Mad City Review
by Tim Voon (stirling AT netlink DOT com DOT au)April 26th, 1998
MAD CITY 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
3 :-( :-( :-( for leaving very few options
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Blythe Danner, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, William Atherton, Robert Prosky, Ted Levine, Bill Nunn, Lucinda Jenny
Director: Costa-Gavras
Producers: Arnold Koppelson and Anne Koppelson
Screenplay: Tom Matthews
There is something intensely annoying about a story, that has only two possible outcomes of which neither is satisfying.
Scenario 1:
An ex-security guard of a state museum (John Travolta) confronts his boss with shotgun and explosives, in a desperate attempt to get his job back. The boss (Blythe Danner) is a bit of a female tight arse, but hey, if I were threatened with a pistol in my face, I wouldn’t give you your job back no matter how tight my arse. I mean I would initially say yes, but sack you later.
Scenario 2:
During the confrontation, he accidentally shoots his buddy (Bill Nunn), the other museum security officer in the stomach. This is the part where the quick fix ‘I’m sorry’, doesn’t work anymore.
Scenario 3:
He takes a group of children, a teacher and reporter (Dustin Hoffman) hostage. This is the part where you’ve just lost all rational thinking, the media starts portraying you as a lunatic and you get placed on top of the police hit list all at once.
>From here on, there can only be two possible outcomes for the Travolta character – ‘To Jail’ or ‘To Death’. Knowing how Hollywood scripts work, the ‘To Jail’ option is not very popular because audiences normally don’t like their hero/antiheroes to end up in jail. Jail is for bad guys and the Travolta character isn’t bad enough to end up there. So that leaves us with the other option of ‘To Death’, which is cliché, but safe enough to end a silly situation which couldn’t have gone any other way.
John Travolta shows us how desperate a family man can get, if he is unable to find work to support his family. Looking in the Classifieds for a job would have been a better option, but that would be a different story. Dustin Hoffman, the reporter, just mumbles his way through the movie, trying to draw sympathy for the Travolta character, and is lucky not get blown away for his efforts.
An overall, unnecessary tragedy and waste of human life.
Timothy Voon
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