:20:12,256
not merely the net amount remitted...

1177
01:20:12,339 --> 01:20:15,634
after payment to the sub-licensee
or distributor. "

1178
01:20:15,717 --> 01:20:19,429
We're not sitting still for overhead
charges as a cost prior to distribution.

1179
01:20:19,513 --> 01:20:23,100
Don't fuck with my distribution costs!

1180
01:20:23,183 --> 01:20:25,143
I'm making a lousy 215 per segment.

1181
01:20:25,185 --> 01:20:27,688
I'm already deficiting 25 grand a week
with Metro!

1182
01:20:27,771 --> 01:20:29,690
I'm paying William Morris 10 percent
off the top!

1183
01:20:29,773 --> 01:20:32,192
I'm giving this turkey ten thousand
per segment and five to this fruitcake.

1184
01:20:32,276 --> 01:20:35,153
And, Helen, don't start
no shit with me about a piece again.

1185
01:20:35,237 --> 01:20:38,031
I'm paying Metro 20 percent for all
foreign and Canadian distribution...

1186
01:20:38,115 --> 01:20:40,200
and that's after recoupment!

1187
01:20:40,284 --> 01:20:44,246
The Communist Party won't see a nickel
outta this show until syndication.

1188
01:20:44,329 --> 01:20:46,790
The Party's in for 7,500 a week
production expenses!

1189
01:20:46,873 --> 01:20:50,627
I'm not giving
this pseudo-insurrectionary a piece.

1190
01:20:50,711 --> 01:20:54,756
I won't give him script approval or
cut him in on my distribution charges.

1191
01:20:54,840 --> 01:20:56,800
You fucking fascist!

1192
01:20:56,884 --> 01:20:59,720
Did you see the film we made
of the San Marino jail breakout...

1193
01:20:59,803 --> 01:21:02,890
demonstrating the rising up of a
seminal prisoner class infrastructure?

1194
01:21:02,973 --> 01:21:06,768
You can blow the seminal prisoner class
infrastructure out your ass!

1195
01:21:06,852 --> 01:21:09,479
I'm not knocking down
my goddamn distribution charges!

1196
01:21:11,023 --> 01:21:14,818
Man, give her
the fucking overhead clause.

1197
01:21:15,944 --> 01:21:17,946
Who's gonna believe this?

1198
01:21:20,365 --> 01:21:23,952
Let's get back to page 22.
Five, small "a. "

1199
01:21:24,036 --> 01:21:26,622
"Subsidiary rights. "

1200
01:21:26,705 --> 01:21:30,250
- Where are we now?
- Middle of page 22, "Subsidiary rights. "

1201
01:21:30,334 --> 01:21:34,087
"As used herein, 'subsidiary rights'
means without limitation any and all... "

1202
01:21:44,806 --> 01:21:49,853
Over the past two days, you've had
opportunity to meet Diana Christensen...

1203
01:21:49,937 --> 01:21:53,148
our vice president
in charge of programming.

1204
01:21:53,232 --> 01:21:57,903
This afternoon, you all saw some of the
stuff she's set up for the new season.

1205
01:22:07,246 --> 01:22:11,375
You all know that she is the woman
behind the "Howard Beale Show. "

1206
01:22:18,006 --> 01:22:21,426
We all know she's beautiful.

1207
01:22:22,427 --> 01:22:25,264
We all know she's brainy.

1208
01:22:25,305 --> 01:22:30,269
I was thinking, before we start digging
into our chateaubriands...

1209
01:22:32,271 --> 01:22:34,857
let's show her how we feel about her.

1210
01:22:50,289 --> 01:22:53,250
We've got the number one show
in television!

1211
01:22:56,587 --> 01:23:00,966
At next year's affiliates' meeting, I'll
be telling you we've got the top five!

1212
01:23:07,306 --> 01:23:10,017
Last year, we were
the number four network.

1213
01:23:10,100 --> 01:23:12,519
Next year, we're number one!

1214
01:23:13,353 --> 01:23:14,813
We're number one!

1215
01:23:15,564 --> 01:23:17,483
We're number one!

1216
01:23:28,368 --> 01:23:31,830
It is exactly 7:00
here in Los Angeles...

1217
01:23:31,872 --> 01:23:35,834
and right now over a million homes
using television in this city...

1218
01:23:35,876 --> 01:23:38,045
are turning their dials
to channel three...

1219
01:23:38,128 --> 01:23:40,714
and that's our channel!

1220
01:23:47,596 --> 01:23:49,807
Howard Beale!

1221
01:23:52,726 --> 01:23:55,187
Stop it! Stop it!

1222
01:23:55,270 --> 01:23:57,606
Listen to me,
and listen carefully...

1223
01:23:57,689 --> 01:24:02,194
because this is your goddamn life
I'm talking about today.

1224
01:24:03,278 --> 01:24:06,281
In this country, when one company wants
to take over another company...

1225
01:24:06,365 --> 01:24:08,659
they simply buy up a controlling share
of the stock...

1226
01:24:08,700 --> 01:24:11,203
but first they have to file notice
with the government.

1227
01:24:11,245 --> 01:24:14,373
That's how CCA took over the company
that owns this network.

1228
01:24:14,456 --> 01:24:17,876
But now somebody's buying up CCA.

1229
01:24:17,918 --> 01:24:21,672
Somebody called
the Western World Funding Corporation.

1230
01:24:21,755 --> 01:24:24,049
They filed the notice this morning.

1231
01:24:24,133 --> 01:24:28,137
Who in the hell is
the Western World Funding Corporation?

1232
01:24:28,220 --> 01:24:31,723
It is a consortium of banks
and insurance companies...

1233
01:24:31,807 --> 01:24:35,477
who are not buying CCA for themselves
but as agents for somebody else.

1234
01:24:35,561 --> 01:24:37,896
And who is this somebody else?
They won't tell you.

1235
01:24:37,938 --> 01:24:40,190
They won't tell you.
They won't tell the Senate.

1236
01:24:40,232 --> 01:24:44,319
They won't tell the SEC, the FCC,
the Justice Department.

1237
01:24:44,403 --> 01:24:48,240
This is Mr. Hackett.
Do you have a New York call for me?

1238
01:24:48,323 --> 01:24:50,743
Do you want to
turn that down, please?

1239
01:24:50,826 --> 01:24:53,871
I will tell you who
they're buying CCA for.

1240
01:24:53,954 --> 01:24:58,125
They're buying it for the
Saudi Arabian Investment Corporation.

1241
01:24:58,208 --> 01:25:00,169
They're buying it for the Arabs!

1242
01:25:00,252 --> 01:25:03,255
Clarence? Frank Hackett here.
How's everything back in New York?

