Talk Radio (1988)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Chris G

  
  When I was a kid I listened to talk radio (yes, I was THAT kid). The guy I listened to was He Who Goes Bump in the Night, Jim White on KMOX out of St. Louis. I think I stumbled on the guy after a Cardinals game. Jim White had been on the air in St. Louis for years and his shows were… More
  When I was a kid I listened to talk radio (yes, I was THAT kid). The guy I listened to was He Who Goes Bump in the Night, Jim White on KMOX out of St. Louis. I think I stumbled on the guy after a Cardinals game. Jim White had been on the air in St. Louis for years and his shows were usually open format. Most callers were congenial, but every once in awhile a tirade would start either from a caller or from the host himself. There was the occasional Nazi or someone without a clue. These are the people that listen to the radio late a night. Check out Coast to Coast AM if you don't believe me. With Talk Radio we get to take a look at Barry Champlain (Eric Bogosian), a nigh time talk radio host who is no holds barred and tells it like it is even though most of his listeners don't like it. Most callers hate him. When he goes out in public his ridiculed. But his shows popular as hell. So popular he's about to go national. But is that what he really wants? National hatred. Barry's main argument to people is to turn off the damn show. That may be what you and I have in mind. But you have to remember the old story about a car accident. It's disgusting, it's horrible, but you sure as hell can't look away. You may hate what he says, but you just can't not stop listening to him because you have to know what he's going to say next. Oliver Stone directs this film base on Bogosian's play and the film does have some of Stones flourishes, but it's really a claustrophobic piece. By the end of the film you're ready to get the hell out of that studio. You feel as stuffy and confined as the characters and during the times you do get out it's not for a breath of fresh air or freedom, it's more of how the disease from the radio has spread. Excellent performances throughout featuring Bogosians best work to date. So many years late and Jim White's retired from the night time airwaves and the Cardinals aren't on KMOX anymore. I'm sure there's another guy at night buy he probably isn't as abrasive as White. Talk radio today is more user friendly with hosts chanting the mantras of the demographic they're designed for. Talk radio is a time capsule of those days when guys said what they though on the radio, not what was expected of them.

• _kelly .

  
  Fantastic script pulled off on the tiniest set. Oliver Stone before he got too overtly political. A great thriller, and a huge recommend.

• Derek D

  
  A really great film when you don't expect too much more than what's advertised. Bogosian's finest hour by far and really shows you what late-night talk radio is all about. A good film I found for $4 at Big Lots.

• Lady D

  
  This was one of those films, you really expect nothing from and yet, it pleasantly surprised me. Eric Bogosian plays the role of a radio presenter and he is very convincing in doing so. He upsets practically everyone with his freedom of speech and obnoxious attitude. I liked the… More
  This was one of those films, you really expect nothing from and yet, it pleasantly surprised me. Eric Bogosian plays the role of a radio presenter and he is very convincing in doing so. He upsets practically everyone with his freedom of speech and obnoxious attitude. I liked the controversy of this film which made it quite unique and despite looking a little dated; it was a really enjoyable watch.

