Interesting look at an emotionally crippled man as he goes out of control after losing his job. He holds several children and a few adults hostage in a museum after the curator refused to discuss his termination. One of the hostages is a newsman who winds up acting as the liaison between the police and the gunman. The situation leads to national prominence, drawing in an unscrupulous network newsman who only wanted to feather his own nest with the story. Good movie about a not unbelievable happening.

Mad City is almost a remake of Billy Wilder's Ace In The Hole with a bit of Network thrown in. The Kirk Douglas part has shifted to a television reporter and it's played with relish by Dustin Hoffman. By sheer chance Hoffman is in the Museum Of Natural History when a security guard who's been laid off due to budget cuts, pulls a shotgun out of canvas bag and holds museum director Blythe Danner, a school teacher and her class who were out on a field trip just as the museum is closing. Oh and he accidentally shoots his former co-worker security guard Bill Nunn as well. That kind of seals his fate.

As good as Dustin Hoffman is the film really belongs to John Travolta as the desperate security guard, a slow witted kind of man who really hasn't thought through what he's doing. Hoffman realizing he's got an exclusive story becomes Travolta's media adviser, stringing it out for all it's worth.

Travolta has to walk a fine line in this film, balancing his character's situation in his portrayal. We empathize with him, many of us who have ever been desperate and without a paycheck, but we can't sympathize with a man who's holding a whole bunch of grade school kids hostage. Sam Bailey ranks as one of the two or three best pieces of work John Travolta has ever done.

In the meantime Hoffman who is also mentoring young reporter Mia Kirshner, too well as it turns out, has also got a rivalry with network anchor Alan Alda. One thing I've noticed about Alan Alda, since he's left MASH, he's gone out of his way to take roles that are the farthest thing from good guy Hawkeye Pierce. He and Hoffman hate each other and Alda's attempts to spin the story his way and Hoffman's countermoves are what really set up the inevitable climax.

Mad City is not very nice look at the news business and what people will do to get a story. The film has its roots not only in Ace In The Hole and Network, but you could make a case going all the way back to Five Star Final and other films showing the darker side of reporting and the agenda driven people in that business.

Sad to say is that the news is business, show business in fact. In the end poor Travolta had to get off the stage.

Hard-hitting ratings-obsessed investigative TV reporter Max Brackett (Dustin Hoffman) is sent to the Museum of Natural History to do a story about its financial difficulties. Recently fired security guard Sam Baily (John Travolta) locks down the museum and takes everybody including a group of school kids hostage. Laurie Callahan (Mia Kirshner) is Max's inexperienced camera person outside. Lou Potts (Robert Prosky) is the station manager and Dohlen (William Atherton) is the local anchor. While arguing with the curator Mrs. Banks (Blythe Danner),Sam accidentally shoots his fellow guard Cliff (Bill Nunn). The situation escalates into a media circus. Network anchor Kevin Hollander (Alan Alda) reluctantly takes over the broadcast despite mistrusting Brackett. Chief Lemke (Ted Levine) leads the local cops.

Travolta tries too hard with his hang-dog face. He gets a bit annoying by acting too much. He would be more scary and more depressed by being quieter. At first, I wondered if he's trying to play a slow character and if it would be better for him to be more normal. The movie does a functional job skewering the news media. Hoffman is a solid selfish newsman. This is not that great but it gets by.