1243
01:25:03,338 --> 01:25:05,340
How's the good lady?

1244
01:25:08,635 --> 01:25:12,431
Take it easy.
I don't know what you're talking about.

1245
01:25:12,514 --> 01:25:15,225
When? Tonight's show?

1246
01:25:16,226 --> 01:25:18,479
Clarence, take it easy.

1247
01:25:19,688 --> 01:25:24,026
The "Howard Beale Show" is just going on
out here. You get it 3 hours earlier.

1248
01:25:24,109 --> 01:25:28,280
Take it easy! How the hell could
I see it? It's just going on now!

1249
01:25:33,619 --> 01:25:36,455
When did Mr. Jensen call?

1250
01:25:36,538 --> 01:25:39,249
We all know that the Arabs control...

1251
01:25:39,333 --> 01:25:43,045
$16 billion in this country.

1252
01:25:43,128 --> 01:25:47,216
They own a chunk of Fifth Avenue,
20 downtown pieces of Boston...

1253
01:25:47,299 --> 01:25:51,970
a part of the port of New Orleans,
an industrial park in Salt Lake City.

1254
01:25:52,054 --> 01:25:54,306
They own big hunks
of the Atlanta Hilton...

1255
01:25:54,390 --> 01:25:56,892
the Arizona Land and Cattle Company...

1256
01:25:56,975 --> 01:25:59,269
the Security National Bank
in California...

1257
01:25:59,353 --> 01:26:01,438
the Bank of the Commonwealth
in Detroit.

1258
01:26:01,522 --> 01:26:05,984
They control Aramco, so that puts them
into Exxon, Texaco and Mobil Oil.

1259
01:26:06,026 --> 01:26:10,447
They're all over! New Jersey,
Louisville, St. Louis, Missouri.

1260
01:26:10,489 --> 01:26:15,160
And that's only what we know about.
There's more we don't know about.

1261
01:26:15,244 --> 01:26:18,622
Because all of those Arab
petrol dollars are washed...

1262
01:26:18,664 --> 01:26:22,000
through Switzerland and Canada
and the biggest banks in this country.

1263
01:26:22,084 --> 01:26:26,213
For example, what we don't know about
is this CCA deal...

1264
01:26:26,296 --> 01:26:29,800
and all the other CCA deals.

1265
01:26:29,883 --> 01:26:33,554
Right now the Arabs have screwed us out
of enough American dollars...

1266
01:26:33,637 --> 01:26:35,681
to come right back
and with our own money...

1267
01:26:35,764 --> 01:26:39,977
buy General Motors,
IBM, ITT, AT&T...

1268
01:26:40,060 --> 01:26:44,023
Du Pont, U.S. Steel
and 20 other American companies.

1269
01:26:44,106 --> 01:26:46,984
Hell, they already own
half of England!

1270
01:26:48,027 --> 01:26:49,528
Listen to me.

1271
01:26:49,570 --> 01:26:51,739
Listen to me, goddamn it!

1272
01:26:51,822 --> 01:26:53,907
The Arabs are simply buying us.

1273
01:26:53,991 --> 01:26:57,578
There's only one thing
that can stop them! You!

1274
01:26:58,662 --> 01:27:00,331
You!

1275
01:27:00,414 --> 01:27:03,667
So I want you to get up now.

1276
01:27:03,751 --> 01:27:06,295
I want you to get up
out of your chairs.

1277
01:27:06,378 --> 01:27:09,214
I want you to get up right now
and go to the phone.

1278
01:27:09,256 --> 01:27:12,009
I want you to get up from your chairs,
go to the phone...

1279
01:27:12,092 --> 01:27:15,971
get in your cars, drive into
the Western Union offices in town.

1280
01:27:16,055 --> 01:27:19,433
I want you to send a telegram
to the White House.

1281
01:27:19,516 --> 01:27:21,977
- Oh, my God.
- By midnight tonight...

1282
01:27:22,061 --> 01:27:24,855
I want a million telegrams
in the White House!

1283
01:27:24,938 --> 01:27:29,068
I want them wading knee-deep
in telegrams at the White House.

1284
01:27:29,151 --> 01:27:33,572
I want you to get up right now and
write a telegram to President Ford...

1285
01:27:33,614 --> 01:27:38,410
saying "I'm as mad as hell,
and I'm not gonna take this anymore!

1286
01:27:38,494 --> 01:27:41,664
I don't want the banks
selling my country to the Arabs!

1287
01:27:41,747 --> 01:27:45,125
I want the CCA deal stopped now!"

1288
01:27:45,209 --> 01:27:47,836
I want the CCA deal stopped now!

1289
01:27:47,920 --> 01:27:51,840
Come on. I want the CCA deal
stopped now!

1290
01:28:14,905 --> 01:28:17,700
- Could we have the room?
- Sure.

1291
01:28:26,083 --> 01:28:30,170
I'd like to see a typed script
and run through a couple more times.

1292
01:28:30,254 --> 01:28:33,132
But as for this whole CCA deal...

1293
01:28:33,173 --> 01:28:36,552
with the Saudis, you know a lot more
about that, Frank, than I would.

1294
01:28:36,635 --> 01:28:38,595
Is it true?

1295
01:28:42,474 --> 01:28:46,437
The CCA has two billion in loans
with the Saudis...

1296
01:28:46,520 --> 01:28:49,440
and they hold
every pledge we've got.

1297
01:28:50,649 --> 01:28:53,527
We need that Saudi money bad.

1298
01:28:55,696 --> 01:28:58,198
The show is a disaster.

1299
01:28:59,700 --> 01:29:03,162
Unmitigated disaster!
The death knell.

1300
01:29:04,330 --> 01:29:07,791
I'm ruined. I'm dead.
I'm finished.

1301
01:29:09,084 --> 01:29:12,671
Maybe we're overstating Beale's clout
with the public.

1302
01:29:14,089 --> 01:29:16,550
An hour ago, Clarence McElheny
called me from New York.

1303
01:29:16,634 --> 01:29:18,552
It was 10:00 in the East...

1304
01:29:18,636 --> 01:29:23,140
and our people in the White House report
they were knee-deep in telegrams.

1305
01:29:23,182 --> 01:29:27,978
By tomorrow morning,
they'll be suffocating in telegrams!

1306
01:29:28,062 --> 01:29:30,022
Can the government stop the deal?

1307
01:29:30,105 --> 01:29:34,652
They can hold it up. The SEC could hold
it up for 20 years if they wanted to.

1308
01:29:34,735 --> 01:29:36,195
I'm finished.

1309
01:29:36,278 --> 01:29:38,989
Any second that phone's gonna ring,
and Clarence McElheny...

