Themes: Hostage Situations, Fighting the System, Social Injustice
Main Cast: John Travolta, Dustin Hoffman, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Robert Prosky
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 114 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG13
Plot
Investigative TV journalist Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) suffers setbacks and winds up filing routine reports from Madeline, California. Max and his eager intern Laurie (Mia Kirshner) are doing a story at the local Museum of Natural History when a bigger story erupts. The Museum's director, Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner), refuses to talk to former museum security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) about his firing due to budget cuts. Angered, Sam shoots a shotgun, accidentally hitting another security guard. Realizing he's in the middle of breaking news, Max phones his supervisor (Robert Prosky) and goes to live coverage. A class of young children is visiting the Museum, and Sam holds them hostage. Sam's link to the outside world is the opportunistic Max, who manipulates the situation, telling Sam what to say on camera. Within hours, as the event escalates to national interest, vendors arrive to hawk products at the museum grounds, while the entire country tunes in the ongoing coverage. The screenplay by Eric Williams and Tom Matthews (former managing editor of Boxoffice) is a technological updating of the 1951 Billy Wilder classic Ace in the Hole (aka The Big Carnival) about a scheming journalist (Kirk Douglas) who delays the rescue of a man trapped by a rockfall in order to continue his newspaper reports. Acknowledging the Wilder film, the name "Brackett" is an obvious nod to Charles Brackett, Wilder's long-time collaborator. Filmed in Los Angeles and San Jose, where the San Jose Athletic Club served as the museum location site. Shown at the 1997 Denver Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Ben Morahan - Art Director, Linda Warren - Associate Producer, Cathy Sandrich - Casting, Amanda Mackey-Johnson - Casting, Deborah Nadoolman - Costume Designer, Julian Wall - First Assistant Director, Dennis Maguire - First Assistant Director, Costa-Gavras - Director, Françoise Bonnot - Editor, Stephen Brown - Executive Producer, Jonathan D. Krane - Executive Producer, Wolfgang Glattes - Executive Producer, Thomas Newman - Composer (Music Score), Catherine Hardwicke - Production Designer, Patrick Bloosier - Cinematographer, Arnold Kopelson - Producer, Anne Kopelson - Producer, Jan Pascale - Set Designer, Edward Tise - Sound/Sound Designer, John Coffey - Sound/Sound Designer, Dave Kelsey - Special Effects Supervisor, Eric Williams - Screen Story, Tom Matthews - Screenwriter
The film is about Sam Baily (Travolta) who gets laid off from his job as a museum security guard, taking his boss and children on a school field trip as hostages within the museum. Journalist Max Brackett (Hoffman), is in the museum using the restroom after an interview with the museum curator about financial difficulties, and becomes involved in the story. Sam ends up accidentially shooting his ex-work partner, sending him to the hospital. Brackett, along with the young intern, Laurie (Kirshner), are first to report on the story. Brackett manipulates the situation to grow his career, while Sam only acts out of a want to help his wife and two children.
Reception
As of August 2007, the film had a score of 36% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 28 reviews; on Metacritic, the film had a score of 45 out of 100 (mixed or average reviews) based on 23 reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert said Mad City is inspired by the film Ace in the Hole, and gave the movie 2 stars (out of four), saying "The movie knows what it wants to do, but lacks the velocity for lift-off."[1]
In the United States, the film opened at #6 at the box office with an opening weekend gross of $5.2 million. The film eventually went on to gross $11.0 million.[2]
