On N List of Movie Reviews
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Network (1976)
Rate:
10
Viewed:
3/04, 12/08, 7/15
12/08:
Network is a brilliant satire about the world of television.
The quality of acting is at its zenith as William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, and Ned Beatty
give powerful performances. Even more so is the masterful script penned by Paddy Chayefsky that sounds TV-speak. It's
an ironical play on morality that's prescient about the coming of the news media for the 21st century.
All in all, Network is a first-rate masterpiece.
7/15:
Network is the one that Peter Finch, as Howard Beale, famously yelled, "I am as mad as hell, and I am not going to
take this anymore!"
It may have been an extreme film in 1976, but it's prescient about the decline of quality in television programming which
has been ongoing since the late 90's. It's not about selling what the producers think it's right but what the audience want
to see, no matter how crude the product is. The result is trash that exists on TV as long as the ratings are good enough to
bring in the sponsors along with their fat wallets. Even news channels are affected (look no further than CNN and Fox News).
Hence, with the exception of TCM, it's impossible to find anything good on TV nowadays.
The thing with such hits that were done for the purpose of shock value is that the novelty wears off quickly. That's why it's
hard to keep a hit show going for more than one or two seasons unless it keeps reinventing itself on a weekly basis. If
the formula is the same for every episode, it'll get tiresome. To name a few that fell into this trap are
The Jerry Springer Show, The Morton Downey Jr. Show, and Maury.
In Network, the performances are brilliantly rendered. It's Faye Dunaway who gives the best as the plastic TV junkie
producer, and she owns the role. Hence, when I saw Broadcast News, I was like, "Huh?"
in regard to Holly Hunter's character. I know a lot of people are taken by Peter Finch's final cinematic performance, but
honestly, William Holden tops him by a great deal. He's just perfect. The way his character delivered the TV talk to Diana
Christensen to stay on the same page with her language-wise is an icing on the cake of who she is.
Ned Beatty deserved to be Oscar-nominated as Mr. Jensen, and he has a great scene when his character tried to talk sense to
Beale and thus succeeded at it. Robert Duvall is memorable. Oddly, Beatrice Straight won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress
for her five minutes of screen time. But you might ask, "Who is she? I don't remember her in it." She played Max
Schumacher's wife. Gee whiz...that's going too far because she only had one scene, having no discernible influence in
the grand scheme of things.
All in all, thanks to the great performances and quality writing, Network is about how far the TV people will go to sell
their souls to generate high ratings.