1310
01:29:39,073 --> 01:29:42,826
is gonna tell me Mr. Jensen wants me
in his office tomorrow morning...

1311
01:29:42,910 --> 01:29:45,996
so he can personally chop my head off!

1312
01:29:47,081 --> 01:29:49,458
Four hours ago,
I was the sun god at CCA...

1313
01:29:49,541 --> 01:29:52,753
Mr. Jensen's handpicked golden boy,
the heir apparent.

1314
01:29:53,796 --> 01:29:57,925
Now, I'm a man
without a corporation.

1315
01:29:59,426 --> 01:30:02,429
Let's get back to Howard Beale.

1316
01:30:02,513 --> 01:30:05,849
You're not seriously gonna pull
Beale off the air.

1317
01:30:10,396 --> 01:30:14,483
Mr. Jensen's unhappy with Howard Beale
and wants him discontinued.

1318
01:30:14,567 --> 01:30:16,819
He may be unhappy,
but he isn't stupid enough...

1319
01:30:16,902 --> 01:30:19,738
to withdraw the number one show
on television out of pique.

1320
01:30:19,780 --> 01:30:23,367
Two billion dollars isn't pique!
That's the wrath of God!

1321
01:30:23,409 --> 01:30:25,411
And the wrath of God wants
Howard Beale fired!

1322
01:30:25,494 --> 01:30:30,666
What for? Every other network will grab
him. He'll be on the air for ABC.

1323
01:30:30,749 --> 01:30:33,586
I'm gonna impale the son of a bitch
with a sharp stick through the heart.

1324
01:30:33,669 --> 01:30:35,671
We'll lose $40 million in revenues.

1325
01:30:35,754 --> 01:30:39,675
I'll take a contract out on him.
I'll hire professional killers.

1326
01:30:39,758 --> 01:30:41,844
No, I'll do it myself.

1327
01:30:41,927 --> 01:30:47,391
I'll strangle him with a sash cord.
Jesus!

1328
01:30:47,474 --> 01:30:49,685
I don't think Jensen's
gonna fire anybody.

1329
01:30:58,569 --> 01:31:01,697
Yes, Clarence.
I've already booked my flight.

1330
01:31:04,074 --> 01:31:06,911
Can you give me a little more time
than that? I've got the red-eye flight.

1331
01:31:06,952 --> 01:31:10,497
I won't be back in New York
till 6:00 tomorrow morning.

1332
01:31:13,209 --> 01:31:15,377
That'll be just fine.

1333
01:31:15,461 --> 01:31:17,505
I'll see you then.

1334
01:31:25,513 --> 01:31:29,475
Mr. Jensen wants to meet
with Howard Beale personally.

1335
01:31:29,558 --> 01:31:33,229
He wants Mr. Beale in his office
at 10:00 tomorrow morning.

1336
01:31:39,652 --> 01:31:42,613
The final revelation is at hand!

1337
01:31:42,655 --> 01:31:46,826
I have seen the shattering
vulgarizations of ultimate clarity.

1338
01:31:46,909 --> 01:31:51,413
The light is impending.
I bear witness to the light!

1339
01:32:12,560 --> 01:32:15,604
Good morning, Mr. Beale.
They tell me you're a madman.

1340
01:32:15,688 --> 01:32:17,231
Only desultorily.

1341
01:32:17,314 --> 01:32:19,567
- How are you now?
- I'm as mad as a hatter.

1342
01:32:19,650 --> 01:32:21,068
Who isn't?

1343
01:32:22,153 --> 01:32:24,071
I'm taking you into
our conference room.

1344
01:32:24,155 --> 01:32:27,491
Seems more seemly a setting
for what I have to say to you.

1345
01:32:28,909 --> 01:32:31,662
I started as a salesman.

1346
01:32:31,704 --> 01:32:34,665
I sold sewing machines,
automobile parts...

1347
01:32:34,707 --> 01:32:37,543
hair brushes
and electronic equipment.

1348
01:32:37,626 --> 01:32:40,796
They say I can sell anything.

1349
01:32:40,880 --> 01:32:43,924
I'd like to try
to sell something to you.

1350
01:32:47,553 --> 01:32:49,513
Valhalla, Mr. Beale.

1351
01:32:49,597 --> 01:32:51,557
Please sit down.

1352
01:33:20,711 --> 01:33:25,716
You have meddled with the primal forces
of nature, Mr. Beale...

1353
01:33:25,800 --> 01:33:27,843
and I won't have it!

1354
01:33:28,594 --> 01:33:30,054
Is that clear?

1355
01:33:30,137 --> 01:33:32,807
You think you merely stopped
a business deal.

1356
01:33:32,890 --> 01:33:34,850
That is not the case.

1357
01:33:34,934 --> 01:33:37,394
The Arabs have taken billions of dollars
out of this country...

1358
01:33:37,478 --> 01:33:39,814
and now they must put it back!

1359
01:33:39,897 --> 01:33:44,985
It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity.
It is ecological balance!

1360
01:33:46,487 --> 01:33:48,447
You are an old man...

1361
01:33:48,489 --> 01:33:52,326
who thinks in terms
of nations and peoples.

1362
01:33:52,409 --> 01:33:54,912
There are no nations.
There are no peoples.

1363
01:33:54,995 --> 01:33:57,164
There are no Russians.
There are no Arabs.

1364
01:33:57,248 --> 01:33:59,917
There are no Third Worlds.
There is no West.

1365
01:33:59,959 --> 01:34:05,131
There is only one holistic system
of systems!

1366
01:34:05,214 --> 01:34:09,468
One vast and immane,
interwoven, interacting...

1367
01:34:09,552 --> 01:34:13,848
multi-variant, multinational
dominion of dollars!

1368
01:34:13,931 --> 01:34:17,101
Petrol dollars, electro dollars,
multi-dollars.

1369
01:34:17,143 --> 01:34:22,189
Reichsmarks, rins, rubles, pounds
and shekels!

1370
01:34:24,316 --> 01:34:27,194
It is the international system
of currency...

1371
01:34:27,278 --> 01:34:32,283
which determines the totality
of life on this planet.

1372
01:34:33,159 --> 01:34:37,705
That is the natural order
of things today.

1373
01:34:38,706 --> 01:34:42,752
That is the atomic...

1374
01:34:42,835 --> 01:34:44,962
and subatomic...

1375
01:34:45,004 --> 01:34:49,383
and galactic structure
of things today.

1376
01:34:51,135 --> 01:34:53,471
And you have meddled...

1377
01:34:53,554 --> 01:34:57,141
with the primal forces of nature!

1378
01:34:58,350 --> 01:35:02,938
And you will atone!

