Hálózat (1976) 83% 79★

Amit Te érzelgősségnek tartasz, azt az én generációm emberi tisztességnek nevezi.

– Hi, I'm Diana Christensen, a racist lackey of the imperialist ruling circles.
– I'm Laureen Hobbs, a bad-ass commie nigger.

– Edward George Ruddy died today! Edward George Ruddy was the Chairman of the Board of the Union Broadcasting Systems and he died at eleven o'clock this morning of a heart condition! And woe is us! We're in a lot of trouble! So, a rich little man with white hair died. What does that got to do with the price of rice, right? And why is that woe to us? Because you people and sixty-two million other Americans are listening to me right now. Because less than three percent of you people read books. Because less than fifteen percent of you read newspapers. Because the only truth you know is what you get over this tube. Right now, there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the Gospel. The ultimate revelation! This tube can make or break Presidents, Popes, Prime Ministers. This tube is the most awesome, god-damn force in the whole godless world. And woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people. And that's why woe is us that Edward George Ruddy died. Because this company is now in the hands of CCA, the Communication Corporation of America. There's a new chairman of the board, a man called Frank Hackett sitting in Mr. Ruddy's office on the 20th floor. And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome, god-damn propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what s--t will be peddled for truth on this network. So, you listen to me. Listen to me! Television is not the truth. Television's a god-damned amusement park. Television is a circus, a carnival, a traveling troupe of acrobats, storytellers, dancers, singers, jugglers, sideshow freaks, lion tamers, and football players. We're in the boredom-killing business. So if you want the Truth, go to God! Go to your gurus. Go to yourselves! Because that's the only place you're ever gonna find any real truth. But, man, you're never gonna get any truth from us. We'll tell you anything you wanna hear. We lie like hell. We'll tell you that, uh, Kojak always gets the killer and that nobody ever gets cancer at Archie Bunker's house. And no matter how much trouble the hero is in, don't worry. Just look at your watch. At the end of the hour, he's gonna win. We'll tell you any s--t you want to hear. We deal in illusions, man. None of it is true! But you people sit there day after day, night after night, all ages, colors, creeds. We're all you know. You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here. You're beginning to think that the tube is reality and that your own lives are unreal. You do whatever the tube tells you. You dress like the tube, you eat like the tube, you raise your children like the tube. You even think like the tube. This is mass madness. You maniacs. In God's name, you people are the real thing. We are the illusion. So turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off. Turn them off right in the middle of this sentence I am speaking to you now. Turn them off!

– You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state – Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do.

We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime.

– What is finished is the idea that this great country is dedicated to the freedom and flourishing of every individual in it. It's the individual that's finished. It's the single, solitary human being that's finished. It's every single one of you out there that's finished. Because this is no longer a nation of independent individuals. It's a nation of some two hundred odd million transistorized, deodorized, whiter-than-white, steel-belted bodies, totally unnecessary as human beings and as replaceable as piston rods.

Well, the time has come to say is 'dehumanization' such a bad word?' Whether it's good or bad, that's what is so. The whole world is becoming humanoid, creatures that look human but aren't. The whole world, not just us. We're just the most advanced country, so we're getting there first. The whole world's people are becoming mass-produced, programmed, numbered, insensate things…

Laureen Hobbs: – Milyen műsorra gondolt?
Diana Christensen: – Dramatizált sorozatot akarok heti 1 adással. Az egyetemes felszabadító hadseregre alapozva. És most közlöm, hogy az első epizód Mary Ann Giffordról kell, hogy szóljon. Ami a részleteket illeti, sok olyan filmet akarok, mint ami a bankrablásról készült. Az elképzelésem a következő: minden héten azzal nyitunk, hogy egy autentikus filmet, ami a politikai terrorizmusról a helyszínen közben készült, levetítünk, aztán következhet a dráma a bejátszott filmrészlet után, és ez lesz a maga dolga Mrs. Hobbs. Nevezetesen, vegye rá az egyetemeseket, hogy ilyen filmrészletekkel ellássanak minket, a hálózat nem tárgyalhat velük közvetlenül, végül is körözött bűnözők.
L. Hobbs: – Az egyetemes felszabadító hadsereg egy ultrabalos szekta, amely erőszak és pszeudolázadási cselekményekkel politikai zűrzavart kelt, amit a kommunista párt nem támogat. Az amerikai tömegek még nem elég érettek nyílt felkelésre. Nem kívánunk olyan tévéműsorban részt venni, amely a történelmileg elhajló terrorizmust népszerűsíti.
D. Christensen: – Miss Hobbs, olyan egyórás műsort ajánlok magának főidőben, amelybe kedve szerinti propagandát csomagolhat.
L. Hobbs: – Az egyetemes hadsereg egy ultrabalos gengszterbanda, amelynek a vezetője enyhén szólva egy különc. Fölvette a Nagy Ahmed kán nevet, és huszárcsákót hord.
D. Christensen: – Amiről én beszélek, 40-50 millió nézőt jelent adásonként. Eredményesebb, mint sokszorosított röplapokat osztogatni a négergettó utcáin.
L. Hobbs: – A vezetőség elé terjesztem a problémát. És megbeszélem a Nagy Ahmeddal is.

– If there's anybody out there…that can look around this slaughterhouse of a world we live in and tell me that man is a noble creature…believe me, that man is full of bullshit.

– Why is it that a woman always thinks…that the most savage thing she can say to a man is to impugn his cocksmanship?
– Well, I'm sorry I impugned your cocksmanship.

– It's too late, Diana. There's nothing left in you that I can live with. You're one of Howard's humanoids…and if I stay with you, I'll be destroyed. Like Howard Beale was destroyed. Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. Like everything that you and the institution of television touch…is destroyed. You're television incarnate, Diana. Indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death…all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space…into split seconds and instant replays. You're madness, Diana.
Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you.