Network
**** (out of four)
As I watched Network, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's stunning satire of news journalism, I drew parallels to the beginnings of my career; I'm currently trying to work my way into journalism and news reporting, trying to live out my dream of being a reporter or an editor. I've written what seems like thousands of cover letters to anyone with a publication, begging editors to take a chance on me. I write these letters as though I were on my hands and knees; because sometimes it's just that hard to break into the field. You'd try anything, even begging. Network starts out with idealistic people like me in mind, but then let's us know that there is absolutely no room for realism where money and ratings are involved and leaves us behind in the first fifteen minutes. After all, most, if not all, news outlets are run by corporations who are bound to fulfill life's beautiful chain: you have to make people watch or read your product, advertisers will pay money to reach those people, and money is God. This isn't a new concept, of course, but it's delivery in Network is so cynical and angry that it seems new and leaves you with a sense of doom.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not gong to take it anymore!" I've been saying that line for years, but until I first watched Network, I didn't realize it's significance. I had no idea what "it" was. The story is about, more or less, Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch), who had been the nightly newscaster for the fictional UBS news for the past eleven years, until he was fired for low ratings. He had nothing else except his news job; no kids, no wife, so his whole life revolves around being a journalist. You can imagine what this must do to a person. When Beale is told that he has been fired, he goes on air to announce his suicide. He's calmed down and given one more chance, but this time he goes on air to say that life "is bullshit, always has been bullshit, always will be bullshit." That doesn't get him fired: the network realizes that his on air tirades are ratings gold, and it gets him his job back. Beale is later "taken over" by the truth, and his show isn't about news, but becomes his own pulpit to tell a studio audience and anyone else who will tune in what's wrong with our world (and the answer was almost always the network he worked for.) The show is a number in the ratings.
Network's critique of news ends about halfway through the film and moves on to television and people who grew up knowing nothing else besides the glowing box (people like me). Faye Dunaway, who is perfect in this movie, plays the vice president in charge of programming. When she realizes that Beale is a ratings bonanza, she demands to be put in charge of the news. What does she know of journalism? Nothing, but she knows everything about getting people to tune in; so she creates and supports Beale's news circus. Her character is a television; it is superficial and cannot feel emotion. In a way she is nothing more than a machine from a show like Lost in Space.
William Holden plays one of the only characters sane characters in the story. He had been in charge of the news department, but watched as Dunaway turn into a circus. Still, he leaves and betrays his wife to start an affair with Dunaway, because he's attached to the television too. "I can't get you out of my mind." Holden realizes that she's nothing more than a television, but still tells her, "All I want is you for you to love me."
"I don't know how," she replies.
"I'm mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore" has been accepted as one of most favored maxims. All of us, at several times during our lives, are mad as hell, and many of us shout those exact same words. We scream that we won't take it anymore, but really, what do we do about it? Network is the kind of movie that critiques what is wrong, but then asks us what we're going to do about it, knowing full well that the only answer is nothing. We just take pleasure in shouting from the windows that we're mad as hell. It's the release that we enjoy. Network is the blackest type of satire; like Dr. Strangelove, it creates a reality that is extremely plausible and convinces us that it could happen, but at the same time tries to maintain a level morbid insanity and humor. The events in Network could happen (and some would argue that Fox Television has already created that reality) but we laugh it off because we know there's nothing we're going to do about it.
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