1379
01:35:04,023 --> 01:35:06,025
Am I getting through to you?

1380
01:35:10,196 --> 01:35:14,158
You get up on
your little 21-inch screen...

1381
01:35:15,701 --> 01:35:19,830
and howl about America
and democracy.

1382
01:35:21,040 --> 01:35:22,958
There is no America.

1383
01:35:23,042 --> 01:35:25,419
There is no democracy.

1384
01:35:25,503 --> 01:35:29,382
There is only IBM and ITT...

1385
01:35:29,423 --> 01:35:31,092
and AT&T...

1386
01:35:31,175 --> 01:35:35,137
and Du Pont, Dow, Union Carbide...

1387
01:35:35,221 --> 01:35:36,764
and Exxon.

1388
01:35:36,847 --> 01:35:40,476
Those are the nations
of the world today.

1389
01:35:40,559 --> 01:35:43,354
What do you think the Russians
talk about in their councils of state?

1390
01:35:43,437 --> 01:35:45,022
Karl Marx?

1391
01:35:45,064 --> 01:35:47,650
They get out their
linear programming charts...

1392
01:35:47,733 --> 01:35:50,695
statistical decision theories,
minimax solutions and compute...

1393
01:35:50,778 --> 01:35:54,949
price-cost probabilities of their
transactions and investments like we do.

1394
01:35:55,032 --> 01:35:59,954
We no longer live in a world
of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale.

1395
01:36:00,037 --> 01:36:02,206
The world...

1396
01:36:02,289 --> 01:36:05,209
is a college of corporations...

1397
01:36:05,251 --> 01:36:08,170
inexorably determined...

1398
01:36:08,254 --> 01:36:11,549
by the immutable bylaws
of business.

1399
01:36:14,176 --> 01:36:17,179
The world is a business.

1400
01:36:19,015 --> 01:36:23,310
It has been since man
crawled out of the slime.

1401
01:36:25,855 --> 01:36:30,276
And our children will live,
Mr. Beale...

1402
01:36:32,111 --> 01:36:34,071
to see that...

1403
01:36:36,115 --> 01:36:38,159
perfect world...

1404
01:36:39,744 --> 01:36:43,080
in which there's no war or famine...

1405
01:36:43,164 --> 01:36:45,666
oppression or brutality.

1406
01:36:47,585 --> 01:36:51,589
One vast and ecumenical
holding company...

1407
01:36:51,630 --> 01:36:56,010
for whom all men will work to serve
a common profit...

1408
01:36:56,093 --> 01:37:01,474
in which all men will hold
a share of stock...

1409
01:37:01,557 --> 01:37:03,976
all necessities provided...

1410
01:37:05,186 --> 01:37:08,689
all anxieties tranquilized...

1411
01:37:10,274 --> 01:37:13,611
all boredom amused.

1412
01:37:19,992 --> 01:37:24,789
And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale...

1413
01:37:24,872 --> 01:37:27,625
to preach this evangel.

1414
01:37:27,708 --> 01:37:29,460
Why me?

1415
01:37:30,670 --> 01:37:33,297
Because you're on television, dummy!

1416
01:37:34,590 --> 01:37:36,676
Sixty million people watch you...

1417
01:37:36,759 --> 01:37:39,595
every night of the week,
Monday through Friday.

1418
01:37:40,805 --> 01:37:43,099
I have seen the face of God.

1419
01:37:45,685 --> 01:37:47,937
You just might be right, Mr. Beale.

1420
01:37:49,939 --> 01:37:51,983
That evening Howard Beale
went on the air...

1421
01:37:52,024 --> 01:37:55,319
to preach the corporate cosmology
of Arthur Jensen.

1422
01:37:55,361 --> 01:37:59,991
Last night I got up here and asked you
to fight for your heritage...

1423
01:38:00,074 --> 01:38:02,493
and you did,
and it was beautiful.

1424
01:38:02,535 --> 01:38:05,579
Six million telegrams were received
at the White House.

1425
01:38:05,663 --> 01:38:09,000
The Arab takeover of CCA
has been stopped.

1426
01:38:09,041 --> 01:38:11,210
The people spoke, the people won.

1427
01:38:11,294 --> 01:38:14,088
It was a radiant eruption
of democracy.

1428
01:38:15,172 --> 01:38:19,135
But I think that was it, fellas.

1429
01:38:19,218 --> 01:38:21,846
That sort of thing is not likely
to happen again...

1430
01:38:21,929 --> 01:38:24,974
because at the bottom
of all our terrified souls...

1431
01:38:25,057 --> 01:38:27,893
we know that democracy
is a dying giant...

1432
01:38:27,977 --> 01:38:31,188
a sick, sick, dying,
decaying political concept...

1433
01:38:31,272 --> 01:38:33,232
writhing in its final pain.

1434
01:38:33,274 --> 01:38:37,028
I don't mean that the United States
is finished as a world power.

1435
01:38:37,111 --> 01:38:40,281
The U. S is the richest,
most advanced country in the world...

1436
01:38:40,364 --> 01:38:42,408
light-years ahead
of any other country...

1437
01:38:42,491 --> 01:38:46,412
and the Communists won't take over the
world because they're deader than we.

1438
01:38:46,454 --> 01:38:48,497
What is finished...

1439
01:38:50,082 --> 01:38:52,376
is the idea that this great country...

1440
01:38:52,418 --> 01:38:57,882
is dedicated to the freedom and
flourishing of every individual in it.

1441
01:38:58,966 --> 01:39:02,136
It's the individual that's finished.

1442
01:39:02,219 --> 01:39:06,057
It's the single, solitary human being
that's finished.

1443
01:39:07,099 --> 01:39:11,646
It's every single one of you
out there that's finished.

1444
01:39:11,729 --> 01:39:16,776
Because this is no longer a nation
of independent individuals.

1445
01:39:17,944 --> 01:39:23,407
It's a nation of some 200 million
transistorized, deodorized...

1446
01:39:23,491 --> 01:39:26,244
whiter-than-white,
steel-belted bodies...

1447
01:39:26,285 --> 01:39:29,288
totally unnecessary
as human beings...

1448
01:39:29,330 --> 01:39:32,500
and as replaceable as piston rods.

1449
01:39:43,302 --> 01:39:46,681
Well, the time has come to say...

1450
01:39:46,764 --> 01:39:50,184
is "dehumanization"
such a bad word?

1451
01:39:50,268 --> 01:39:53,437
Whether it's good or bad,
that's what is so.

1452
01:39:53,479 --> 01:39:55,898
The whole world
is becoming humanoid...

1453
01:39:55,982 --> 01:39:59,110
creatures that look human
but aren't.

1454
01:39:59,151 --> 01:40:01,112
The whole world, not just us.

