Review: Network

A film concerning the various personalities at a fictional American TV station that is currently struggling in 4^th position in the ratings. Ambitious programming executive Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) is looking for something to pop the ratings, even considering a TV series centring around the current spate of revolutionary kidnappings and bank robberies, ala the Patty Hearst incident. Meanwhile, veteran news anchor Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is coming unglued, with his pronouncement live on the air of a promise to commit suicide on the next night’s broadcast almost going by completely unnoticed by the busy inhabitants of the newsroom at the time. A ratings-driven light bulb goes off in Christensen’s head, and ruthless newly appointed station honcho Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) reluctantly goes along with the idea of appointing Christensen in charge of the news division. She goes about spot-lighting the clearly unhinged Beale in his own hourly spot ranting and raving about whatever the hell he wants. News director Max Schumacher (William Holden) can only sit back and watch his friend and colleague of many years Beale being exploited for the bottom line, at no concern for the man’s mental well-being. Max, a married man (to a woman played by Beatrice Straight) also finds himself having an affair with Christensen. William Prince is the outgoing UBS station head, Wesley Addy is a slick UBS executive, and an Oscar-nominated Ned Beatty has a colourful cameo as a bellowing, sermonising head of the conglomerate that owns UBS. It is Beatty’s Arthur Jensen who delivers a late reality check to Beale that shrinks him about ten sizes.

One of the all-time great films about television, this 1976 satire/drama from director Sidney Lumet (“12 Angry Men”, “Dog Day Afternoon”, “Serpico” – all favourites of mine) has a few elements very much rooted in the 70s, but for the most part…this is depressingly still relevant in 2020. Excellently scripted by Paddy Chayefsky (“Marty”), this is one of the most cynical, bleak views of television you’ll ever see.

How bleak? Peter Finch’s unravelling news anchor Howard Beale says he wants to blow his brains out on live television….two minutes into the film. That’s how bleak. It’s funny, though. For instance, when Howard says he’s going to kill himself, only one person in the control room is paying enough attention to hear it. But once again, this is the start of the movie. The next 100 minutes or so aren’t anymore upbeat. And if you think this is unrealistic or irrelevant in 2020, I honestly think the only thing stopping something like this happening today is the 10 second delay option. Humans are fragile, sometimes we crack up. It’s not that bizarre of a thing.

The cut-throat nature, the exploitation, the reliance on corporations and advertising etc…it’s all still there today. Obviously, no one in 2020 is make an hourly docudrama about Patty Hearst wannabes, but shows like “24” and “Homeland” have certainly dealt with similar themes. So while that aspect of the film has dates slightly (African-American revolutionaries eating fried chicken? Yikes…), it’s not entirely the case. Look at the way Faye Dunaway’s ruthless, ambitious programming executive callously exploits the clearly unravelling veteran anchor Howard Beale (a posthumously Oscar-winning Peter Finch) solely for ratings. Doesn’t that remind you a little bit of much of reality TV? Oh sure, they claim to have psychologists on set if needed and protocols in place on shows like “Big Brother”, “The Bachelor” etc. But time and time again they’ve shown themselves to be far more concerned with creating drama than the well-being of their participants (though if I hear one more reality TV contestant complain that ‘editing’ is solely to blame for their negative portrayal on TV…). As for American companies – including those in the TV industry – doing deals with somewhat controversial Middle Eastern countries? Look to WWE’s dealings with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as recently as 2019 for proof that this film hasn’t dated on that front, either. Meanwhile, listen to the content of Beale’s iconic ‘Mad as hell’ speech. It’s not only still relevant in 2020, the situation may have actually gotten worse. I guess we stopped getting mad somewhere, or didn’t get mad enough. Replace TV with the internet and his later speech about TV is scary as hell (it works fine as is, though). People read newspapers and books even less in 2020. It’s great, depressing sermonising, but poor Howard doesn’t realise he’s being exploited and is set for a big fall. As funny and entertaining as the film frequently is, you really are disgusted by how this clearly unhinged, unravelling man is being used and will be spat out when not needed. Other notable moments of Chayefsky brilliance include ‘The world is a business’, and William Holden’s character telling Faye Dunaway’s character that she’s ‘Television incarnate’, which may be one of cinema’s most savage lines of dialogue.

The cast here are mostly brilliant, with William Holden doing solid work in the lead role. For me though, the standouts are Faye Dunaway, Ned Beatty, Robert Duvall, and the late Peter Finch. Dunaway and Duvall expertly play a truly ruthless, black-hearted pair in this. They’re absolutely heartless and toxic representatives of the worst aspects of the media, and probably not terribly unrealistic or heightened depictions, either. The great thing about Dunaway is that she’s not caricatured here. She’s awful, but in three-dimensions, and the kind of character who doesn’t believe they’re bad or evil. Dunaway also has great chemistry with Holden, where her character gets to show that there may be a small fraction of an actual human being somewhere in there. Not a nice or good person, mind you. Duvall is afforded a bit less depth for his character, but is nonetheless excellent as the newly appointed, totally ruthless shark TV station head. Ned Beatty only has the one scene, but boy does he call down the thunder and deliver one heck of a sermon about the importance of corporations. It’s his character who gets to utter the aforementioned line about the world being a business. It’s a riveting and mostly still relevant speech, and Beatty ought to have been Oscar nominated in the role if you ask me. It’s Aussie ex-pat Peter Finch who takes top acting honours, here and indeed a posthumous Oscar for his work. Howard Beale is this film’s heart and soul, a film that is largely full of heartless and soulless characters. Finch is to be credited for humanising a man who has unravelled and only gets worse and worse. It's the kind of performance that could’ve gone horribly wrong and stock-standard ‘raving loony’, but in Finch’s hands Howard Beale is a sympathetic 3D figure. In smaller roles, Wesley Addy and William Prince add some class and stature to their characters. Although Marlene Warfield is stiff as the African-American revolutionary chick, the only real dud in the cast is Oscar winner Beatrice Straight as Holden’s long-suffering wife. Straight, in addition to barely even being in the damn film at all, gives what can only be described as a forced ‘Give me an Oscar’ performance full of crying and shouting as her character is disrespected by a man. It’s calculated, clichéd, and for me, not remotely memorable or award-worthy. She plays what is pretty much every scene of this type ever, and plays it in like manner. Hell, even Holden’s participation in the scene marks his weakest acting in the film. In fact, his dialogue seems written by someone who clearly wants us to actually side with his character. It plays especially badly from a 2020 perspective, that’s for damn sure. While we’re discussing flaws, if there’s another it’s the half-arsed, intermittent and entirely unnecessary narration. I still don’t understand why Lumet included it.

Still underrated and underseen, this is one of the best films of the 1970s and a model of its type. I’m not sure why it doesn’t get spoken about more often today. Excellently scripted and mostly perfectly acted across the board.

Rating: A-