Network

Rating:
Summary: "I Want You To Go To The Window..."
Review: It's all about ratings and telling the people what they think they want to see, in Paddy Chayefsky's,"Network," a biting satire of television and those who program the beast, directed by Sidney Lumet and starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Peter Finch. In the world of the television corporate news division of a major network, the prevailing attitude is "I don't care what you've done for me in the past, what have you done for me lately," and so, as veteran newsman and network programmer Max Schumacher (Holden) discovers, it's out with the old and in with the new, as Diana Christensen (Dunaway) steps in with some radical ideas of how to bolster ratings, including giving a group of terrorists their own show. But the boldest move of all comes with decision of the network hierarchy to keep anchorman Howard Beale (Finch) on the air, even after he announces (on the air) that he is going to commit suicide during the next broadcast, which of course, sends the ratings through the roof overnight. Working form Chayefsky's intelligent, well crafted screenplay (for which he received an Oscar), Lumet presents a scything commentary on the whys and wherefores of the decision making process behind what America watches that is hilarious in it's very absurdity; so absurd at times, in fact, that it is just too close to reality. And though the situations in the film are exaggerated, of course, it makes you stop and consider that in many cases fact is-- in truth-- stranger than fiction. It also makes you wonder what the 6:00 newscast you watch every night is really all about: Is it a conveyance for information, or merely entertainment? To bring it all to life, Lumet assembled an extraordinary cast, many of whom give memorable performances that are the highlight of the film, beginning with Holden as the jaded newsman who, late in life, is trying to figure out how it all fits together and works. He perfectly captures that sense of earnest futility and confusion into which Max's life has descended, and the stoic acquiescence with which he resolves it. Dunaway, meanwhile, pulls out all the stops and turns in a dynamic performance-- her best next to her portrayal of Bonnie in "Bonnie & Clyde"-- that earned her an Oscar for Best Actress. She skillfully brings out all of the energy and zealousness of the character, and leaves no doubt about the direction in which Diana's career is headed (that would be up!) and woe to anyone who gets in her way. She plays it all beautifully, and through her, Diana becomes the very personification of female prowess. And, not to be outdone by his co-stars, Finch turns in a memorable performance as the veteran anchorman at the end of his rope who adjures his viewers to go to their windows, open them and yell the now classic line, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!" which has such a profound effect on those watching that Beale soon becomes a so-called "prophet" of the airwaves. It's a brilliant portrayal of a man lost in despair and struggling with a loss of faith in everything he has held sacred his whole life that deservedly won him the Oscar for Best Actor. The supporting cast includes Beatrice Straight (Mrs. Schumacher), in the role that earned her an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, Robert Duvall (Frank Hackett), Wesley Addy (Chaney), Ned Beatty (Jensen), Arthur Burghardt (Ahmed Kahn), Bill Burrows (TV Director), John Carpenter (Bosch), Jordan Charney (Hunter) and Kathy Cronkite (Mary Ann Gifford). There is much in this film that will strike a chord of recognition with the audience, because it concerns a medium with which practically everyone living in America today is familiar. In the final analysis, rather than condemning television and the powers-that-be behind the programs, "Network" is more of a wake-up call-- not only to those who decide what we see, but to those who watch it-- to accept responsibility for what is being served up with impunity and ingested without question every day. It's an entertaining, albeit caustic, film with a moral, from which no one with a conscience is exempt.

Rating:
Summary: Funny, sad, profound, transcendent
Review: This brilliant film is not only a merciless satire on American television business. But also, at times, it tries to delve into more profound issues, such as the drastic sociological effects on the "TV generation", and the sobering reality of capitalism in the world today. This is a deep, thought-provoking, and ultimately rewarding film classic.

The film is crafted from the most capable hands. The brilliantly written dialogs are as funny as they are trenchant. The acting is so good that two actors got Oscar nominations for essentially being in ONE scene of powerful acting -- Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight. And Straight even won. The direction of Sydney Lumet is fluid and cohesive, and occasionally sprinkled with great visual touches.