1455
01:40:01,153 --> 01:40:04,532
We're just the most advanced,
so we're getting there first.

1456
01:40:05,575 --> 01:40:09,787
The whole world's people
are becoming mass-produced...

1457
01:40:09,871 --> 01:40:12,832
programmed, numbered and...

1458
01:40:12,874 --> 01:40:14,959
It was an admissible argument
that Howard Beale...

1459
01:40:15,042 --> 01:40:17,503
advanced in the days that followed.

1460
01:40:17,545 --> 01:40:20,798
It was, however,
also a very depressing one.

1461
01:40:20,882 --> 01:40:24,176
Nobody particularly cared to hear
his life was utterly valueless.

1462
01:40:24,260 --> 01:40:26,220
By the end of the first week
in June...

1463
01:40:26,304 --> 01:40:28,222
the show dropped
one ratings point...

1464
01:40:28,306 --> 01:40:31,767
and its trend of shares
dipped under 48 for the first time...

1465
01:40:31,851 --> 01:40:33,603
since last November.

1466
01:40:33,686 --> 01:40:35,646
You're his goddamn agent, Lou!

1467
01:40:35,730 --> 01:40:37,899
I'm counting on you to talk sense
into the lunatic!

1468
01:40:37,982 --> 01:40:40,902
Nobody wants to hear about
dying democracy and dehumanization!

1469
01:40:42,361 --> 01:40:44,739
I'm sorry I'm late.

1470
01:40:44,822 --> 01:40:48,409
We're getting rumbles from the agencies.
The sponsors will bail out soon!

1471
01:40:48,492 --> 01:40:50,661
This is a breach of contract!

1472
01:40:50,745 --> 01:40:54,290
This isn't the Howard Beale we signed.
Get him off the corporate universe kick.

1473
01:40:54,373 --> 01:40:56,542
I'll pull him off the air!

1474
01:40:56,626 --> 01:40:59,670
I told him! I've been telling him
every day for a week!

1475
01:40:59,754 --> 01:41:03,132
I am sick of telling him!
Now you tell him!

1476
01:41:10,556 --> 01:41:12,433
Jesus Christ!

1477
01:41:16,145 --> 01:41:20,733
You could help me with Howard. He
listens to you. You're his best friend.

1478
01:41:20,817 --> 01:41:23,236
I'm tired of all this hysteria
about Howard Beale!

1479
01:41:23,319 --> 01:41:25,905
Every time you come back from seeing
somebody in your family...

1480
01:41:25,988 --> 01:41:28,282
you're in a morbid,
middle-aged mood!

1481
01:41:28,366 --> 01:41:31,702
And I'm tired of finding you on the
goddamn phone every time I turn around!

1482
01:41:31,744 --> 01:41:35,122
I'm tired of being an accessory
in your life!

1483
01:41:35,206 --> 01:41:37,583
I'm tired of pretending
to write this dumb book...

1484
01:41:37,667 --> 01:41:41,212
about my maverick days
in the early years of television.

1485
01:41:41,295 --> 01:41:45,049
Every goddamned executive fired
from a network in the last 20 years...

1486
01:41:45,091 --> 01:41:49,262
has written this dumb book about
the great early years of television!

1487
01:41:49,345 --> 01:41:52,723
And nobody wants a dumb, damn,
goddamn book...

1488
01:41:52,807 --> 01:41:54,976
about the early days of television!

1489
01:41:55,059 --> 01:41:58,020
Terrific. Maybe you can start
a whole new career as an actor!

1490
01:42:00,898 --> 01:42:05,486
After living with you for six months,
I'm turning into one of your scripts!

1491
01:42:06,487 --> 01:42:09,198
This is not a script.

1492
01:42:09,282 --> 01:42:12,577
There's some real, actual life
going on here.

1493
01:42:13,661 --> 01:42:17,165
I went to visit my wife today
because she's in a state of depression...

1494
01:42:17,248 --> 01:42:20,918
so depressed that my daughter
flew from Seattle to be with her...

1495
01:42:20,960 --> 01:42:23,296
and I feel lousy about that.

1496
01:42:23,379 --> 01:42:27,467
I feel lousy about the pain
that I've caused my wife and kids.

1497
01:42:27,550 --> 01:42:32,221
I feel guilty and conscious-stricken and
those things you think sentimental...

1498
01:42:32,305 --> 01:42:36,476
but which my generation called
simple human decency.

1499
01:42:40,563 --> 01:42:43,274
And I miss my home...

1500
01:42:43,316 --> 01:42:46,194
because I'm beginning
to get scared shitless.

1501
01:42:46,277 --> 01:42:49,530
Because all of a sudden it's closer to
the end than it is to the beginning...

1502
01:42:49,614 --> 01:42:52,867
and death is suddenly
a perceptible thing to me...

1503
01:42:52,950 --> 01:42:55,495
with definable features.

1504
01:42:59,415 --> 01:43:04,253
You're dealing with a man
that has primal doubts...

1505
01:43:04,337 --> 01:43:07,173
and you've got to cope with it.

1506
01:43:07,256 --> 01:43:12,136
I'm not some guy discussing male
menopause on the "Barbara Walters Show. "

1507
01:43:12,178 --> 01:43:15,431
I'm the man that you presumably love.

1508
01:43:16,516 --> 01:43:19,560
I'm part of your life.

1509
01:43:19,644 --> 01:43:21,479
I live here.

1510
01:43:21,521 --> 01:43:23,064
I'm real!

1511
01:43:24,107 --> 01:43:27,360
You can't switch
to another station.

1512
01:43:31,823 --> 01:43:33,241
Well...

1513
01:43:34,784 --> 01:43:37,578
what exactly is it
you want me to do?

1514
01:43:41,582 --> 01:43:44,460
I just want you to love me.

1515
01:43:46,003 --> 01:43:49,340
I just want you to love me,
primal doubts and all.

1516
01:43:51,801 --> 01:43:54,345
You understand that, don't you?

1517
01:43:59,183 --> 01:44:01,394
I don't know how to do that.

1518
01:44:13,072 --> 01:44:15,783
I'll be with you in a minute, Max.

1519
01:44:21,039 --> 01:44:24,625
By the first week in July, the
"Howard Beale Show" was down 11 points.

1520
01:44:24,709 --> 01:44:26,669
Hysteria swept through the network.

1521
01:44:26,753 --> 01:44:29,797
He's a plague! He's smallpox!
He's typhoid!

1522
01:44:29,881 --> 01:44:32,675
I don't want to follow his goddamn show!
I want out of the 8:00 spot.

1523
01:44:32,759 --> 01:44:35,261
I've got enough troubles
without Howard Beale as a lead-in.

