Network
In the 70s things began to break. There was a general sense the world was coming to an end. President Ford was in a fight with New York (which was going bankrupt) and oil prices and crime were both rocketing higher. People hadn't been this pessimistic about the global state of affairs since the 30s and they wouldn't be again until perhaps the 20s (21st vintage).
This is why this strikes true today; why every line clicks and rhymes with our own maladies. What happens when someone decides to try to speak the truth to the masses? To reveal the hypocrites and the liars ?
Well perhaps its exciting at first and provides an outlet, maybe something amazing happens like folks yelling out their windows. But, invariably, it yields to commercial forces and has its blunts sanded off—or—it starts to get depressing and people tune away. People can't handle that much medicine, and a doctor can't solve the human condition.
Like the man said in the film, we are living in the world of the dollar and the ruble and the Shekel. This film asks the question: What would happen to Jesus if he proselytised in the current age ? Would a Prophet like Mohammed and Martin Luther be able to get anywhere ? Would television waves and editorial pages carry the prophets further or would they be dwarfed by our world? 1975 is right on the nose in terms of religion founding compatibility in a year.
Perhaps our world is no longer compatible for a new religious reformation. Business is antithetical to belief. And the world is one big business. So Jesus gets a tv show and either his ratings go down and hes a bit of a bore or he doesn't mind getting a cut off the top in exchange for toning it down for the good folks at Johnson & Johnson. Its either irrelevance or commercialism. Everybody's too distracted to download all new software.