GREAT FILMS: Network (1976)

GREAT FILMS: NETWORK (1976)
Directed by Sidney Lumet
Written by Paddy Chayefsky

Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky swear that their masterful film, Network, is not meant to be a satire, but to be an honest account of how things were happening at the time. I cannot vouch for 1976, but for 2008, its safe to say that this film predicted more about the future than Sybil The Soothsayer. Scathing, hilarious, and most of all, honest, Network is not only the best film of Sidney Lumet's catalog, but one of the greatest ever. With a target on network television, the film is able to skewer social consciousness like no film was able to do beforehand, and stands as a beacon of filmmaking in the 1970's.

The story revolves around the fictional television network, UBS, where the news show is getting horrible ratings. They decide to fire their news anchor of eighteen years, Howard Beale (Peter Finch), in a coup to change things around. When announcing his "resignation" on the air, Beale loses his cool, and goes on an oscenity-laden rant that trashes society and the network for their shallow views. Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway), head of programming at UBS, is astonsihed at how Beale's outburst brings in viewers. She convinces the head of the station Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) that putting Beale on the air would bring in enough ratings to pull their lowly network out of the gutter.

Beale, who has now become completely unstable, is placed on the air. His asannine declarations are mistaken for profound criticism on social hypocrisy, and his madness is exploited to its peak as more and more people tune in to watch. Behind it all is Max Schumacher (William Holden), the head of the news division, and a personal friend of Howard Beale. When he refuses to go along with the charade, the show is taken away from him and given to Diana, who turns the Network News Hour into The Howard Beale Show, with numerous topics that have little to do with news.

A strong sub-plot throughout the film is the relationship between Diana and Max. As Max walks into the autumn of his years, he becomes enamored by Diana's youthful persistance. As a television wunderkind, Diana has had a long school girl crush on Max, and they delve into a sexual relationship which seems to have nothing to do with love, but all to do with infatuation. Diana cannot see anything without thinking of television. Even sex between the two is done to the soundtrack of Diana discussing the network's fall schedule and a new lesbian soap opera.

With the success of Beale's show, Diana has plans for other shows. One involving a terrorist organization that films itself commiting bank robberies, and has kidnapped an heiress and brainwashed her (a nod to the Patty Hearst scandal of the time). She wants to call it the "Moa Tse-tung Hour", and the group is led by a man who calls himself The Great Ahmed Kahn. The middle man between them is a feisty African-American woman named Eileen Hobbs who is a stool pigeon for the Communist Party, and can't stand for anyone to cut in on her "distribution charges".

For anybody who's never seen the film, it must seem like I'm throwing a whole lot of story at you, but Chayefsky balances out all of these threads brilliantly. There is definitely a lot going on, but the orchestration of madness showcases how this Oscar-winning screenplay is one of the very best ever written. This film has never been called a "director's picture", but credit must be given to Lumet. This was the thick of his career, he had just come out with Dog Day Afternoon the year prior to this, and for this film he continued his trend of masterful success with actors, and a natural lighting scheme (cinematographer: Owen Roizmen). In a film where he did the least amount of work, he had the most success.

Films like this just are not made anymore. There is no longer demand for drama of this magnitude. An example of this is Lumet's 2007 film Before The Devil Knows You're Dead which seems maudlin and melodramatic by today's standards. But Network indulges in so many shouting matches and profound speeches that it practically relishes in its own preposterousness. It's considered a satire (no matter what Chayefsky says), but even under those circumstances the violent changes in mood and character chemistry is so whisping, it's enough to cause whiplash. Take the scene with CCA chairman Arthur Jensen (played remarkably by Ned Beatty). Jensen's outlandish behavior and operatic voice tone is hardly that of a composed CEO, but they make it fit perfectly within the film's structure.

And let's not forget the performances. The film is tied with A Streetcar Named Desire for the most acting Oscars won in a single year. One of those was for Faye Dunaway, whose Diana is one of those signature Dunaway performances. Strong, composed, but just enough insecurity and instability creeping below the surface. William Holden was nominated for his performance, which goes hand-in-hand with The Wild Bunch as his great late-career performances. Beatty was nominated for his glorified cameo (though it was well-deserved). Beattrice Straight, playing Max's wife, won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her seven minutes of screen time--like Beatty, she chews the hell out of her one meaty scene where Max tells her he's leaving her for Diana.

The performance that no one will ever forget, though, is the one by Peter Finch. His Howard Beale is a cataclysm of madness and sadness. He is disregarded and thrown out the door, and then forced once again into the spotlight. Finch's portrayal of Beale's mental collapse is both stunning and hilarious. He is the life of the movie, and holds the film's signiture line: "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!". That line has transcended movie mythology and has crossed over into the social consciousness, and the reason is the powerful way Finch delivers it. Finch died a week before the Oscar ceremony, but by then his award was already well-won.

I don't want to finish this piece without saying how important Robert Duvall is to the film. In a movie wall-to-wall with eccentric characters, Duvall carries the burden of being the one that is the most unlikable, and he plays it perfectly. The movie is an exciting 121 minutes, where the speeches are more thrilling than any car chase action sequence you could see in any other film. With a cast, director, and screenwriter with loads of pedigree (and seven Oscars between them), it's a textbook for intelligent and entertaining filmmaking.