Network (1976)

Director: Sidney Lumet                                Writers: Paddy Chayefsky
Film Score: Elliot Lawrence                          Cinematography: Owen Roizman
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch and Beatrice Straight

“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!” It’s one of the most famous lines in cinematic history, and it’s appropriate that it should be about the entertainment industry itself. What All About Eve did for Broadway and Sunset Boulevard did for Hollywood, Network does for television. Viewed today, the utterly unethical programming that the fictional UBS network begins to engage in, seems more like basic cable. It’s territory that would be explored seven years later by David Cronenberg in Videodrome, and nine years later in The Mean Season, where the underlying premise is that the show itself has become the news, and the news department is part of the entertainment division. Back in 1976 it was almost unbelievable. Today it’s called The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

The late, great Peter Finch plays a news broadcaster who’s had enough. When his ratings go down and he’s been fired, he announces on his news program that he’s going to commit suicide on his final day. Of course the network promptly fires him, but when ratings hound Faye Dunaway suggest to corporate boss Robert Duval that they can get some huge ratings from his continued appearance as an editorial commentator, he jumps at the chance. Telling it like it is, Finch uses curse words and rails at the very system that he’s working within. He derides the audience for watching the very show he’s hosting. Meanwhile, William Holden gets fired, rehired, and fired again. He slips voluntarily into an affair with Dunaway, and when he tells his wife, Beatrice Straight, she delivers her six-minute Oscar winning performance as best supporting actress.

But there was more Oscar gold to be won. Finch, of course, was given the best actor award but tragically died before he could receive his award and most people don’t even recognize him today. Faye Dunaway won for best actress and Paddy Chayefsky won for best screenplay. And there are some brilliant moments in the script. The scene where the left-wing revolutionaries are arguing about their contract for a television show is priceless. Another thing the film has going for it is a wealth of character actors. William Price is the chairman of the board, Wesley Addy is the president of the network, and Ned Beatty the head of the controlling corporation who delivers his famous multi-national corporation speech, as well as Lane Smith and a very young Conchata Ferrell. Seen now, the whole thing seems sort of naive. The most sensational programing today has been marginalized on cable, and the networks are just one among many. Terrorism as entertainment in a post-9/11 society would seem to have little draw, or tolerance, today.

I’m also curious about how effective the film is today. The brilliant Sidney Lumet had a very deliberate style that focused on the actors rather than the plot. As a result he has long takes that allow the actors to emote and get across their feelings and message in as much time as it takes. The second half of the film, then, probably lags for modern audiences used to quick cuts and fast paced climaxes. In this case the climax is almost a foregone conclusion and the metaphor “killed in the ratings” becomes reality. Still, it’s an impressive piece of work. William Holden is magnificent as the old school executive who reaches for something more, but is incredibly realistic when it doesn’t pan out, this in stark contrast to Peter Finch’s character who seems to have had a complete mental breakdown. Network is a great film, if something of a period piece, and still has the power to provoke and entertain even in our era of cynical and jaded entertainment. And that is the definition of classic cinema.