Aaron Sorkin's new program The Newsroom has been getting mixed reviews, yet the opening monologue from the program continues to be discussed among those in the news media. While Will McAvoy's rant is great, it's hardly the first rant that Sorkin has written. Here are a few other rants.
"America Isn't the Greatest Country in the World"
Sorkin's latest rant is gaining a lot of attention from bloggers and members of the media, and seems to have actually sparked a debate in some circles if the central thesis of the speech (America is no longer the greatest country in the world) is true. While The Newsroom has gotten decidedly mixed reviews, there's no denying that the opening monologue, delivered by Jeff Daniels, is fantastic television.
"Do I Have a God Complex?"
In this clip, from Sorkin's second feature film, Malice, which shows his love of courtroom drama (something revisited in The Social Network), Alec Baldwin is asked if he has a "God complex". Baldwin lists his credentials in typical Sorkin fashion, then comes to the only possible conclusion: He is God.
Source: youtube.com
"When the President Stands, No One Sits"
Sure, for the most part this is a reworked internet chain e-mail that someone forwarded to Aaron Sorkin. That said, Sorkin puts some nice touches (for example, she is eating crabcakes--a shellfish), and the ending line which completes a very nice scene from The West Wing and a blistering critique of anti-gay activists in the United States.
"I'd Like to Take a Moment to Review the Several Ways in Which You Are a Douchebag"
In Charlie Wilson's War Philip Seymour Hoffman plays CIA Agent Gust Avrakotos. Sorkin recycles the "hardly ever sick at sea" line from Malice, but to great effect as Hoffman rails against the politics that dominated the CIA and cost him a position he had been training for.
