Mad City (film)

Mad City
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Costa Gavras
Produced by	Arnold Kopelson Anne Kopelson
Screenplay by	Tom Matthews
Story by	Tom Matthews Eric Williams
Starring	Dustin Hoffman John Travolta
Music by	Thomas Newman
Cinematography	Patrick Blossier
Editing by	Françoise Bonnot
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Village Roadshow Pictures (Australia)
Release date(s)	November 7, 1997 (1997-11-07)
Running time	114 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$50 million
Box office	$10,561,038 (US)

Mad City is a 1997 drama film and thriller film written by Tom Matthews and Eric Williams, directed by Costa-Gavras, and starring Dustin Hoffman, John Travolta, Mia Kirshner, Alan Alda, Blythe Danner, Ted Levine, Raymond J. Barry, and Larry King.

Plot

Sam Baily gets laid off from his job as a museum security guard. In desperation for not being able to provide for his wife and kids, he comes armed with weapons and explosives and takes his boss Mrs. Banks and a number of children (at the museum on a school field trip) as hostages.

Television journalist Max Brackett is in the museum using the restroom after an interview with the curator about financial difficulties. He becomes directly involved in the hostage situation, acting as Baily's intermediary to the outside world and the police.

Baily accidentally shoots a friend still working there as a security guard, sending him to the hospital, and later fires a gun again, frightening the children and becoming more and more unstable as he takes caffeine pills to stay awake. Along with a young intern, Laurie, Brackett reports the story exclusively on television, reviving his career. By being free to come and go, he negotiates with a national network and its star news anchorman, Kevin Hollander, with whom Brackett has an unhappy history.

Baily wants the police to let him return home to his wife and kids, and won't accept that he's going to jail. Brackett on the other hand makes a deal rather than let Hollander have the story, prompting Hollander to publicly accuse Brackett of prolonging the crisis and endangering the children. When Baily's ex-colleague dies from his injuries, Baily starts to realize he's lost everything.

Baily and Brackett allow the situation to worsen until the police finally have had enough, issuing a five minute ultimatum to Baily for release of the hostages. Baily lets the children as well as Brackett go, but rather than face prison -- and his wife -- he ultimately sets off his explosives, committing suicide. As reporters swamp Brackett and ask about Baily, all he can say is, "We killed him," referring to how the media handled the situation.

Cast

• Dustin Hoffman as Max Brackett
• John Travolta as Sam Baily
• Mia Kirshner as Laurie Callahan
• Alan Alda as Kevin Hollander
• Blythe Danner as Mrs. Banks
• Robert Prosky as Lou Pottts
• Ted Levine as Chief Lemke
• Kyla Pratt as Kid

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) based on 23 reviews. Film critic Roger Ebert noted Mad City is inspired by the film Ace in the Hole and gave the movie two stars (out of four), writing: "The movie knows what it wants to do, but lacks the velocity for lift-off."

In the United States, the film opened at #6 at the box office with an opening weekend gross of $4.6 million. It went on to gross $10,5 million.

External links

• Official website
• Mad City at AllRovi
• Mad City at the Internet Movie Database
• Mad City at Rotten Tomatoes
• Mad City at Metacritic
• Mad City at Box Office Mojo