1524
01:44:35,344 --> 01:44:37,555
You guys scheduled me up against
"Tony Orlando and Dawn"!

1525
01:44:37,638 --> 01:44:41,225
NBC's got "Little House on the Prairie. "
ABC's got "The Bionic Woman. "

1526
01:44:41,267 --> 01:44:44,145
You gotta do something
about Howard Beale!

1527
01:44:44,228 --> 01:44:46,397
Get him off the air!
Get him off!

1528
01:44:46,481 --> 01:44:48,566
Do something! Do anything!

1529
01:44:48,649 --> 01:44:52,528
We're trying to find a replacement! I'm
going to look at audition footage now!

1530
01:44:52,612 --> 01:44:56,240
And how when the sick heal!

1531
01:44:56,324 --> 01:44:59,327
Man, I tell you I saw it!

1532
01:44:59,410 --> 01:45:02,955
It was heavy, baby.

1533
01:45:03,039 --> 01:45:05,291
I saw the earth quake...

1534
01:45:05,375 --> 01:45:09,295
and I saw the moon became like blood.

1535
01:45:09,379 --> 01:45:13,591
And every mountain and island
was moved from its place.

1536
01:45:13,675 --> 01:45:17,679
No, no, damn it! If we wanted hell-fire,
we'd get Billy Graham!

1537
01:45:17,762 --> 01:45:21,349
We don't want faith healers, evangelists
or Oberammergau passion players!

1538
01:45:21,432 --> 01:45:25,770
What about that terrific new messiah
ABC was to sign for our competition?

1539
01:45:26,854 --> 01:45:28,272
That's him.

1540
01:45:30,316 --> 01:45:32,944
That's him?

1541
01:45:34,320 --> 01:45:36,239
Jesus. Turn him off!

1542
01:45:37,407 --> 01:45:41,035
I've got three more,
but you've already seen the best ones.

1543
01:45:41,119 --> 01:45:43,079
I've got a guru from Spokane...

1544
01:45:43,162 --> 01:45:45,957
and two more hell-fires
who see visions of the Virgin Mary.

1545
01:45:46,040 --> 01:45:50,003
We're not gonna find a replacement
for Beale. Let's stop kidding ourselves.

1546
01:45:50,044 --> 01:45:53,131
Fully-fledged messiahs
don't come in bunches.

1547
01:45:53,214 --> 01:45:56,426
We either go with Howard Beale
or we go without him.

1548
01:45:56,509 --> 01:45:59,429
My reports say we'll do better
without him.

1549
01:45:59,512 --> 01:46:02,432
It would be disaster to let
this situation go on another week.

1550
01:46:02,515 --> 01:46:05,226
By then he'll be down 16 points...

1551
01:46:05,310 --> 01:46:08,104
and the trend irreversible,
if it isn't already.

1552
01:46:10,023 --> 01:46:13,067
I think we should fire Howard.

1553
01:46:15,737 --> 01:46:19,198
Arthur Jensen has taken
a strong personal interest...

1554
01:46:19,240 --> 01:46:21,242
in the "Howard Beale Show. "

1555
01:46:23,494 --> 01:46:25,455
I'm having dinner with him tonight.

1556
01:46:25,538 --> 01:46:29,459
Let me have another crack at Jensen.
Meet in my office at 10:00 tonight.

1557
01:46:29,542 --> 01:46:32,337
Diana, give me copies of all
your audience research reports.

1558
01:46:32,378 --> 01:46:34,547
I may need them for Jensen.

1559
01:46:34,631 --> 01:46:36,883
Is 10:00 convenient for everyone?

1560
01:47:08,289 --> 01:47:12,752
I think the time has come
to reevaluate our relationship, Max.

1561
01:47:13,836 --> 01:47:15,630
So I see.

1562
01:47:17,340 --> 01:47:19,759
I don't like the way this script of ours
is turning out.

1563
01:47:20,885 --> 01:47:23,513
It's turning into a seedy little drama.

1564
01:47:23,596 --> 01:47:28,017
Middle-aged man leaves wife and family
for young, heartless woman, goes to pot.

1565
01:47:28,101 --> 01:47:31,020
"The Blue Angel" with Marlene Dietrich
and Emil Jannings.

1566
01:47:31,104 --> 01:47:33,815
- I don't like it.
- So you're gonna cancel the show.

1567
01:47:33,898 --> 01:47:36,150
- Right.
- Let me do that.

1568
01:47:37,777 --> 01:47:40,613
The simple fact is, Max...

1569
01:47:40,697 --> 01:47:43,032
that you're a family man.

1570
01:47:43,116 --> 01:47:46,619
It's beautiful you like a home and kids,
but I am incapable of such commitment.

1571
01:47:46,703 --> 01:47:49,247
All you'll get from me is another
couple of months of intermittent sex...

1572
01:47:49,330 --> 01:47:53,209
and recriminate and ugly little scenes
like the one we had last night.

1573
01:47:53,293 --> 01:47:57,255
I'm sorry for all those things
I said to you last night.

1574
01:47:57,338 --> 01:47:59,757
You're not the worst fuck
I've ever had.

1575
01:47:59,799 --> 01:48:02,218
Believe me, I've had worse.

1576
01:48:04,012 --> 01:48:07,682
You don't puff or snorkel
and make death-like rattles.

1577
01:48:07,765 --> 01:48:10,226
As a matter of fact,
you're rather serene in the sack.

1578
01:48:11,769 --> 01:48:14,689
Why is it that a woman always thinks
that the most savage thing...

1579
01:48:14,772 --> 01:48:18,610
she can say to a man
is to impugn his cocksmanship?

1580
01:48:19,694 --> 01:48:23,531
I'm sorry I impugned your cocksmanship.

1581
01:48:23,615 --> 01:48:28,161
I gave up comparing genitals
back in the schoolyard.

1582
01:48:37,629 --> 01:48:40,381
You're being docile as hell
about this.

1583
01:48:41,424 --> 01:48:44,510
Hell, Diana, I knew it was over
with us weeks ago.

1584
01:48:45,553 --> 01:48:48,306
Will you go back to your wife?

1585
01:48:49,974 --> 01:48:52,769
I'll give it a try,
but I don't think she'll jump at it.

1586
01:48:52,852 --> 01:48:54,812
Don't worry about me.

1587
01:48:54,854 --> 01:48:57,523
I'll manage. I always have,
I always will.

1588
01:48:57,607 --> 01:48:59,651
I'm more concerned about you.

1589
01:48:59,734 --> 01:49:02,237
You're not the boozer type.

1590
01:49:02,320 --> 01:49:06,282
So I figure a year, maybe two,
before you crack up...

