Network (1976)
The Cast
Faye Dunaway ... Diana Christensen
William Holden ... Max Schumacher
Peter Finch ... Howard Beale
Robert Duvall ... Frank Hackett
Wesley Addy ... Nelson Chaney
Ned Beatty ... Arthur Jensen
Arthur Burghardt ... Great Ahmed Kahn
Conchata Ferrell ... Barbara Schlesinger
William Prince ... Edward George Ruddy
Lane Smith ... Robert McDonough
Beatrice Straight ... Louise Schumacher
Marlene Warfield ... Laureen Hobbs
Lee Richardson ... Narrator
In a day and age where many of us have borne witness to thousands of lives being snuffed out in an instant, Network doesn't really register as anything shocking at all. That simple fact right there may be the most shocking thing of all, that many of the events perceived to be akin to satire 30 years ago are now viewed as just everyday television to us. We're a generation that watched Budd Dwyer kill himself at a news conference, that saw thousands of people die on 9/11 replayed over and over again on CNN. When there was camera phone footage of Saddam Hussein being hung to death released on the Internet, how many of us perversely sat there and watched a man die and didn't feel much of anything other than annoyance at the shaky idiot holding the camera phone?
Network was one of the first movies to ever perfectly capture the future of television, in both spirit and content. Some movies strictly focus on the content area, with futuristic game shows where the loser dies or what not. Yes, that does represent the moral decay of society but it's all style and no substance. Network took the growing anti-authority spirit prevalent in the 1970s and blew it up to a huge level, a level where it was dominating the ratings simply because it was some crazy guy saying what everyone else was thinking. It was pretty much the exact opposite of touchy-feely television, and not even in a politically incorrect manner. Network took those bleak futuristic ideas and shoved them right back in everyone's faces, with the movie taking place in the present day... err, present day 1976 that is.
Howard Beale (Finch) has been a trusted television journalist for over 20 years, and when the network gets tired of the slumping ratings of the news-related programming, Beale is given his two weeks notice. He shocks everyone at the network and all across America by going on his newscast and announcing to the viewers that he would commit suicide, live on air, the following week. This sets into motion the entire film, leading the network to give Beale his own show to take advantage of the huge ratings his rants and ravings bring in. The head of programming at the network, Diana Christensen (Dunaway), overhauls the entire schedule, pushing shows that are edgy and appeal to Angry Americans.
The twists and turns the movie takes are quite amazing, with Beale starting off as a liability, becoming a heavily-valued asset, and finally becoming a hindrance once more. The acting throughout is simply fantastic, leading up to three acting Oscars being awarded to the film, with Beatrice Straight taking home a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for the shortest nominated performance ever to win (five minutes forty seconds). Dunaway completely deserved the Best Actress Oscar she was awarded, as her performance was multi-layered and so very engaging. Finch was awarded his Oscar post-humously, and for that reason alone is why I believe William Holden did not win the Best Actor Oscar that year. You could also argue that Sidney Lumet was far more deserving of the Best Director Oscar than John G. Avildsen was for directing Rocky. Ditto for the Best Picture Oscar. In hindsight, Network should have swept the Oscars that year in all the categories it was nominated.
Simply put, Network is an eye-opening film for those movie lovers that casually turn a blind eye to films that were made before they were born. It's as culturally relevant - if not moreso - today as it was when it was first released. I believe Network was intended to be a cautionary tale, not a How To film about pushing the boundaries of broadcasting and taste. Sadly, the truth is self-evident: blood, sex, tragedy, these subjects all bring in huge ratings and there's no going back now. All we can search for is alternative news sources until those are eventually broken down by the world that we've created and then we're left with nothing but the hell that we've brought upon ourselves. THE END IS NIGH, REPENT! Sorry... got a little carried away there.
5 / 5