• jd c

  
  Talk Radio is an extraordinary powerful film directed by Oliver Stone which is also inspired by the true story of Alan Berg. <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/?action=view¤t=AlanBerg.jpg" target="_blank"><img… More
  Talk Radio is an extraordinary powerful film directed by Oliver Stone which is also inspired by the true story of Alan Berg. <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/?action=view¤t=AlanBerg.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/AlanBerg.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a> - Alan Berg "Alan Berg was a Denver talk-radio host who was murdered on June 18, 1984. He was a goofy-looking bird, with a thin face and a bristly white beard that hid the ravages of teenage acne. He wore reading glasses perched far down on his nose, and he dressed in unlikely combinations of checks and stripes and garments that looked left over from the 1950s. When the members of a lunatic right-wing group gunned him down in the driveway of his home, they could not have mistaken him for anybody else. I met Berg three or four times. The first time I was going to be on his radio show, I listened to it as I drove from Boulder, Colo., to Denver. He was chewing out some hapless housewife whose brain was a reservoir of prejudices against anyone who was the slightest bit different from her. Berg was telling her that no one in his right mind would want to be anything like her at all. "Why were you so hard on that lady?" I asked him, when we were on the air. "She was asking for it," Berg said. "Why would she call up and feed me all those straight lines if she didn't want me to tell her how stupid she was?"" - ROGER EBERT Eric Bogosian wrote the screenplay for Talk Radio which was based on his own original play, with the help from Oliver Stone, but he used quite a handful of biographical information on Alan Berg. Being that this movie was mixed with Eric's own original content, as well as the truth, some facts were turned around but you still get the gist of what Alan Berg was all about. Talk Radio is an amazing film. Barry Champlain, played by Eric Bogosian, is the man who is portraying Alan Berg. There's a little something about Barry that you should know about...he is pissed off at the world and he will say anything that he feels like to your face. What's even scarier then Barry in this film are the people who call into the radio station, where it's there that lies the enemy and it seems Barry becomes our hero(or you may actually think otherwise). But there are just some buttons that you shouldn't push, something that Barry seems to have trouble keeping under control, for he's pushing every single person's button. Many people hate Barry Champlain, but of course it's the people that hate him the most who call in and help keep Talk Radio the number one talk show in Dallas. The whole movie mainly just consists of long conversations between Barry and his callers, but don't let that fool you...these conversations are very intense and powerful. Half the people who call in are either psychotic, depressed or troubled and some are even so angry at Barry that they go as far as making scary death threats. You have to see this movie and just listen to what all these people have to say. It's a series of sick conversations, ranging from pathetic, scary, to outright hilarious(yes, many parts here are very funny), and it just seems to remind us again how messed up this world really is. Great acting, outstanding dialogue, and emotionally powerful storytelling. One of Oliver Stone's best films. Highly Recommended! <a href="http://s294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/?action=view¤t=TalkR.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i294.photobucket.com/albums/mm89/JDHallowEEn/TalkR.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket"></a>

• Lafe F

  
  A talk show host dishes out hatred and gets some back. It's somewhat interesting.

• A.D. V

  
  Quite possibly Oliver Stone's best film ever. Eric Bogosian shines bright in this movie where talk doesn't come cheap.

• Alec B

  
  One of Oliver Stone's best films, and its also his least talked about. Eric Bogosian's original play is one of the best commentaries on American mass culture in the 80s and this is a great adaptation of it. Oliver Stone was right to insist that Bogosian himself play the… More
  One of Oliver Stone's best films, and its also his least talked about. Eric Bogosian's original play is one of the best commentaries on American mass culture in the 80s and this is a great adaptation of it. Oliver Stone was right to insist that Bogosian himself play the role, because I don't think any other actor could have captured the manic intensity of the character like he does.

• Stephen E

  
  Eric Bogosian was robbed of an Oscar nomination. This is his film, and he delivers line after line of hate-filled dialogue with an unparalleled amount of force. "Talk Radio" is an absorbing film, mainly due to Bogosian's tour-de-force performance and his cynical, but… More
  Eric Bogosian was robbed of an Oscar nomination. This is his film, and he delivers line after line of hate-filled dialogue with an unparalleled amount of force. "Talk Radio" is an absorbing film, mainly due to Bogosian's tour-de-force performance and his cynical, but truthful, screenplay, and it never fails to be interesting. Normally, films adapted from plays are tedious and boring to watch, but Oliver Stone directs with such momentum that it's hard not to get involved. Those 110 minutes flew by quicker than any film I've seen in recent memory.

• Brian R

  
  "Talk Radio" is a chillingly creepy film about a talk show radio host who badmouths his listeners on the air. It is also a study into the life of the radio host Barry Champlain played brilliantly by Eric Bogasian. Champlain use to be a suit and tie salesman, and was asked… More
  "Talk Radio" is a chillingly creepy film about a talk show radio host who badmouths his listeners on the air. It is also a study into the life of the radio host Barry Champlain played brilliantly by Eric Bogasian. Champlain use to be a suit and tie salesman, and was asked (by one of his famous customer) to come do a radio show. The next thing you know Champlain takes over and tells his listeners how he feels. Champlain gets the job, goes independent as a radio host then one of the top execs wants Champlain show to go public. This is a good move for Champlain but things start to take course due to his erractic personality. The film also involves his former wife, his days as a bachelor, the co-worker he is sleeping with, and overcourse the feeling of being watched and heard from his controversial listeners. I enjoyed this film because it takes on the subject using macho satire, it's not a long film and rushes by fast, Stone and his cinematographer Robert Richardson uses lovely colors and light to give it a style, and the production designer, the late Bruno Rebeo with the studio moving 360 degrees while Barry Champlain's mind goes into an abyss.

• Sarah P

  
  I liked how it was centered mainly at just the radio station, in his studio. It was more interesting to hear the type of people that called because they really do exist!

• Barry L

  
  Superb film, really well played.

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