Network

What even was this movie?  I thought for a solid hour that I was watching a pre-Sorkin dialogue and character driven dramedy, but somehow must have missed the clues that I was really watching a cross between Dr. Strangelove and Idiocracy.  The clues that this movie was not taking itself as seriously as I thought it was were there.  But I, dunderhead that I am, didn't realize until Howard Beale walked out on a revolving cathedral of a dais halfway through the movie that I was watching a farce.  And one of the many geniuses of this farce was that the transition from Sorkin to Parker and Stone was almost imperceptible through the first half.

Among the other geniuses were, of course, epic performances, iconic commentary, and positively prophetic social analysis.  All of the pieces worked together in a smooth, and ultimately successful, pastiche.  But perhaps just a little of the bite goes out of this  masterwork when we watch it forty years later, and realize that we are still saying the same things about media today.  Howard Beale was, of course, right.  And he remains right.  But humans have been guilty of the same idiocy for as long as there has been media of any sort.  We are highly unlikely to change, but brilliant commentary such as this at least makes it easier for us to carry on.