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| Network |
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 (10/10)
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Runtime: 120 |
| Public Rating: 8.21 (19 votes) |
Director: Sidney Lumet |
MPAA Rating:  |
| Genre: Drama |
Year: 1976 |
| Writer(s): Paddy Chayefsky |
| Reviewed by: Oktay Ege Kozak |
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“Why me?”
“Because you’re on television, dummy.” (Dialogue from “Network”)
Network is the biggest psychic of all movies. It predicted the way our lives will be lived through television like no other movie has ever done. It was made in 1976, back when mass communication devices such as the internet, the satellite dish and cable television hadn’t been invented as house-hold items yet. Back when there were only a couple of channels available for us to choose on television. Today, we feel that the world is on our fingertips when actually, we are doomed to become singular creatures that stapled themselves to their mediatic resources with our internet, our VCR, our DVD player and our television set which hold within itself at least a thousand channels to choose from. If Howard Beale, the “the more than eccentric” news anchorman from this film lived today, he would die from a heart attack due to unusual fright only by taking a look around. Although it seems otherwise, the movie tells the story of Beale, an old man who in the middle of his personal frustrations, has a personal revelation of his own and uses his job to go on television and tell everyone that life is bulls---, that they should go out and yell that they are “mad as hell” because he thinks that the world is going to hell in a hand basket and everybody has a first class ticket for the ride. Beale’s unforgettable speeches make a lot of sense and create the most unforgettable monologues in the movie. But the main power line for the movie’s eerie predictions of corruptness of media and the combination of corporate worlds come from the plot line concerning the producers of Beale’s show and the owners of the network where they decide upon the proceedings of Beale’s outrage. First, they decide to banish him off of television forever, then they decide to keep him due to great ratings and when his ratings drop they confer on a solution that is both realistically unlikely but considering today’s standards, isn’t completely inconceivable. It is a solution that gives way to the ending of the film which is so shocking, I had to convince myself that it isn’t really happening. After the first couple of times I’ve seen it, I told myself “This must be a trick”, “This cannot happen” and after I’ve seen it today, I accept the fact that it did happen and I also frighteningly accepted that in real life, concerning the corruptness of television today, it “can” happen.
The movie has a lot of monologues about life and how it was depraved by the use of artificiality that the television medium provides. “We don’t bring you the truth” Howard Beale Says, “We only give you an illusion. We are in the business of non-boredom”. In another scene Max Schumacher who is probably the only person who makes any sense among the madmen that run the network (who also gets fired near the beginning of the film), before leaving the woman he is living with who happens to be the producer of the Hoard Beale show to go back to his wife, he tells her “This is a happy ending. I am leaving the senseless woman to go back to the all American family. This is what the audience expect, isn’t it”. These speeches are powerful in their way of constructing the arcs of the characters while at the same time referencing to the subject matter that the film is trying to convey. And yes, this is a movie of speeches. Every five minutes or so, there is a powerful and long speech given by one of the many incredibly gifted actors and this cycle of long speeches never stop until the end which may put off some viewers who have an attention span that is shorter than the guy in “Memento” and people who are overwoven with shorter expositions of plot and action. If you are looking to kill a couple of hours on “quality entertainment”, stay away from this film and opt to choose something that is in the business of non-boredom instead.
Directing: I think “Network” is Sidney Lumet’s best film ever. There are a lot of people who would put “Dog Day Afternoon” or “12 Angry Men” up there on that spot instead, but I truly think that this was the script which was beautifully written for Lumet to combine his technical tour de force with incredible dramatic direction to give us an all-around perfect film. The way he uses his subtle camera moves to accentuate the action, the way he keeps the technical side minimal to let the script and the acting convey the audience and the way he uses subtle nuances to complete his masterpiece of “visual signal madness” (For example, notice the people encouraging the audience to cheer in the background while Beale talks about artificiality of television) all work on the side of the film’s subject matter.
Acting/Characters: The great William Holden portrays the only decent human being on the network, Max Schumacher with great conviction and stability (and to think, if this was another movie, this character would be the bad guy. In this one he looks like an angel). Faye Dunaway brings out a great performance as a hard shelled programmer who, although she seems like a strict and disciplined person, is actually a fragile human being who has destroyed herself through ratings and “movie of the week”s. And Peter Finch, with his incredible conception of the eccentric Howard Beale, creates one of the most unforgettable characters of cinema history. Also, Ned Beatty, who plays a salesman of some sort, gives the best speech of the movie that gets its point through better than all the non-consumerist movies (Like Fight Club) combined.
The Movie: I think “Network” is a movie that will stand its time better as time progresses and we understand that our fate has been given in our hands through television. During one of his speeches, Howard Beale mentions some creatures called humanoids which are humans that have evolved into emotionally hallow creatures that confine themselves in their home and residually cleanse themselves of any conception of humanity through television in which they set their belief system to. Back in those times, Beale was talking about television news reports and programs which were both shallow and manipulative but had some sort of dramatic effort to convey believability through compelling story lines. During the last couple of years, we all watched some non-significant bozos doing everyday stuff in their apartment and we watched it 24 hours a day. We are no longer humanoids, we have evolved into something much more frightening.
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