Network (1976) Review

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1cSGvqQHpjs

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.

When no one gives a shit, do whatever the fuck you want. Once they do, always control your narrative.


PLOT


Narrated by Lee Richardson, 1976’s Network follows widowed UBS Evening News anchor Howard Beale discovers from longtime friend, news division president Max Schumacher that he will be let go in two weeks due to poor ratings. When having a night out together after this discovery, the former declares taking his life and the latter drunkenly claims it’ll give a ratings boost if he does so on live television. He takes it to heart and announces his intentions to kill himself in a week’s time. UBS wants to fire him for it, but Max intervenes and wants to make sure he has a farewell. Instead, Howard takes advantage to rant on life being bullshit when on air again. This outburst does give a ratings spike and the studio then decides to exploit the situation. Programming chief Diane Christensen would then reach out to Max for developing a whole show centered on Howard and while he turns down that idea, this pitch does lead to them having an affair. She then persuades her superior Frank Hackett to slot Evening News into the entertainment division so she can develop ‘The Howard Beale Show’ and as a result, he bullies executives to consent & fires Max. In one broadcast, Howard gives an all the more epic rant where he encourages viewers to shout together “I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take this anymore!”. This would be the tagline to his show once it gets greenlit. Diane would then further build success when creating a docudrama series, ‘The Mao Tse-Tung Hour’, in which a terrorist group, the Ecumenical Liberation Army, will provide exclusive footage of their activities. Max would leave his wife Louise for Diane, but things wouldn’t last when the latter becomes too fanatically devoted to her job. Things would then take a turn when Howard exposes UBS’ parent company CCA intending to be bought out by a Saudi conglomerate. Knowing this, he urges the audience to pressure the White House in squashing the deal. This is a big worry because the merger will help the studio’s survival. CCA chairman Arthur Jensen takes it upon himself to meet Howard personally and persuade him to change his show’s message to his interest. This change would cause ratings to stoop again and because Jensen likes the show for becoming to his liking, the film would end with Diane & Hackett agreeing to hire the ELA to assassinate Howard on his own show, which in turn kicks off The Mao Tse Tung Hour.


THOUGHTS


When I started getting into 70s classics, this was one of the best choices to watch in high school because it’s the kind that gets relatable the older it gets. Considering how much of a trailblazer Francis Ford Coppola was in the 70s, it would be easy to assume he was not the only making masterpieces but you would be one when making the time for this one. From start to finish, I felt floored & magnetized all at once because Director Sidney Lumet and writer Paddy Chayefsky do not sugarcoat in getting the message across on the ongoing problem of how easy it is exploit inner rage and life can be devalued when we allows news be treated as objective. If everything we know of reality is manufactured into fiction, then there is no progress in how we accept truth. At this point, the only narrative you can control in narrative and if you can’t, then maybe nothing about our existence is real at this point. I choose to minimize watching the news because I don’t want to be wasting most of my time being either misinformed/uninformed. It is a lose lose situation in that case and if you spend a fair amount of time emphasizing the importance of the truth, then you’re still a part of reality as you know it. Through Owen Roizman’s cinematography, we follow an ensemble that choose upon themselves to decide what part of society they want to be part of for the remainder of their lives. Both Peter Finch & William Holden portray Howard & Max as the only ones who want to remain in reality and as a result of this decision, they choose to be defiant at the end of the line. The former takes our breath away the most because he’s someone who becomes unstable after realizing he has nothing left to lose. At that point, he just wants to be heard on what troubles him, hence ranting on life’s meaningless in order to bring back meaning for him and everyone else who may feel the same, fainting every other time he goes for it. His nihilistic approach to be an unintentional prophet does of course cost him his life because it ended up upsetting the wrong people who would rather silence him than risk losing a profit. If you ask me, Howard got what he wanted by dying while being heard one more time. The latter that is Holden still holds stands out in making Max a loyal friend because he was seeing firsthand he was being taken advantage of and is far more ethical on wanting to take care of him before losing his job. When that happened, he had no advantage in saving him. At the same time, he took his own gamble in having an affair with someone who was his complete opposite in an effort to reclaim his youth. Faye Dunaway, who earns her only lead acting Oscar alongside Finch, is incredibly great for portraying Diane as the workaholic that doesn’t know when to stop. She’s all about being a conqueror in the world of journalism and affection is least of things on her mind no matter how hard she tried with Max. Once she mentioned she was married before, that was already a red flag before she chose to endlessly talk of work even during sex. She still tried to have something genuine with him because he said it best what they had was her last cling to reality before letting it all go. He did the right thing at last going back to his wife Louise because as Beatrice Straight owned the room in her only scene that got her the Supporting Actress Oscar, she did not deserve to be betrayed after 25 years of unconditional love. Moving on, Robert Duvall was so intimidating as Hackett because he becomes a puppet master behind the scenes who is willing to jump ship on what he wants to be represented on the broadcast. He’s more devoid of empathy compared to Diane because business is all he thinks about whereas she officially gives up after Max leaves. The fact they agree to orchestrate murder makes them all the more villainous. On the other hand, the true puppet master goes to Jensen because Ned Beatty is the one who gives a stronger demand on how to control his company’s narrative and he’s able to do that when getting to Beale’s level of understanding. Every other scene feels like an acting lesson, from Howard’s rants, to Louise’s meltdown, to seeing how obsessive Diane is with or without Hackett, but Jensen’s meeting with the protagonist is the final nail in the coffin because he’s able to be manipulative in sickening fashion. He’s not wrong in saying the world is a business since everyone has to make a decision in their survival; Whether being a savage animal in the jungle or a man in a suit; With that being said, he knew exactly how to get Beale in line, but it sadly didn’t stop Hackett going rogue in continuously saving profit. While I did say Howard died the way he wanted, but I just hope everyone in attendance and all watching at home get to truly understand where he was coming from the day they lost him. In conclusion, Network is one of the best movies ever made for being a satire that becomes relevant to this day and so on, earning the best picture nomination in the process. If you want movies that tell it like it is unapologetically, see this now.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression or thoughts of suicide, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.