“It’s funny you mentioned The Hospital because I just bought the screenplay off Amazon (as part of “The Collected Works of Paddy Chayefsky, Vol. II”) and am reading it for the first time. (I’ve never seen the movie but will as soon as I finish.) The impulse came from rewatching the brilliant Network special edition DVD released two or three weeks ago. The speeches were so mesmerizing I just had to see how he wrote them on the page. Chayefsky’s writing is definitely ‘a little show-offy at times but pleasurable as hell,’ but what struck me more was the anarchic wit of his whole worldview. His mentality is basically ‘we all live in the shitter but I’m still not going to give up on this place.’ No one does this kind of thing anymore, especially with Big Ideas. I’m sorry I’m a bit too young to have been a moviegoer when Chayevsky was in his prime.” —
Matthew Morettini, New York City.