# Network (1976)

### reviewed by
Jason Overbeck

    NETWORK
    **** Of **** grade is A+

Network was a fantasy when it arrived in the theatres in 1976, now it plays well as a satire of where news is headed (soon). It is angry, funny, smart and one of the very best films of the seventies. This film satires news, programming and pretty much every other hot topic of the seventies. Yet the themes Network satires seem universal, some of the problems of the seventies have taken shape in our modern time. Some complained that it tries to cover too much, and is over-ambitious. This is very true, yet I do not subtract from a film greatness for being overly ambitious.

Network has Howard Beale (Peter Finch in posthumous Best Actor winning role) as a anchor for the fourth rated television network, he gets fired because he is a drinker, his wife has died, he is over the hill, and (most important) his ratings have slipped. He announces over the air that broadcasting is his life and he plans to blow out his brains on the air. He is given another chance where he states that; "Yesterday I announced on this program that I was going to commit public suicide. Admittedly an act of madness. Well, I'll tell you what happened: I just ran out of bullshit." His ratings go through the roof.

He is invited back to keep hosting, and shouting obscenities, and so it goes. There is great protest be Howard's best friend and producer Max Schumacher (William Holden). For Howard's return is Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway Best Actress winner), an aggressive programmer who wants more junk and higher ratings.

Max and Diana also start an odd affair. She is unable to love because she sees sensitivity as weakness, and Max is married and has a grandchild on the way. The affair while well written and conceived is another example of screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. The romance would work well as its own movie melodrama, another account of how strong and great this film really is.

The acting rocks in this film. Three actors won acting Oscars and two others were nominated. The direction is also very taunt and well handled by Sidney Lumet, the great director who has never won a Best Director Oscar.

If for no other reason, see Network because it will always be an answer to a movie quote trivia question. This is the film that contains the infamous line, "I'M AS MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GONNA TAKE IT ANYMORE!"

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