Sidney Lumet's 1976 film Network follows a fictional television network called UBS and its quest for ratings and profitability. It focuses on its upturn in fortunes thanks to soon-to-be fired newsreader Howard Beale (Peter Finch) and his outbursts on his news show. At first the network seeks to punish Beale for his indiscretions but the public take to his ranting and tune in in great numbers to see more.
I think the film shows very well the ruthlessness of its TV executive characters, who will stop at nothing to get higher ratings and earn more money. However, I wasn't particularly impressed with all the overblown, shouty speeches in the film. Every character seems to have one each. It makes sense with Beale's character, since he has clearly lost his mind and is prone to ranting, but it was tiring listening to the weighty rhetoric routinely delivered throughout the film by all and sundry. It was an interesting film, but I was very disappointed.
6.5/10
I think you missed that the film is a comedy - an outrageous satire of contemptuousness and moral emptiness. It was a sensation in 1976 - yet now, it seems oddly prophetic, given the almost complete worthlessness of that which floods our airwaves. The Oscar-winning script blends high-nonsense (the liberation army stuff), with clear, elegant drama - smoothly blending from one to another.
ReplyDeleteI didn't object to the speechifying - it's cohesive with the innate richness of the interesting characters, all strongly drawn - and demonstrative of their current status within their world. Dunaway's obsessive compulsive throwaway delivery to her staff about reading the reports made my head spin.
It's a director's picture - like Lumet's extraordinary 12 Angry Men - the film feels like it was adapted from a play, using limited sets, simple and rough-hewn cinematography - he lets nothing get in the way of the performances.