Mad City

Mad City (1997) is a drama-thriller directed by Costa-Gavras — watch it online on iFILM. Sam Baily, a museum guard who just got fired, walks back in with a shotgun. He has no plan. He just wants his job back and somebody to listen. Within minutes a class of schoolchildren is trapped inside, and outside the cameras are rolling.

Journalist Max Renner, played by Dustin Hoffman, gets to the scene first and immediately sees the story of the year. John Travolta plays Sam as an ordinary man who made one desperate decision and has no idea how to undo it. Alan Alda is Renner's news boss, watching the ratings climb and willing to let the situation run as long as the numbers hold. Costa-Gavras, the director behind Z and Missing, turns his lens on the ratings-driven news cycle: the longer the broadcast, the worse Sam's odds.

A sharp, unsettling look at media spectacle and the people it consumes. Stream Mad City (1997) online on iFILM.