Network Directed by Sidney Lumet Starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall USA, 1976 Rated R (occasional strong language, violence, brief sex)
A- The television industry is a vicious world of circling sharks, a world of death, violence, sex, manipulation, cynicism, and spite. Paddy Chayefsky's dark exposé of this industry, Network, is savage, hilarious, and strangely powerful. From it has come the famous cry, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore," screamed live on air by Peter Finch's final character, the depressed and degraded ex-anchor-gone-mad Howard Beale. Chayefsky and one of the great American directors, Sidney Lumet, show us a plethora of venomous and interesting characters in a film that dares to explore not only the corruption of electronic journalism, TV execs, and machinery, but also the corruption of a generation polluted by the god-like, morbid minds on screen.
Howard Beale (Finch) has just been fired from his anchoring job on the struggling network UBS. On the air, he refuses to go out without a bang. He announces he will commit suicide on television, for all to see, and jokes about how this outburst will surely buoy the current, low ratings of the news show. Of course, the public and press react. Everyone is either outraged or enlightened. This may have been the first time an anchor has shown his true, humanistic colors on the tube. The public is interested.
On the next night, executives agree to keep Howard Beale on the show for one day. They expect him to apologize for his emotional eruption. He doesn't, though. On UBS news that night, Beale decides to segue into a tell-all, pessimistic tale of corruption and hypocrisy in our society. He also uses the "Bs" word. UBS News has sky-rocketed up the Nielsen Ratings and, though it is clear to his friends (William Holden) that he has lost his mind, the station keeps him as an anchor to better their ratings. The audience seems to be responding to Beale's seemingly biblical proclamations because they seem so true. Everyone has become tired of happiness and people are willing to listen to the empowering mockery of American culture Howard Beale and UBS News are providing.
One night, Beale, wet from the outside rain and in his raincoat and pajamas, begins ranting his apocalyptic and trademark angst shout on TV, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore!" He urges his viewers to get up from their chairs and go to the window. He tells them it is no use to change things when you're not as "mad as hell." "You have to get really angry first," he advises. That night, the whole nation screamed from their windows the furious cry of Howard Beale.
Faye Dunaway is Diana Christensen, the sexy and driven programmer of the new Howard Beale show, a wrath-ridden, daily showcase of Beale's newfound philosophies. Max Schumacher (Holden), the original news programmer, is fired because of his concern for his insane friend. Diana and Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall), the power-hungry executive, milk Beale of all he can offer and use him like a dog. Beale has commanded an entire culture to tune in every night and watch him screaming about "truthful" issues. He has reached the heights of an American guru or idol. He may even have replaced the role of God in America. He speaks of the illusion of power and the illusion of television. He is a good man who has exploded; he is sick and tired of blood-thirsty hounds.
There is a very moving subplot in Network, one of infidelity that involves Max, the middle-aged, helpless producer, and Diana, the ruthless young programmer, in an affair. We also see Beatrice Straight in a very brief but brilliant performance as Max's wife. We learn that, beneath Diana's assured exterior, she is completely empty of human emotion and is numbed to reality. Max, who is going through a mid-life crisis, gives a moving speech on his fear of death and how he used Diana to rid this fear and, in turn, was used by her. As a college student, Diana had a great crush on Max when he gave a lecture at her university, but now that her past infatuation has become a delusive relationship, we realize that her exposure to the television culture has steered her life in a superficial direction. However, as Lumet pointed out in his great book Making Movies, it is not the TV, a mere machine, that has corrupted an entire generation and will corrupt many generations to come, but the horrible minds on the screen that conquered the goodness of the people. Diana is a woman who was raised on these corrupted minds and Max, realizing this, flees the affair.
Network, with the guidance of Lumet and cinematographer Owen Roizman, plunges us into an artificial world in which everything is based on the dollar bill and the manipulation of a confused mass audience. Not only are the executives, programmers, and presidents of these stations at fault for contaminating our souls, but we are as much at fault too, if only because we have allowed ourselves to be persuaded by money-making ideas that may seem novel at the time but, as Beale would say, are what we could have find within ourselves. No, Network is not a film of immense, sappy coating. It is brutally funny and relentlessly moving. It gets its point across very well through its pungent darkness and Chayefsky's amazing script.
The cast is heaven-sent. Faye Dunaway is calculative and scheming and she gives one of her best performances ever as Diana. William Holden is extremely impressive and affective as Max, giving probably the most moving performance in the film. Peter Finch won the Best Actor Oscar posthumously for playing Howard Beale with the passion and anguish that he did. Beatrice Straight and Ned Beatty stand out in very small roles with superbly written monologues.
Network, directed by the great man who brought us such masterpieces as 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon, is outrageous and campy. The issues of television corruption may be exaggerated (or may not be) but they are not difficult to believe. (*Spoiler*) When Howard Beale is killed at the end for his show having network-threatening ratings, it is not beyond belief. A world of extortion and villainy is always capable of stooping that low. What Network may eventually make clear is that people are able to go to such horrific, violent extremes for the simple reason of money, but only when they have been hardened and made plastic by the sinister coercion of illusions.
By Andrew Chan
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