Vernoemd naar: Howard Beale uit de film Network (1976)

Want: Als je een paar momenten hebt rondgestruind op deze site zal het je niet ontgaan zijn dat we een week hart voor filmklassiekers en epische speeches hebben. We kunnen het niet helpen. Bel ons gerust in het holst van de nacht en wij lepelen je zo de speech van Aragorn, William Wallace, General Maximus of Tony D’Amato op. Geen probleem. Maar de echt unieke speeches vinden we toch altijd degene die zelfs vele jaren nadat ze zijn geschreven nog zo verdomd relevant lijken te zijn, zoals de ongeëvenaarde speech van Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator. Omdat iedereen die wel kent (en zo niet, dan direct even Youtuben), hebben we echter besloten dit paar schoenen te vernoemen naar een even zo overdonderende speech die bij het Nederlands publiek waarschijnlijk wat minder bekend is; die van Howard Beale uit de film Network (1976). Dus without further ado presenteren wij u hierbij je hierbij de prachtige woorden van Howard Beale, gespeeld door Peter Finch:

“I don’t have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It’s a depression. Everybody’s out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel’s worth. Banks are going bust. Shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street and there’s nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there’s no end to it. We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TVs while some local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, as if that’s the way it’s supposed to be.

We know things are bad – worse than bad. They’re crazy. It’s like everything everywhere is going crazy, so we don’t go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in is getting smaller, and all we say is: ‘Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won’t say anything. Just leave us alone.’

Well, I’m not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get MAD! I don’t want you to protest. I don’t want you to riot – I don’t want you to write to your congressman, because I wouldn’t know what to tell you to write. I don’t know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street. All I know is that first you’ve got to get mad. (shouting) You’ve got to say: ‘I’m a human being, god-dammit! My life has value!’

So, I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window. Open it, and stick your head out, and yell: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’

I want you to get up right now. Sit up. Go to your windows. Open them and stick your head out and yell – ‘I’m as mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!…You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first, get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not gonna take this anymore!’