Many remember the famous scene where Howard Beal delivers his "mad as hell" oratory. But it is another "mad man" speech, from the TV executive played by Ned Beatty, that unnerves me most: "There are no nations. There are no idealogies. There are only IBM, ITT, and AT&T ... We re living in a world of businesses! The WORLD is a business!" Beatty's perfectly delivered monologue basically brings out the crux of the whole movie.

This DVD has fine (but not great) picture quality and clear monophonic sound. Both the widescreen and non-widescreen versions are included. There is even an "easter egg" (hidden feature): go into the Special Features section and click on the TV dial, and you'll be shown a summary of how the Nielson's Rating system works.

Rating:
Summary: Funny and a dead on target fact about television.
Review: This movie really takes pot shots at TV and how it can ruin a man;s life and career, I'm sure many of us have wanted to open the window and yell "I"m Mad as Hell and I'm not going to take this anymore." That's just as true now as it was when this movie was made.

Rating:
Summary: wickedly funny, dead-on indictment of the TV news and media
Review: "The large cast is uniformly excellent." (Variety)

"Network is vivid and flashing. It's connected into life." (The New York Times)

"The cast of this messianic farce take turns yelling at us soulles masses." (New Yorker)

"This searing satire pulses with vitality and a provocative excitement that is forever rare." (Los Angeles Times)

Now these are just a few of the praises that "Network" deserved. Do yourself a big favour and buy it today because television will

never be the same again. Forget satire. This is sheer rapportage!

Rating:
Summary: DVD WARNING
Review: I concur with others about the quality of the film. Serious, insightful, wonderfully acted, one of the best screenplays to ever come out of Hollywood. However, the DVD is abysmal. The video is grainy and indistinguishable from average VHS quality. The worst, however, is the "Widescreen" presentation. To achieve the effect, Warners video actually cuts off some of the upper and lower part of the screen. This, of course, defeats the whole purpose of widescreen. This is not the first DVD I've seen this on, and it's a disgrace: consumer fraud of the highest degree.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining But Superficial Satire
Review: "Network" is a well-made, well-acted movie with many deservedly famous scenes. This adds up to a good movie that's enjoyable to watch...but not a movie that's exactly profound. Paddy Chayefsky obviously thought he was writing a cutting-edge satire on television and society. What he came up with was two hours of reactionary ranting against television, business, the younger generation, and anything else Paddy was feeling sour about.

Chayefsky's "messages" are beyond banal; they're cliches that are as old as television itself. Television lies to us. People can't tell television from reality. People raised on television (like the Faye Dunaway character) are emotionally stunted, not like wonderful middle-aged people like Chayefsky. We're all losing our humanity, Chayefsky tells us; Pauline Kael rightly sneered: "Who has--*him*?" Chayefsky is so wedded to these mediaphobic cliches that he can't for a minute grasp the possibility that viewers can distinguish television from reality, or that television is no better or worse than any other form of popular media--emphatically including movies. There's something faintly ridiculous about the movies, a medium in which lies and distortions are inherent, for attacking the lies and distortions in another medium.

As befits a veteran of the "golden age" of TV drama, Chayefsky's dialogue is filled with heavy-handed preaching (Holden and Finch get the worst of it), and features some truly atrociously written scenes, the worst of which features poor Beatrice Straight screaming idiotic lines at the top of her lungs; she inexplicably won an Oscar for that. As for Faye Dunaway's character, Chayefsky's misogyny--his dislike of a woman in a position of power--combined with his hatred of anyone young makes her character a dull cartoon, though Dunaway tries her best.

So enjoy NETWORK for the entertaining film it is, but remember, when Peter Finch shouts "Television is not the truth," someone really ought to shout back: "NETWORK is not the truth either." It's been over twenty years, and the world has not gone to hell in Mr. Chayefsky's video handbasket; we're still here, television is still here, and generation after generation will keep arriving to disprove Chayefsky's insulting notion that the influence of television has made us all inferior to him.

