{"id":4821,"date":"2010-09-15T12:36:15","date_gmt":"2010-09-15T10:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/?p=4821"},"modified":"2012-01-30T12:53:59","modified_gmt":"2012-01-30T10:53:59","slug":"mad-city-starring-dustin-hoffman-and-john-travolta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/mad-city-starring-dustin-hoffman-and-john-travolta\/","title":{"rendered":"Mad City starring Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Mad<\/a>
Mad City starring John Travolta and Dustin Hoffman. Directed by Costa- Gavras. Written by Eric Williams and Tom Matthews. 1997.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Max Brackett\u2019s (Dustin Hoffman<\/a>) live \u201cbrush\u201d with fellow reporter Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) has resulted in Max\u2019s being relocated to a local television, still dependent on his old network. Max is bored, as his boss Lou (Robert Prosky) won\u2019t let him \u201cmove the line\u201d( that is to interrupt the news objects\u2019 lives for the sake of news)…<\/p>\n

As luck would have it, however, Max accidentally runs into the story of a lifetime. As he is doing an interview at the museum run by Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), Sam Baily (John Travolta<\/a>) decides to pay her a visit: she has just fired Sam, who was one of the two guards working for her. Sam, a husband and a father of 2, just wants his job back. But when Mrs. Banks can\u2019t be bothered to give Sam two minutes, Sam brings out the big guns-literally. What he hasn\u2019t planned on is the news reporter in the bathroom, and the group of young school kids on a school trip at the museum.<\/p>\n

Soon, this turns into a career-defining opportunity for Max and a nightmare for Sam, it doesn\u2019t take long for Sam to find Max out. But Max has no intention of letting the story go, even as he becomes a hostage. For one thing, Sam is not a psycho criminal but a desperate man who just wanted to be heard. Second, he is much more experienced than Sam when it comes to hostage situations. So from then on, Max helps Sam, and steers him in the direction that will help Sam and Max\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

But the news is just too big for Kevin Hollander to ignore and for the FBI to stay away. While Max mostly works to show Sam in a positive light, the rest seems intent on showing him as the ultimate villain. With the parents of the kids hating him, and his own wife trying to figure out how as to handle things, can good intentions be taken into account when a weapon and kids are involved? Or are the ratings just more important than humanity?<\/p>\n

Mad City is one of my favorite films. It is from 1997, so today, you may not be moved by it as I was when I first saw it over a decade ago. After all, 1997 was before Youtube and Twitter and Facebook. The story could no way flow the way it was written. Probably one of the kids would have a high-tech phone with an internet connection or their teacher or Mrs. Banks\u2026There would be no need to create a public poll as the public would create the buzz after they heard it. People would follow the news worldwide and it is likely that some of the pro-Sam audience would offer Sam a job and things would never quite get out of control. \u00a0But it was shot in 1997, and it was all about the big networks and their ratings.<\/p>\n

Yes, by now, probably you have seen at least tens of hostage situation movies where sometimes you were probably rooting for the villain. But this film is one of the better ones, and it does have a great cast. Dustin Hoffman and John Travolta make a great team.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to share my favorite line, but that would be a spoiler. Let me just say it is the final line of Dustin Hoffman. A really good take on the lust for ratings vs. the fight for survival.<\/p>\n

Fun notes: Blythe Danner is Gwyneth Paltrow\u2019s mother.<\/p>\n

Mel Gibson is referenced a couple of times.<\/p>\n

Other John Travolta Movies and Posts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Face\/Off starring John Travolta and Nicolas Cage<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

6 Movies with Brilliant Casts feat. Hairspray starring John Travolta<\/a><\/p>\n

From Paris with Love starring Jonathan Rhys Meyers and John Travolta<\/a><\/p>\n

Basic starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson<\/a><\/p>\n

Phenomenon starring John Travolta, Robert Duvall and Kyra Sedgwick<\/a><\/p>\n

Favorite Actors to Play Villains feat. Nicolas Cage, John Travolta and more<\/a><\/p>\n

Actor Musicians and Musician Actors: Feat. John Travolta and Bruce Willis<\/a><\/p>\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Max Brackett\u2019s (Dustin Hoffman) live \u201cbrush\u201d with fellow reporter Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) has resulted in Max\u2019s being relocated to a local television, still dependent on his old network. Max is bored, as his boss Lou (Robert Prosky) won\u2019t let him \u201cmove the line\u201d( that is to interrupt the news objects\u2019 lives for the sake […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[2301,2303,2304,154,1120,2300,2306,243,1741,2298,2299,337,2302,941,2305],"class_list":{"0":"post-4821","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-movies-and-actors","7":"tag-alan-alda","8":"tag-blythe-danner","9":"tag-costa-gavras","10":"tag-drama","11":"tag-dustin-hoffman","12":"tag-dustin-hoffman-films","13":"tag-eric-williams","14":"tag-john-travolta","15":"tag-john-travolta-movies","16":"tag-mad-city","17":"tag-mad-city-movie","18":"tag-movies","19":"tag-robert-prosky","20":"tag-thriller","21":"tag-tom-matthews","22":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pI4PB-1fL","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4821"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7802,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4821\/revisions\/7802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pinartarhan.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}