NetworkIt's almost impossible to look back on a film like Network, with the nature of television and media today, and think of just how mind-blowing and outrageous its interpretation of the trends of sensational news and programming was--until it arrived for real. Like the "mad prophet of the airwaves" himself--Howard Beale (Peter Finch)--Network is often remembered for being frighteningly prescient in its acute awareness of the power of television as a devastatingly powerful medium for communication, for advertising...for propaganda: the opiate of the masses.
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Stop me if you've heard this one--Network is the story of a floundering network, struggling to compete against "the big three"--NBC, CBS, and ABC--through conventional means. As if by fate--faltering profits and lack of innovation being the true motivating force--respected news anchor Howard Beale is let go. And as a kind of spiteful response jokingly proposed by his boss and best friend, Max Schumacher (William Holden), he goes on the air and threatens to kill himself. Ostensibly appalled by his unprofessional behavior--though actually due to the likelihood in loss of revenue--corporate management shill Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) fires Beale immediately. But when Max lets Beale go one for one last performance only to enact another "angry man" routine, he catches the attention of up-and-coming programming savant and network cheerleader, Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway), who considers this "channeling of the popular rage" by Beale to be the beginning of UBS's transformation from bottom-rung network to number one. So, again, stop me if you've heard this one, this is a story of up-and-coming networks employing tactics of questionable ethical turpitude to bleed out a couple more ratings points, edging out a bit more profit at the expense of professional decorum. You won't have to search long for an example of a "sign of the times"--you need only to turn on your television set for programs like "The Daily Show", "The O'Reilly Factor", and more. News as advertising--all boredom amused...all anxieties tranquilized. As Diana builds her programs upon the skulls and bones of responsible broadcasting, she programs a series of other shows focused on "counterculture", including exploiting terrorism in the form of a prime-time serial program. The terrible irony of her sociopathic command of public demand chills not because it is simply callous, but because it is a stark reflection of our news today, especially in a post-9/11 America, where the neverending "war on terror" has been the biggest, fattest, sloppiest windfall to ever land plumply in the laps of a culture too terrified to turn off the news, for fear that they would miss the latest catastrophe, escape for a moment the newest school shooting or marathon bombing, or what celebrity "accidentally" shot his/her lover and is on trial after a momentous car chase. Entertainment--that is the game; catharsis, absurdity...tune in next week for school closings, arsenic in the rice you eat, Obama's golf score.
Maybe it would be enough to look back nostalgically on Network and think about it as just a telling film, one which envisioned a total lack of ethics from television--an era of Jerry Springers and Howard Sterns, of pornography and exploitation--but that would dismiss Network's own merits as a film in and of itself. Regardless of its Nostradamus-like qualities, Network is a monumental film about the transition of television as more than a simple conveyance of news and minor distracting entertainment. Produced in 1976, well into a personal favorite era of film history dubbed "New Hollywood", Network could be regarded as actually channeling a kind of popular rage...only the rage was less of the "American people" (whoever they are), as it was of the filmmakers themselves, struggling to compete in an era of Archie Bunkers and Mary Tyler Moores, popular programming keeping butts on the couch and not in theaters. In fact, one of the most consistent trends of New Hollywood was similar to that of Diana's approach to entertainment: if you can't compete on the same battlefield with the same means, try something new. It's a basic strategy in any conflict to disadvantage your opponent by refusing him the right to choose the battlefield; so, too, did daring filmmakers, trying exciting, bold filmmaking...which also happened to paint television in a negative light, to say the least. And Network is overflowing with powerful scene after scene, no dull moments, alternating with deft skill between absurd comedy, intense emotional drama, and both stirring and impassioned, life-affirming and soul-crushing speeches. Network represents a watershed moment for visual entertainment, the defining instant when we could look back and realize that no matter how far we think someone would go off the deep-end for a sliver more profit, it is never enough. Network proselytizes a message as bold and striking as that of Howard Beale, that there will always be a ravenous audience craving a new kind of entertainment, and they're willing to let their emotions be manipulated--be it anxious fear of riots in Ferguson, the dangers of fracking on the ecosystem, or what states allow gay marriage--by the news, by television, by blogs, by newspapers, by podcasts...the list goes on, for our hunger for it is insatiable. So, in the famous words of Howard Beale, let me close with some cautionary advise that still rings true: "Turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion!"
Recommended for: Fans of a sharp and biting social commentary, masterfully filled with drama, comedy, action, and more. I personally consider Network to possess the single greatest screenplay in film history, penned by the illustrious Paddy Chayefsky--every word, every phrase, every scene is pure gold.
Maybe it would be enough to look back nostalgically on Network and think about it as just a telling film, one which envisioned a total lack of ethics from television--an era of Jerry Springers and Howard Sterns, of pornography and exploitation--but that would dismiss Network's own merits as a film in and of itself. Regardless of its Nostradamus-like qualities, Network is a monumental film about the transition of television as more than a simple conveyance of news and minor distracting entertainment. Produced in 1976, well into a personal favorite era of film history dubbed "New Hollywood", Network could be regarded as actually channeling a kind of popular rage...only the rage was less of the "American people" (whoever they are), as it was of the filmmakers themselves, struggling to compete in an era of Archie Bunkers and Mary Tyler Moores, popular programming keeping butts on the couch and not in theaters. In fact, one of the most consistent trends of New Hollywood was similar to that of Diana's approach to entertainment: if you can't compete on the same battlefield with the same means, try something new. It's a basic strategy in any conflict to disadvantage your opponent by refusing him the right to choose the battlefield; so, too, did daring filmmakers, trying exciting, bold filmmaking...which also happened to paint television in a negative light, to say the least. And Network is overflowing with powerful scene after scene, no dull moments, alternating with deft skill between absurd comedy, intense emotional drama, and both stirring and impassioned, life-affirming and soul-crushing speeches. Network represents a watershed moment for visual entertainment, the defining instant when we could look back and realize that no matter how far we think someone would go off the deep-end for a sliver more profit, it is never enough. Network proselytizes a message as bold and striking as that of Howard Beale, that there will always be a ravenous audience craving a new kind of entertainment, and they're willing to let their emotions be manipulated--be it anxious fear of riots in Ferguson, the dangers of fracking on the ecosystem, or what states allow gay marriage--by the news, by television, by blogs, by newspapers, by podcasts...the list goes on, for our hunger for it is insatiable. So, in the famous words of Howard Beale, let me close with some cautionary advise that still rings true: "Turn off your television sets. Turn them off now. Turn them off right now. Turn them off and leave them off! In God's name, you people are the real thing! We are the illusion!"
Recommended for: Fans of a sharp and biting social commentary, masterfully filled with drama, comedy, action, and more. I personally consider Network to possess the single greatest screenplay in film history, penned by the illustrious Paddy Chayefsky--every word, every phrase, every scene is pure gold.