"I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"

Sorry I've been incommunicado with the updates folks - right now, the job that gives me paychecks takes priority! However, I've got another AFI update for all of you, and will have some more live music info as well. So, without further ado...here's my last round of flicks:

Network: This 1976 Sidney Lumet film really forshadowed the future of TV news magazine shows and reality shows. The film starts off with a television newscaster named Howard Beale, who's a sort of a Walter Cronkite/Dan Rather sort of personality. He's found out he's getting the ax due to low ratings, and proceeds to go on the air and announce that he's going to kill himself live on his last show. Needless to say, ratings skyrocket. Enter Faye Dunaway, who plays a ruthless producer who's determined to exploit Beale's increasingly bizarre rantings for profit. This is a man who is obviously mentally ill, and yet the network and its suits are willing to milk it, no matter what damage it does to Beale, or even to themselves. A film that deals with so many ethical issues, I think that if Network had been made today, George Clooney would have been at the helm of it.

American Graffitti: Before there was 16 Candles, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and American Pie, there was American Graffitti (written and directed by George Lucas). This coming-of-age film takes place on the last night of high school for a group of friends as they prepare to go their separate ways. The film features some great performances (a young Harrison Ford in his first movie role) as well as a young Richard Dreyfuss who spends the evening searching for the girl of his dreams. My mom said when she saw this film when it first came out, she said to her companion, "that kid is going to be a star." Aren't you tired of being right all the time mom? This film holds special significance to me because of its music (which is incredible). My dad practically raised me on its soundtrack, which features acts like Flash Cadillac and The Continental Kids, Frankie Lymon, The Big Bopper, Chuck Berry, and The Platters. If you see it, see it for the music alone!

Cabaret: Directed and choreographed by the legendary Bob Fosse, this saucy musical stars Liza Minnelli as Sally Bowles, an American singer in 1930s Berlin, who falls in love with bisexual Brit named Brian (played by Michael York, who young audiences may know better as the MI-6 director from the Austin Powers films). They are both then seduced by Max, a rich playboy, all the while, the rise of the Nazi regime developes around them and the last bastion of heathenism, The Kit-Kat Club. There is a particularly chilling scene in which Brian and Max are at a country picnic and you see a young blonde boy singing a very operetic, patriotic song...until the camera pulls back and you see the swatstika on his shirt. As others at the picnic join in with the song, it becomes a very menancing and disturbing musical moment. Minnelli is great in it with her bubbly energy and huge voice and Joel Gray as the Kit-Kat Club's Master of Ceremonies is wonderfully outlandish.

Next in my queue: Duck Soup, Nashville, and Rocky