It's funny. I saw Network again recently, and as impressed as I still was with the performances and the vitality of the writing, it smacked of too little too late. The US had sent millions of its kids to Vietnam, and tens of thousands had come back dead. Our little adventure defined as "anti-Communist," in the end, did about as much good as did our 20-year foray into Afghanistan. For a while, we made the foreigners look like brown Americans, but in the end, they weren't.
One of Eugene O'Neill's recurrent themes is that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, but that's inaccurate: Succeeding generations seem eager to repeat their forebears' mistakes. Paddy's right: As long as there are statues erected to Nathan Bedford Forrest and army bases named after Braxton Bragg, we will mistake rank treason for heroism. Imagine Franklin's surprise if, after the fledgling United States lost its war for independence, Britain put up statues of Washington, Hamilton, and Paine.
The U.S. gave Southeast Asia defoliant Agents Orange, White and Blue. Then we brought the Middle East DU ("Depleted" Uranium) projectiles. All continue to pollute to this day.
And brought home US military members poisoned by Agent Orange. Years passed, and veterans suffered and died before the authorities acknowledged Agent Orange as the culprit.
Instead of the generals, there could be statues to this guy, and who else, Dalton Trumbo, maybe. Cresative truthful men and women like that. Songs even. Idunno but I might be the first person to realize that you could fit "Paddy Chayefsky" into the same scansion as "Viva Las Vegas", if that was the way some lyricist wanted to roll.
It's funny. I saw Network again recently, and as impressed as I still was with the performances and the vitality of the writing, it smacked of too little too late. The US had sent millions of its kids to Vietnam, and tens of thousands had come back dead. Our little adventure defined as "anti-Communist," in the end, did about as much good as did our 20-year foray into Afghanistan. For a while, we made the foreigners look like brown Americans, but in the end, they weren't.
One of Eugene O'Neill's recurrent themes is that the sins of the fathers are visited on the sons, but that's inaccurate: Succeeding generations seem eager to repeat their forebears' mistakes. Paddy's right: As long as there are statues erected to Nathan Bedford Forrest and army bases named after Braxton Bragg, we will mistake rank treason for heroism. Imagine Franklin's surprise if, after the fledgling United States lost its war for independence, Britain put up statues of Washington, Hamilton, and Paine.
The U.S. gave Southeast Asia defoliant Agents Orange, White and Blue. Then we brought the Middle East DU ("Depleted" Uranium) projectiles. All continue to pollute to this day.
And brought home US military members poisoned by Agent Orange. Years passed, and veterans suffered and died before the authorities acknowledged Agent Orange as the culprit.
Instead of the generals, there could be statues to this guy, and who else, Dalton Trumbo, maybe. Cresative truthful men and women like that. Songs even. Idunno but I might be the first person to realize that you could fit "Paddy Chayefsky" into the same scansion as "Viva Las Vegas", if that was the way some lyricist wanted to roll.
Garner's best role.
Faye Dunaway was sooo sexy in Network; her husky voice. Thank you, Paddy.
And then she pissed away her career by playing Joan Crawford.