1/7/2023 0 Comments Ilift reveal crowd groanWe have been the consumers, sitting in front of massive TV screens and computers, laptops, tablets, and cell phones. The change started with cable TV and later, the Internet, providing a world-wide platform for anyone with something to sell-a product, a personality, or a point of view. Here’s the difference in today’s world: We live in an age where just about any small-town person is media-wise. In their time, these films were a therapeutic slap in the face to audiences, to wake up from their complacency and naiveté. His infamous losing comment didn’t help his image: “You won’t have Dick Nixon to kick around.” In the ‘70s, President Nixon sealed his Tricky Dick persona with the “I am not a crook” speech…which was later followed by his resignation speech!Ĭitizen Kane, A Face in the Crowd, and Network took a hard look at how far the media would go to manipulate the masses. The public later cooled toward Nixon in the early ‘60s, with his shifty, sweaty looks next to all-American John Kennedy, during their presidential debates. Yet, fellow Republican Richard Nixon managed to warm the public’s heart once, when he gave his infamous “Checkers” speech in the 1952. So did political phenom Joseph McCarthy, when he found himself on the other side of an investigative committee, and went down in flames on live TV. Lightening bolts like Elvis and The Beatles made their mark on pop culture when they appeared on American television. Network, which came out nearly two decades after A Face in the Crowd, takes washed-up TV anchor Howard Beale from a nervous breakdown on the air to a megalomaniacal media messiah.Ī Face in the Crowd is an in-depth look at the impact that television has on the masses-both positive and negative. Post-Watergate cynicism made Sidney Lumet’s Network possible as a black comedy hit, with its dire message about power, politics, and television. Movies in Hollywood’s golden era were typically escapist fare and audiences didn’t flock to see grim dramas. Today, we see inflammatory remarks, boorish behavior, and scandal rewarded with TV shows, book deals, and yes, public office.īoth A Face in the Crowd and Citizen Kane got rave reviews but were box office flops. Censorship of the day demanded characters pay for their sins. The only letdown perhaps is when Lonesome loses his TV throne/bully pulpit after a hot mike exposes the real Rhodes on network television. And Lee Remick, in her film debut, is luminous and funny as Rhodes’ majorette bride. Walter Matthau shows his dramatic side as a cynical reporter who carries the torch for Neal. Patricia Neal does world weary perfectly, yet is also vulnerable as Marcia, the reporter who falls for Rhodes’ slick charm. Andy Griffith is eerily good, both loathsome and riveting as Lonesome, the country crooner turned super-celebrity. #ILIFT REVEAL CROWD GROAN MOVIE#Director Elia Kazan employs a sharp visual look but discards the glossy movie style of the era: A Face in the Crowd’s characters look sweaty, rumpled, harried, and human. Still, the film is gritty, unglamorous, realistic, and packs a punch. Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd and Welles’ Citizen Kane were tough movies that questioned the triangular love-hate relationship between the media, public figures, and their audience.Ī Face in the Crowd was made in 1957, when film censorship and ‘50s conformity was past its zenith, but still in power. Like Rhodes, Kane pays the price for hubris. Welles’ 1941 epic, Citizen Kane, is about a rich blowhard who pushes his luck with the public, and sends his empire tumbling.
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