Review of Mad City (1997) by Connor M — 31 Jul 2009

Although doubtless marketed in a traditionally Hollywood campaign with traditional Hollywood tag-lines, Mad City wasnâ??t the sort of movie you see every day. While it did contain action, bits of comedy, and eventual pyrotechnics, every element of the production was quite obviously driven by a collection of powerful themes that director Costa-Gavras wanted to drill home, all of them concerning the role of the media in reporting - or creating - real events.

The film pits the sly and charming news reporter, Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman), against the moody whims of would-be hostage-taker Sam Baily (John Travolta). The pair is united by a twist of fate - Brackett happens to be using a museumâ??s restroom when a disgruntled former employee, Baily, armed with a shotgun and dynamite, begins demanding his job back outside.

Brackett sees an opportunity, as any newscaster would, and ignites a media circus around the events that eventually spins out of control. Thus is one of the fundamental messages of the film, superficially laid out for the 6-year-olds in the audience at about ten minutes in - â??the media are vultures.â?? Not particularly original, but itâ??s done moderately well: as Brackett goads Baily down the path more palatable to television viewers, he movie does a nice job questioning the fine line between reporting the news as it happens and inventing it.

As media and pop culture attention turns a focused eye on the crisis, the story takes some excellent turns - first, Baily is the poster-boy of the lower class and workersâ?? rights, then of the difficulties of parenthood, and then of the Neo-Nazi movement. The film expertly shows how a victim of circumstance can be manipulated and misinterpreted to support literally any platform.

Both of the lead actors seemed to have â??called it inâ?? for this one, neither of them presenting much more than lazy and unenthusiastic boredom for the entire course of the film. In Max Brackett, the screenwriters offer a genuinely interesting character - who wouldnâ??t be intrigued by a news reporter becoming the mediator of a hostage situation? But in the final product, the Brackett character fails to have whatever potential the concept might have allowed him; whether this is due to poor screenwriting or Hoffmanâ??s seemingly one-dimensional performance, I canâ??t be sure.

From the outset, Mr. Baily is an entirely unbelievable character. Heâ??s a total moron in just about every sense of the word, and his motivations for bringing both a shotgun and dozens of sticks of dynamite (youâ??ll need more than that to wake Hoffman and Travolta up from their apparent daze) into his former place of work are completely ridiculous. Bailyâ??s reasoning behind the shotgun is almost understandable in the sense that he simply wanted irritating Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner) to â??listen to himâ?? - a line thatâ??s repeated about fifteen times before the filmâ??s over - but dynamite?

The film made extensive use of mattè shots, especially when looking at Baily trapped inside the museum. Other than that, the rest of the cinematography was surprisingly rudimentary, filled with medium shots and the occasional extreme close-up for those especially tense moments. Whenever Baily put down his weapon for even a split second, the audience was bombarded with these frequent quick shots of Brackett eyeing the gun, suggesting that the prop might be leading up to some future conflict or resolution. But it leads nowhere, running out of ammunition just when Baily is contemplating suicide. And, honestly, he â??accidentallyâ?? fires that thing about three hundred times, once killing his former friend and co-worker. How long is the audience expected to suspend our disbelief?

I hate to be picky, but somebody did an awful sloppy job with the editing, because on at least five occasions the audio fails to match up with events on-screen, and dubbing was painfully out of sync. It wasnâ??t even like the actorsâ?? mouths were just a little out of time, they were saying completely different sentences!

The film in its entirety could be summarized with its most important character, the network intern named Laurie Callahan (Mia Krishner) who is utterly transformed by the media circus by the end of the film. At the beginning, sheâ??s a mild-mannered camerawoman and assistant, willing to help the wounded security guard as the crisis first appears. But by the end, sheâ??s a heartless news-machine, caring little for the death of Mr. Baily and irreverently referring to him as â??confetti.â??

Although its themes were a tad trite, they were nonetheless effectively and entertainingly executed. The film tells an interesting and somewhat unique story but, I donâ??t know, I liked it better when it was called "Ace in the Hole." Overall, Iâ??d give Mad City a generous 40%. M.