Network
Itās very rare when a film (and its screenwriter) takes on the role of a virtual prophet, successfully predicting the future of mass media (and the world itself) in such a stunningly accurate way that one wonders if a time machine was made accessible to that writer so that he could write the story with such eerily precise sensibilities. Released in 1975 at a time when there were no 24 hour news networks or Internet, just three major networks each with their own half hour nightly newscasts plus the plethora of newspapers across the country, the film depicted such events as a fourth major network that utilized āunconventionalā programming to be able to compete (as Fox did when they launched with the groundbreaking sitcom Married With Children), with the same network allowing foul language on their programming and risking affiliates pulling out on them only to return when the show became a smash hit (as ABC did with NYPD Blue) to predicting the rise of the reality show by having them do one about a radical terrorist group (a shocking idea even today while reality TV has saturated the market) to most famously making TV newscasts into a three ring circus and freakshow led by a āmad prophet of the airwavesā spouting his demented yet truthful opinions about the state of the world as we know it (which can be reflected in everyone from Bill OāReilly and Sean Hannity to Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz to most obviously Glenn Beck who really was yanked off the air for taking it too far). In the movie itself, we have the unforgettable Howard Beale, a depressed yet benign fellow who has been the UBS nightly news anchor for 11 years until he is fired for low ratings, whereupon he snaps and first announces live during his show that he is going to kill himself on air (which the control room barely notices) and then a few sleepless nights later, declares to the world exactly what is wrong with it in a speech that remains incredibly relevant today, and legendarily tells everyone to open their windows, stick their heads out and say āIām as mad as hell and Iām not gonna take it anymore!ā (albeit without offering any realistic solutions to our problems). Despite his obvious growing insanity, the network execs smell money and ratings with his rantings, and pull the necessary strings to keep him on the air while Beale himself goes from being a stodgy, respectable, old newsman to almost that of a crazed, spoiled, petulant, yet innocent and childlike superstar. As played by Peter Finch, a guy who had spent his entire career up to that point as a B-level leading man, the performance is absolutely extraordinary, giving one the impression that the actor had put just about everything he had into the role and then some. Considering that Finch was suffering from a weakened heart during filming, and later died from a heart attack prior to being posthumously nominated for and winning the Oscar for Best Actor, it can be said to be one of the most dedicatingly intense performances in the history of cinema, with not a hint of a stutter or false note anywhere to be seen while keeping the character completely insane and frightingly REAL. But as much as one can talk about Finch, it canāt be overlooked that the film is overall a cornucopia of incredible acting which garnered an unheard of total of 5 acting Oscar noms and 3 wins all supplemented with the amazing script by the true prophet himself, Paddy Cheyefsky. William Holden in the āviewerās perspectiveā lead role of the veteran news producer and Bealeās best friend who finds himself shuttled out the door when he tries to stop the madness and protect Beale from being exploited, shows us a decent man horrified by the events he sees, which turns into a bitter cynicism that leads into an obsessive affair with the callow younger woman who has taken his job played by Best Actress Winner Faye Dunaway, making her role into a brilliant creation in its own right, sexy yet somewhat pathetic at the same time, as rabidly determined to bring in the ratings as she is climbing the corporate ladder, yet still determined to continue her affair with Holden in spite of (or maybe because of) the fact that he basically has her number, successfully labeling her as a vacuous, barren child of the television age, unable to feel human emotions or suffering because of her basic lack of (or denial of) a soul, with their breakup towards the end being arguably the best written and acted scene of the movie. Then thereās Robert Duvall, who got no awards here, but is absolutely ferocious as the corporate headhunter put in charge of the network, singleminded in his own determination to please and satisfy the overlords who put him into power. Which leads us to Ned Beatty as the said CEO of that corporation which runs the network, only coming into play late in the film when Beale oversteps his bounds on air (as many say Beck did) and deciding to have a friendly little chat with him. Anyone that obviously knows Beatty from his goofy fat guy character roles (like Otis in Superman) might find themselves a little blown away here, as he delivers an absolutely thunderous sermon to his one man audience of Beale and expounds on the virtues of the corporate mentality and all the different companies that run the world along with the idea that all men will be completely docile and comfortable once they let the billionaires control things and take care of them in the best Illuminati fashion, a 5 minute piece of work that garnered Beatty a Supporting Actor nom. Then thereās Beatrice Straight who managed to WIN Supporting Actress for her emotional 5 minute scene as Holdenās estranged wife, and quite a few other character actors that contribute along the way. The sparkingly intelligent dialogue gives way to the cynical reality that those who tell the truth through mass media will sooner or later be co-opted by those who are more powerful than they are, with the actual truth itself always being left in doubt. All of this is masterfully corralled by director Sidney Lumet and presented in such a way that you canāt just absorb everything in one viewing, but watching it lets you know forever that our current media obsessed world was always meant to evolve into something much worse, and the best thing we all can do is just to hang on and try to laugh it offā¦
10/10