Cast and Crew: Sidney Lumet (Director); Paddy Chayefsky (Screenplay); Robert Duvall, Wesley Addy, Ned Beatty
What It’s About: Network news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) has a mental breakdown live on air-and ratings only increase. The aging head of the news division, Max Schumacher (William Holden) tries to protect his friend-and his network’s integrity-but the vice president in charge of programming, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) sees only an opportunity…
Why Watch it Today?: Faye Dunaway, who turns 73 today, turns in one of her great performances in today’s movie, which seems to become only more relevant every passing year.
Other Choices: Dunaway is amazing as the mysterious Evelyn Mulwray in Chinatown and fiendishly devious as the Lady De Winter in The Three and Four Musketeers. You can also see Dunaway in the unusual, if not quite successful, thriller directed from John Carpenter’s script, The Eyes of Laura Mars.
The League of Dead Films 
Nice pick. I always double this up with A Face in the Crowd because it seems that every 20 years we need a reminder to keep an eyeball on the media. Hmmm. I wonder what 1996 did for this thought of mine, though?
Heh. I’m sure someone could come up with a 90s media movie that would fit, but damned if I can.
Often people think this is prescient, and it is, but I think it’s also just very good satire of things that were happening even then.
I guess 1997’s Wag the Dog sort of counts. I’d forgotten about it (oops) until I read your reply and realized that it’s sort of a media-related flick…