1591
01:49:06,366 --> 01:49:08,952
or jump out of
your 14th floor office window.

1592
01:49:09,035 --> 01:49:12,163
Stop selling, Max.
I don't need you.

1593
01:49:23,841 --> 01:49:27,512
I don't want your pain! I don't want
your menopausal decay and death!

1594
01:49:27,554 --> 01:49:29,889
- I don't need you, Max! Get out!
- You need me!

1595
01:49:30,848 --> 01:49:35,770
You need me badly! Because I'm
your last contact with human reality.

1596
01:49:35,854 --> 01:49:37,939
I love you!

1597
01:49:38,022 --> 01:49:41,901
And that painful, decaying love
is the only thing between you...

1598
01:49:41,985 --> 01:49:44,779
and the shrieking nothingness
you live the rest of the day.

1599
01:49:44,863 --> 01:49:46,781
Then don't leave me.

1600
01:49:49,826 --> 01:49:51,744
It's too late.

1601
01:49:52,996 --> 01:49:55,331
There's nothing left in you
that I can live with.

1602
01:49:58,668 --> 01:50:03,256
You're one of Howard's humanoids.
If I stay with you, I'll be destroyed.

1603
01:50:05,008 --> 01:50:07,927
Like Howard Beale was destroyed.

1604
01:50:07,969 --> 01:50:11,222
Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed.

1605
01:50:11,306 --> 01:50:16,477
Like everything you and the institution
of television touch is destroyed.

1606
01:50:22,942 --> 01:50:25,028
You're television incarnate.

1607
01:50:26,613 --> 01:50:28,865
Indifferent to suffering...

1608
01:50:29,657 --> 01:50:31,784
insensitive to joy.

1609
01:50:33,286 --> 01:50:37,123
All of life is reduced
to the common rubble of banality.

1610
01:50:40,793 --> 01:50:43,254
War, murder, death...

1611
01:50:44,506 --> 01:50:47,383
are all the same to you
as bottles of beer.

1612
01:50:48,426 --> 01:50:52,388
And the daily business of life
is a corrupt comedy.

1613
01:50:54,140 --> 01:50:57,477
You even shatter the sensations
of time and space...

1614
01:50:57,560 --> 01:51:02,065
into split seconds
and instant replays.

1615
01:51:05,860 --> 01:51:07,821
You're madness, Diana.

1616
01:51:09,656 --> 01:51:11,574
Virulent madness.

1617
01:51:14,077 --> 01:51:17,122
And everything you touch
dies with you.

1618
01:51:21,668 --> 01:51:24,504
But not me.

1619
01:51:24,587 --> 01:51:27,090
Not as long as I can feel pleasure...

1620
01:51:28,424 --> 01:51:30,009
and pain...

1621
01:51:34,097 --> 01:51:35,598
and love.

1622
01:51:46,943 --> 01:51:49,154
And it's a happy ending.

1623
01:51:50,530 --> 01:51:54,242
Wayward husband
comes to his senses...

1624
01:51:54,325 --> 01:51:56,494
returns to his wife...

1625
01:51:56,536 --> 01:51:59,539
with whom he's established
a long and sustaining love.

1626
01:52:00,874 --> 01:52:04,752
Heartless young woman left alone
in her arctic desolation.

1627
01:52:07,922 --> 01:52:09,924
Music up with a swell.

1628
01:52:12,969 --> 01:52:14,679
Final commercial.

1629
01:52:17,515 --> 01:52:20,977
And here are a few scenes
from next week's show.

1630
01:52:33,114 --> 01:52:35,033
How'd it go?

1631
01:52:51,549 --> 01:52:56,221
Mr. Jensen was unhappy at the idea
of taking Howard Beale off the air.

1632
01:52:57,555 --> 01:52:59,724
Mr. Jensen thinks Howard Beale
is bringing...

1633
01:52:59,808 --> 01:53:03,603
a very important message
to the American people.

1634
01:53:05,897 --> 01:53:09,275
So he wants Howard Beale on the air,
and he wants him kept on.

1635
01:53:11,444 --> 01:53:14,739
Mr. Jensen feels we're too catastrophic
in our thinking.

1636
01:53:14,781 --> 01:53:17,283
I argued that television
was a volatile industry...

1637
01:53:17,367 --> 01:53:21,204
in which success and failure
were determined week by week.

1638
01:53:22,247 --> 01:53:25,125
Mr. Jensen said he did not like
volatile industries...

1639
01:53:25,208 --> 01:53:28,920
and suggested with a certain
sinister silkiness...

1640
01:53:30,422 --> 01:53:34,008
that volatility in business
usually reflected bad management.

1641
01:53:35,301 --> 01:53:38,263
He didn't really care if Howard Beale
was the number one show or the 50th.

1642
01:53:38,346 --> 01:53:40,849
He didn't really care
if the Beale show lost money.

1643
01:53:41,975 --> 01:53:44,561
He wants Howard Beale on the air...

1644
01:53:44,644 --> 01:53:46,896
and he wants him kept on.

1645
01:53:46,938 --> 01:53:51,067
I would describe his position on this
as inflexible.

1646
01:53:52,986 --> 01:53:54,946
Where does that put us, Diana?

1647
01:53:56,072 --> 01:53:59,617
That puts us in the shithouse.
That's where that puts us.

1648
01:54:02,412 --> 01:54:05,290
Do you want me to go through this?

1649
01:54:06,416 --> 01:54:10,211
The Beale show Q score
is down to 33.

1650
01:54:11,296 --> 01:54:14,841
Most of this loss occurred in the child
and teen and 18-34 categories...

1651
01:54:14,924 --> 01:54:17,761
which were our key core markets.

1652
01:54:18,928 --> 01:54:21,598
It's the AR department's carefully
considered judgment, and mine...

1653
01:54:21,639 --> 01:54:26,269
that if we get rid of Beale, we should
maintain a respectable share...

1654
01:54:26,353 --> 01:54:28,563
with a comparable Q level.

1655
01:54:28,646 --> 01:54:32,108
The other show segments, Sybil the
Soothsayer, Jim Webbing, Vox Populi...

1656
01:54:32,192 --> 01:54:35,278
have all developed
their own audiences.

1657
01:54:35,320 --> 01:54:39,908
Our AR reports show that it is Beale
that is the destructive force here.

1658
01:54:41,117 --> 01:54:43,495
Minimally, we're talking about...

1659
01:54:43,536 --> 01:54:46,539
a ten-point differential in shares.

1660
01:54:46,623 --> 01:54:48,583
I think Joe oughta spell it out
for us.

1661
01:54:50,585 --> 01:54:53,672
A 28 share
is 80,000 dollar minutes.

