| | |
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Surround Sound
A relentless fast-paced suspense thriller about a talk radiohost who discovers one weekend that his skills in pushingpeople's buttons have won him a chance for nationalsyndication.
Editor's Note
Based loosely on the life of the murdered talk-radio personality Alan Berg, TALK RADIO stars monologist Eric Bogosian as the abrasive, self-loathing talk-radio host Barry Champlain. He spends his nights at Dallas station KGAB engaged in vitriolic conversations with a motley assortment of racists, anti-semites, rednecks, and all-purpose lunatics. Just having learned that his show has a chance to be picked up for national syndication, Barry seems to have ratcheted up the abuse level to new heights, worrying his co-workers. Yet while Barry's career is taking off, studio boss Dan (Alec Baldwin) angers him by trying to alter the provocative content of his show. At the same time, Barry's having problems with his girlfriend and ex-wife, Ellen (Ellen Greene). And a neo-Nazi group is making increasingly menacing calls, forcing him to the edge of a possible nervous breakdown. A compelling take on the dynamics of hate radio and the wages of narcissism, Oliver Stone's film is exceptionally well shot and acted, directed with claustrophobic concentration.
| Features | Region 1 | | Keep Case | | Single Side - Single Layer | | Anamorphic Widescreen - 1.85 | | Letterbox - 1.85 | | Audio:
| Dolby Surround - English | | Text/Photo Galleries:
| Production Notes | | Biographies: Cast & Crew |
|
|
| Technical Info
|
Release Information
|  | Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (MCA) |
| Release Date: 8/24/2004 |
| Running Time: 110 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1989 | | Catalog ID: 20908 | | UPC: 00025192090820 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
|
| | Professional Reviews | Entertainment Weekly
Rating: B 09/06/1996 p.83Los Angeles Times
"...TALK RADIO is tense, packed and crackling with life....The film is an often dazzling success. Bogosian and the cast are bravura performers; Stone a director with guts and talent..." 12/02/1988 p.C1 Sight and Sound
"Although it's one of Stone's more modestly scaled projects, the righteous anger still bubbles up in this adaptation of Eric Bogosian's play." 01/01/2006 p.92 |
| |
|
|
| |
__USERID__
http://www.buy.com/prod/talk-radio/q/loc/322/40143086.html
|
|
|
| Customer Reviews | ![]() | | Cinematography |  4 | | Plot |  5 | | Acting | 5 | | Overall Satisfaction | 5 |
| |
5 of 5 STONE'S FINEST FILM Thursday, August 24, 2006
maclee from London, UK
Oliver Stone combines with the playwrite/actor Eric Bogosian to deliver his most searing indictment of the USA. Released on the crest of Salvador, Platoon and Wall Street, Talk Radio captures the vitriol, oratory power and insight displayed in those films and adds verbal nitro into the concoction. Largely set within the confines of the radio station broadcsasting room, Talk Radio leaves you physically and mentally exhausted by the film's end - not just with the deeply serious questions about the superficialities and ignorance of the Western world/USA, but with the outrageous "laugh out loud" humour that regularly injects the Gatling gun script.
The story was inspired by the real life murder of shock jock Alan Berg by neo-Nazis. With this to start with, Bogosian's character, talk show host Barry Champlain, goes through a crisis of personal issues (his divorced wife tries to get back with him, his girlfriend has second thoughts), professional challenges (his show is about to go from regional to national syndication) and his ongoing war against public enemy number one - the public, i.e. his audience! The self loathing engendered by his modern court jester antics of telling the truth with sledge hammer subtlety to a nation of notorious truth evaders/distorters/basket cases/ignoramuses/outright nazis and even intelligent people is at the centre of this brilliant diatribe against comfortable preconceptions and political correctness.
Notably sterling support is provided by Alec Baldwin (Bogosian's understandably worried manager) and Michael Wincott (the heavy metal stoner of Biblically idiotic proportions - did Dumb and Dumber get its inspiration from this toatally convincing performance). The film is given MTV style editing and sound effects that immeasurably adds to a sense of growing paranoia and menace to what is one of the best films of the late Eighties. Was this review helpful?  
|
Look For Similar Products By Category
|
