Let's take a moment to calmly examine how our lives or those of our loved ones might be improved by participating in the current fad of mud slinging and hate-mongering. They can't. Only the lifestyle of the purveyors of hatred will be improved.

Elia Kazan's 1957 movie, with superb performances by Andy Griffith (sans Opie) and Patricia Neal at her finest, put on display the insidious nature of political posturing. Scale this to today's huge media machine, including the mindless retweets on Twitter and you may see why there's so much fear in the air.

More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. It exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry.

A Face in the Crowd will scare you, should scare you to death. It's history talking to you, saying "you never learn, do you?" Do yourself a favor and see this movie.