Word: brackett
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...players--including Ted Shoebridge, the starting quarterback, and Arthur Harris Jr., the team's leading rusher and pass receiver--were from northern New Jersey. As fate would have it, Arthur Harris Sr. was also on the plane because he had been offered a seat by assistant coach Deke Brackett. And as fate would have it, assistant coach William ("Red") Dawson was not on the plane. It had been decided that he, along with graduate assistant Gale Parker, would drive back from North Carolina in the car that Dawson had been using for a recruiting trip...
This just in! The media distorts the truth for its own nefarious purposes! Mad City focuses on Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman), a reporter who "crosses the line" between reporting the news and fabricating it when he turns a hostage crisis involving a fired janitor (John Travolta) into a media circus. Unfortunately, this preachy film also crosses a line--the one that separates commentary from polemic. Despite fine performances from Hoffman and Travolta, it suffers from a fatal heavy-handedness...
This just in! The media distorts the truth for its own nefarious purposes! This movie focuses on Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman), a reporter who "cross the line" between reporting the news and fabricating it when he turns a hostage crisis involving a fired janitor (John Travolta) into a media circus. Unfortunately, this preachy film also croosses a line--the one that separates commentary from polemic. Despite fine performances, it suffers from a fatal heavy-handedness...
Hoffman's Brackett is by far the most complex and believable character of the bunch. Still, the writers need him to become more sympathetic as the climax approaches, and they try very hard to make us like him again, a feat which requires some serious mid-movie plot engineering (up to this point, we've only seen him capitalizing on tragedy and weighing the pros and cons of seducing Lori). Halfway into the film, two wolfish network producers inexplicably show us a clip of Brackett and anchor Hollander on the site of a gruesome airplane crash. Shaken by the carnage...
...City is at its best in its subtler moments. During Brackett's interview, for example, a folksy guitar strums gently in the background as Baily plies millions of viewers with his simple charm. When Brackett cuts abruptly to a commercial, both guitar and Baily are unceremoniously replaced with a garish sneaker advertisement. The spell is suddenly broken and the effect is undeniable: we realize we've been played, effortlessly manipulated by a half-wit and a cheesy soundtrack...