Rating:
Summary: The most important movie of our time?
Review: What a masterpiece! Everytime I see it my appreciation deepens. It addresses almost everything that is wrong with our culture today - that intersection of advertising -business- and entertainment. The Ned Beatty speech where Peter Finch is informed that he has "fooled with the primal forces of nature" should be required viewing in every high school in the land followed by a viewing of "Manufacturing Consent". The movie has inspired me to turn off my TV set (except for the Simpsons and South Park, which I am hopelessly addicted to) just as Finch told us to do. If in 1976, we were all television-dulled automatons, that must be a hundred fold true today. "Network" very skillfully points out televisions insidious power to blunt our emotions, and more chillingly, just to get us to buy stuff. Twenty Five years later, is the World Wide Web the antidote to TV induced stupor? Me think not, having watched the net evolve just as TV has - hailed as the ultimate teaching tool, degenerated into just another medium to sell us stuff. Hey, did I just write that on Amazon.com?

Rating:
Summary: A Satire That Spirals Out of Control
Review: Network is a delecious satire about the world of television . It is one of those films that remains wonderful, edgy and enjoyable after repeated viewings. What was made in 1976 as an exaggeration, is more or less an expose by today's standards, until the final quarter of the film at least.

There is an abundance of superb acting in Network, Peter Finch in a vibrant Oscar winning performance as Howard Beal "the apocalyptic prophet of the airways", Faye Dunaway in another oscar winning turn as the soulless vice president, Robert Duvall as the driven upcoming suit. But my favourite performance in the film is William Holden as Max Bracket. It is an understated, slowburning charactrisation of a veteran news man who despite having lived throught many years of programming is still shocked by the exploitation of his mad friend Howard Beal. His final speech to Dunaway is one of the most superbly executed and written scenes I've ever seen.

The flaw in Network, and its a major one, is the drastic shift in tone in its final quarter. What has been a satire with a heart for 90 minutes turns into an all out farce. It remains funny and acute, but our sympathy for the characters has gone. Its as if the great director Sidney Lumet and writer Paddy Chayefsky were having too much fun, and let it effect their judgement. Therefore the closing minutes of the film which are good on their own terms, seem seperate from the rest of the film.

Many film fans insist that it was Rocky's popularity that brought it the 1976 best picture oscar over Network. I don't agree, Rocky is a beautiful and flawless one of a kind fable, and very much deserved its award. Network however remains a terrific film, and as many reviewers pointed out, more relevant today then it was when it came out.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant satire of the evils of television....
Review: "Television, the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation" wrote the Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy, a good twenty or so years after the release of "Network", which is one of the most cynical, snarling, brilliantly subversive films in American cinema. It is basically the story of UBS, a fictional network that with the help of revolutionary programming director Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway) revitalises its ratings. How? With mentally-ill newsreaders and politically subversive terrorist footage. Television is viewed as an all-encompassing, evil medium that branches into all aspects of society, destroying everything it touches. The film's use of filmic metaphor is outstanding, with Dunaway showing all the characteristics of a personification of television. "Television Incarnate", one character calls her. Elsewhere, network boss Mr.Jensen is seemingly modelled on a deity figure, for whom Howard Beale (Finch) is nothing more than a truth-bringer, while the Beale character himself seems to be a personification of the very viewers he is preaching to. Confused, dismayed, and lied to. "Network" operates on so many levels that it's almost impossible to discuss. Top this with some fine, unintrusive directing by Sidney Lumet, and not one (even vaguely) unconvincing performance. The script is so tight and focused, it's as if these characters live and breathe, while the levels it operates on will keep you enthralled for many multiple viewings. This is superior entertainment, and astute cultural and socio-political comment.

Rating:
Summary: A Forerunner for our Future
Review: I have recently viewed this movie in my university English class. We compared it to Fight Club regarding the attack on pop/consumer culture. It is a fine example of the use and missuse of the media, and how human nature is distancing itself from direct human communication, especialy through television and the media. It seems to me that people are distancing themselves more and more due to advances in technology. Inventions like the internet and email are fine examples of this distancing. Soon people will forget how to write a letter, fix a stamp, and send it via mail. How many times have you herd someone say, "I learned it on the Discovery Channel". It seems that we are moving father and farher away from each other every day. This movie represent this trend remarkably, even though it was made close to 25 years ago. I would like to recomend 'Network' to anyone who enjoys a great movie and who understand this gap we are creating between ourselves with impersonal forms of communication. Thank you.