Network

Network (1976)

Runtime: 122 minutes

Directed by: Sidney Lumet

Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty

From: Both MGM and UA, before they merged a few years later

This must have seemed absurd in 1976... in 2020, the satire is more terrifying than anything else.

I was not mad as hell last night but I felt this was the right time for me to view then review a motion picture that is far more than just a quote that entered the pop culture lexicon. In other reviews I've carped about the state of television in general and how I feel it's garbage... way too many commercials, lowest common denominator programming, reality TV as a whole, etc. News on television is particularly bad... to me all of the cable news networks are entertainment more than actual serious reporting and coverage. It's not just the much-reviled Fox News that is worthy of condemnation, I say. The fact that so many view these channels as their main source of discovering what's going on in the world-it is one of the many prescient points brought up in this movie due to Paddy Chayefsky's outstanding script.

No surprise to me that the script was one of Network's four Oscar wins. Not only did it make the scenario believable of how a respected news anchor would become a giant hit after he suffers a mental breakdown and goes on epic soliloquies-him not getting help because of the high ratings is easy to understand, but circumstances and unscrupulous individuals resulted in the scenario-it allows the characters to be three dimensional, sometimes via extended scenes where it is two of them just talking to each other... it reveals their beliefs, values, prejudices, etc. There is razor-sharp dialogue throughout that kept me captivated; the narrator that randomly appears a few times is a device that worked here. All that plus the direction and editing that was on point made me believe that a television network which was a distant 4th at the time (back when there were only a few channels on TV) would flush all principles down the toilet for the sole purpose of rating points.

But naturally it was the current state of TV which helped me accept such a scenario by today's standards. Besides the news as entertainment, this also predicted: 

* Over the top personalities getting attention in the media even if they are not mentally well. If it wasn't an act or because of drugs, look at what happened w/ Charlie Sheen in the brief yet unforgettable “Tiger Blood” era.

* How homogenized television is, along with the chasing of trends... if one trope becomes popular on a show, there are many subsequent efforts or proposed programs that simply copy it irregardless of everything else.

* Saudi Arabia's impact on the Western world.

* People wanting to see atrocities on the boob tube.

* How obsessed the public is with the medium.

* There is more but I don't want to give everything away.

It is an excellent movie which has great talent on screen (Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway, and Beatrice Straight all won Oscars; for the latter it was a hell of a feat as it was basically for one scene... which was incredible; that is not to discount the other main players, such as William Holden, Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty, etc.) and is especially relevant in the Trump era; before controversy occurs, I am referring to how like in the 70's era when Chayefsky concocted the story, it is an angry and hostile time in America. Too many of Network's plot points are not beyond the realm of possibility in real life. This is one of many “serious 70's” cinema examples and may be one of the best.