1662
01:54:53,755 --> 01:54:56,466
I think we can sell complete positions
on the whole.

1663
01:54:56,508 --> 01:54:59,219
As a matter of fact, we're just getting
into the pre-Christmas gift-sellers...

1664
01:54:59,302 --> 01:55:02,889
and the agencies are coming back to me
with four-dollar CPMs.

1665
01:55:02,972 --> 01:55:07,977
If that's any indication, we're talking
$40-$45 million loss in annual revenues.

1666
01:55:08,061 --> 01:55:11,314
- Want the flak from the affiliates?
- We know all about it, Herb.

1667
01:55:11,356 --> 01:55:15,110
You would describe Mr. Jensen's position
on Beale as inflexible?

1668
01:55:15,193 --> 01:55:18,071
Intractable and adamantine.

1669
01:55:19,948 --> 01:55:23,159
What do we do about this Beale
son of a bitch?

1670
01:55:25,328 --> 01:55:27,580
I suppose we'll have to kill him.

1671
01:55:30,458 --> 01:55:33,420
I don't suppose you have any ideas
on that, Diana?

1672
01:55:36,881 --> 01:55:38,341
Well...

1673
01:55:40,218 --> 01:55:42,887
what would you fellas say
to an assassination?

1674
01:55:44,806 --> 01:55:47,350
I think I can get
the Mao Tse-tung people...

1675
01:55:47,434 --> 01:55:50,020
to kill Beale for us
as one of their shows.

1676
01:55:51,146 --> 01:55:55,817
In fact, it'll make a hell of
a kick-off show for the season.

1677
01:55:55,900 --> 01:55:58,820
We're facing heavy opposition on the
other networks for Wednesday nights...

1678
01:55:58,903 --> 01:56:02,365
and the "Mao Tse-tung Hour"
could use a sensational opener.

1679
01:56:04,576 --> 01:56:08,204
It could be done right on camera
in the studio.

1680
01:56:09,873 --> 01:56:12,083
We oughta get a fantastic
look-in audience...

1681
01:56:12,167 --> 01:56:15,295
for the assassination of Howard Beale
as our opening show.

1682
01:56:16,379 --> 01:56:19,090
If Beale dies...

1683
01:56:19,132 --> 01:56:23,219
what would our continuing obligation
to the Beale Corporation be?

1684
01:56:23,303 --> 01:56:26,389
I know our contract with Beale
contains a buy-out clause...

1685
01:56:26,431 --> 01:56:28,642
triggered by his death
or incapacity.

1686
01:56:28,725 --> 01:56:32,145
There must be a formula for
the computation of the purchase price.

1687
01:56:32,228 --> 01:56:36,232
Offhand, I think it was based on
a multiple of 1975 earnings...

1688
01:56:36,274 --> 01:56:40,111
with a base period in 1975,
which I think was 50 percent...

1689
01:56:40,153 --> 01:56:42,989
of salary, plus 25 percent
of the first year's profit...

1690
01:56:43,073 --> 01:56:46,201
multiplied by the unexpired portion
of the contract.

1691
01:56:46,284 --> 01:56:48,161
I don't think the show...

1692
01:56:48,244 --> 01:56:50,789
has any substantial syndication value,
would you say, Diana?

1693
01:56:50,872 --> 01:56:52,832
Syndication profits are minimal.

1694
01:56:54,000 --> 01:56:56,795
We're talking about a capital crime.

1695
01:56:57,837 --> 01:57:00,632
The network can't be implicated.

1696
01:57:10,976 --> 01:57:15,188
I hope you don't have any hidden
tape machines in this office, Frank.

1697
01:57:17,315 --> 01:57:20,277
The issue is,
shall we kill Howard Beale or not?

1698
01:57:20,360 --> 01:57:22,946
I'd like to hear
some more opinions on that.

1699
01:57:23,029 --> 01:57:26,491
I don't see we have any option.
Let's kill the son of a bitch.

1700
01:57:26,575 --> 01:57:28,243
Ladies and gentlemen,
let's hear it!

1701
01:57:28,326 --> 01:57:30,036
How do you feel?

1702
01:57:30,120 --> 01:57:31,788
We're mad as hell...

1703
01:57:31,830 --> 01:57:34,583
and we're not gonna
take this anymore!

1704
01:57:34,666 --> 01:57:38,420
Ladies and gentlemen, the "Network
News Hour" with Sybil the Soothsayer...

1705
01:57:42,007 --> 01:57:46,344
Jim Webbing and his
It's-the-Emmes-Truth Department.

1706
01:57:48,680 --> 01:57:52,767
Miss Mata Hari
and her skeletons in the closet.

1707
01:57:55,186 --> 01:57:57,480
Tonight another segment
of "Vox Populi. "

1708
01:58:02,277 --> 01:58:06,656
And starring the Mad Prophet
of the Airways, Howard Beale!

1709
01:58:26,218 --> 01:58:30,639
...network news anchorman
on the UBS "Network News Show"...

1710
01:58:30,722 --> 01:58:34,684
known to millions
as the Mad Profit of the Airwaves...

1711
01:58:34,726 --> 01:58:38,521
was shot to death tonight in
a fusillade of automatic rifle fire...

1712
01:58:38,563 --> 01:58:40,815
just as he began
this evening's broadcast.

1713
01:58:40,899 --> 01:58:44,361
We never compromise,
so why should you?

1714
01:58:44,402 --> 01:58:47,822
Canada Dry Mixers.
Why compromise?

1715
01:58:47,906 --> 01:58:51,535
Have you seen the other side
of where you live?

1716
01:58:51,576 --> 01:58:55,413
- What's this stuff?
- Some cereal. It's good for you.

1717
01:58:55,497 --> 01:58:58,416
- Did you try it?
- I'm not gonna try it. You try it.

1718
01:58:58,458 --> 01:59:00,919
I'm not gonna try it.

1719
01:59:01,002 --> 01:59:03,004
- Let's get Mikey to try it!
- Yeah!

1720
01:59:03,088 --> 01:59:05,048
He won't eat it.
He hates everything.

1721
01:59:05,090 --> 01:59:09,052
The extraordinary incident occurred in
full view of his millions of viewers.

1722
01:59:09,135 --> 01:59:13,598
The assassins were members of
the Ecumenical Liberation Army...

1723
01:59:13,640 --> 01:59:15,767
two of whom were apprehended.

1724
01:59:15,851 --> 01:59:19,729
The leader of the group known
as the Great Ahmed Khan escaped.

1725
01:59:19,771 --> 01:59:22,274
This was the story of Howard Beale...

1726
01:59:22,315 --> 01:59:26,611
the first known instance of a man who
was killed because he had lousy ratings.