Hacker Cinema
The Network
2013 · Film · documentary · 97 min
Directed by Eva Orner
The Network is a documentary set behind the scenes at the largest television network in one of the most unstable and dangerous places on earth, Afghanistan.
4 positive2 neutralfrom 6 commenters
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6 comments on Hacker News
> "All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace"
This reminds me of the tycoon's thunderously semi-religious speech from The Network [0], which has aged pretty well for a movie 50 years old.
> The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused.
[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35DSdw7dHjs&t=0m43s
I had a similar reaction seeing Logans Run as a kid on TV (it must have been edited pretty aggressively as the movie is very racy).
I had no idea what I had watched but I remember this show about these people who are stuck inside a mall and can never go outside ever. It really affected me incredibly deeply and filled me with melancholy whenever I thought about it.
Finally in College I was renting old sci-fi and watching it, and as I was watching Logans Run I suddenly realized that it was the show I had seen as a child about the people who couldn't go outside.
A lot of 70s dystopian sci-fi hits pretty hard to be honest. Two more that come off as incredibly prescient are The Network (about a media company that will do anything for viewership) and THX1138 (about people who take drugs to control all their emotions, confess their sins to chatbots, and masturbate to porn every night).
Most major movies are, if not "CONSUME", "OBEY", etc billboards (like in "They Live"), at least party-line affairs promoting the establishment.
Between promoting the prevalent mores (instead of criticizing them), military manipulation to promote "national interests" like in TFA, product placements, and plots for your inner 13 year old in movies for 40 year olds, with the rare exception it's a long way since the 60s-70s and films like "The Network", "Apocalypse Now" and the rest..
>Perhaps we're really going to get those "corporate governments" we see in some dystopian sci-fi books and shows/movies.
Ever seen a movie called "The Network". It is quite old, 1976. You should see it.
You should at least see this scene, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxiT30N6ti4
"The world is a business" clip from the film The Network...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKkRDMil0bw
Here's a thought: if we're serious about patent trolling, I mean really serious about it then why not march? I'm talking about demonstrating in front of cityhall with signs and speakers on megaphones. I'm talking about a rally against patent trolling. If potheads can get together for their 420 rallies then why can't we get together in a visible way to express our views? The quote from Howard Beal in the The Network (excellent movie, by the way) was especially apt.
We start by designating an official "patent free day", blessed by the EFF and Free Software Foundation. This is the day that we hold our demonstrations. Imagine the sight of hundreds of out of shape engineers demonstrating with their pocket protectors -- they must be serious. I'd do it, at least if it was over the weekend. For me, at least, it would be awkward to do it over a weekday, because the company I work for is big on patents (even though the rally is really against patent trolling and not software patents themselves, although I am against those as well).
Do it.