Daily Dialogue — October 29, 2014

“But, man, you’re never gonna get any truth from us. We’ll tell you anything you want to 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 going to win. We’ll tell you any shit 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 a tube, you eat like a tube, you raise your children like a tube, you even think like a 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 the sentence I’m speaking to you now! TURN THEM OFF…”

— Network (1977), written by Paddy Chayefsky

The Daily Dialogue theme for the week: Madness. Today’s suggestion by Will King.

Trivia: Sidney Lumet recalled that Paddy Chayefsky was usually on the set overseeing his direction, and would give him advice on how certain scenes should be played. Lumet claims that Chayefsky had better comedic instinct than him, but when it came time to shoot the scene between Max and Louise, Lumet told Chayefsky, “Paddy, please, I know more about divorce than you”.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Will: “The beauty of this film is that it’s a study in madness, but the character of Howard Beale, the supposedly insane former newscaster, is really the only sane person in the story.”