A Face in the Crowd (1957)
I thought Paddy Chayefsky's 1976 film, Network, was the first and last word on the power and corrupting influence of mass media. But I've just seen Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd from 1957, and I'm awestruck. This film is 62 years old, and it remains an incredibly relevant criticism of mass media.
The film feels so modern, in fact, that I can't imagine what a 1957 audience would have made of it. Andy Griffith's performance is enormous, powerful, and frightening. I can't believe that he didn't receive an Academy Award nomination. The Eisenhower-era audiences seemed genuinely confused by this movie. And the critics were either nonplussed or panned it altogether. One notable exception being François Truffaut, who said the film is "a great and beautiful work whose importance transcends the dimensions of a cinema review."
My take is, yeah, what Truffaut said. This film is important.
In the second half of the film, Patricia Neal grows darker with every scene. Kazan lights her like a skeleton towards the end, her angular face often turns into the shadows or is half eclipsed by shadow. And Walter Matthau takes a turn as the educated cynic who knows exactly how this all ends.
This film is very much worth your time. The observations contained here continue to resonate over 60 years after its creation.