Network

I saw Network on public television and found it a great film, probably Sidney Lumet's best. Yet I think that this is a rare movie that may even be more effective if it is seen on commercial television where it is interrupted by commercials.

Network is the most biting satire on television I've ever seen. And I think it's hard to make a better one. The movie was made in 1976, but to say that it has not dated would be an understatement. The movie is even more relevant now, then it was in 1976. To say that this movie is a satire on television is also an understatement. This movie knows no restraint. The movie shifts tones effortlessly between slapstick, romance, drama and satire. And any theme or idea that can be introduced within the context of the story is introduced and elaborated on. The movie deals with television alright, but it also touches on capitalism, communism, USA, democracy, nations, globalization, mid-life crisis, adultery, workaholics, radical terrorism, friendship, marriage, holism, and many many more. And all of this is discussed passionately. Except for William Holden every actor is overacting here. But it works, because we really believe that their characters have very strong feelings about the subject they are discussing.

And Sidney Lumet lets them discuss. The movie criticizes television for putting form over content and puts its money where its mouth is. The movie puts content over form. There are hardly any fancy shots and most of the movie consists of simply people talking in rooms. This works, because of the brilliant actors and probably one of the best screenplays ever written.

Peter Finch plays anchorman Howard Beale, who when he learns that he'll get sacked loses it and announces on television that he'll commit suicide in his last show. He does this in a brilliant scene. While he is speaking we see the producers and technicians in the control room who have to make sure that the show goes well. They are completely obsessed with finding the right light, to cut at the right moment and hardly notice what Beale is saying. Form over content indeed. Anyway, after becoming aware of his ramblings, the producers and directors of the network want to yank him off the air right away. Only, it turns out his ramblings are very good for the ratings and they give him his own show. In this show he mostly talks about how brainless, shallow and corrupt most television is. The brilliancy is of course that most of his ramblings are not very far away from the truth.

The idea for this show is conceived by Diane Christensen, a brilliant Faye Dunaway. She is the best character in the film. She is a television producer who only cares about television ratings. Although a hard capitalist, she is ready to give up an hour of television to a radical communist resistance group, because that will be spectacular television good for ratings. The funniest scenes in the movie are the financial negotiations between this group and Diana. Content is not something that's discussed. Diana is giving them complete freedom to say and show whatever they want.
But her character is not that simple. She only cares about ratings, because that's the only thing she is capable of caring about. When she starts an affair with Max Schumacher (William Holden) an old, experienced producer at first we think she wants to use him, so she can learn something more about television. That's not the case. She really does care for him, she simply doesn't know how to have a relationship in the real world. She sees their relationship as a plot in a television show and has all kinds of screenplays written about how it may go on. Obviously real life doesn't work that way and she ruins their relationship. This is even worse for Max, who left his wife to be with Diane. His wife, by the way, is played by Beatrice Straight. She is only on screen for five minutes, but she won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for it.

Ned Beatty also is on screen for about five minutes and he also was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. He has the best scene in the movie. In one of his ramblings Beale talks about how bad it is that the Arabs are buying everything in America and that now they are also gonna buy the network. He tells the American people that they should object to this, by writing letters to the president telling him to stop the deal. They do this and the deal is off. This pisses off Ned Beatty, the networks' head. So he calls Beale to his office and gives him the following speech:

You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel.

This is a speech that's completely over the top, but it is also a speech that is so far ahead of its time and that is becoming more and more true. I will discuss this speech someday, but it is so great it deserves its own entry.

Anyway, this speech sets a chain of events in motion I will not say anything about, because I'll spoil some of the biggest surprises of the film.

Sidney Lumet died a couple of weeks ago. He is not always thought of as a great director, but he really is. Every movie I've seen of him is very good to great and Network is his best.