Mad City (5 Stars)

One man will make a mistake. The other will make it a spectacle.

This is a film by the legendary Greek director Constantinos Gavras, who prefers to call himself Costa-Gavras. His films will forever stand as works of art. They all manage to carry an important political or social message while remaining entertaining. That's something very few directors manage.

Dustin Hoffman is one of my favorite actors. In his earlier years he could be a totally different character from one film to the next, almost unrecognizable. Just to take a few examples, compare his performance in "The Graduate", "Midnight Cowboy" and "Rain Man". In the last 15-20 years he seems to have lost this versatility and always appears as a mumbling old man, but in my eyes he still stands up there as one of the greats. John Travolta, on the other hand, is an actor I've never liked. Except for this film. He excels in his portrayal of an uneducated security guard. The problem is that all actors are highly intelligent. This is necessary because it's a demanding career. Whenever an actor has to play the role of someone less intelligent he's acting against his own nature. Many times the result is a caricature, like a stupid redneck. Travolta does his job well in "Mad City", as a credible character who wants to do good but is hampered by his lack of intelligence. He's the perfect counterpoint to Dustin Hoffman, a highly intelligent person whose aims are primarily selfish.

Dustin Hoffman plays Max Brackett, a reporter sent to interview the curator of a museum that has reduced its staff. John Travolta is Sam Baily, a security guard who has just been fired. Sam enters the museum shortly before closing time with a gun to force the curator to give him his job back. Unknown to him, a group of schoolchildren are still in the museum. While arguing with the curator his gun accidentally goes off and he shoots his best friend, his fellow security guard who had kept his job. He panics and locks the front doors.

Max is trapped in the museum, and he sees this as an opportunity to tell an exclusive news story that will boost his career. He rings his colleague and tells her to make sure news cameras arrive before the police are called. "It's a guy getting shot, and a bunch of kids taken hostage. It's great television". Rather than just observe the news, Max begins to coach Sam, telling him how to speak to the police, advising him on how and when to release hostages. He interviews him live on television after telling him what to say so that he can gain favour with television audiences.

This is a story that tells of the shallow nature of today's media. An entertaining news broadcast is more important than saving lives. For instance, the intern standing next to the guard when he was shot is criticised for putting down her camera to help him; by doing so she lost the chance to get exclusive footage of a man suffering. While the film deals with Max's back story, which I won't describe here, the main point of the film is to show Sam Baily, a simple man who made a mistake and is then caught between the police and the media, not aware that he's being used. Brilliant.

Click here to view the trailer.