A biting, and amazingly prescient 1976 satire of the television industry, brilliantly foretold by the late Paddy Chayefsky. Peter Finch plays Howard Beale, an aging newscaster who goes mad right before our eyes. Instead of getting him the help he needs, the executives at the fictitious UBS Broadcasting exploit his illness for ratings. William Holden plays Max Schumacher, the head of the news division. He sees the slip into madness that his friend is going through, but is powerless to stop it. Faye Dunaway is Diana Christensen, a programmer who lives and breathes TV (she even makes love while discussing ratings and programming.) Also starring Robert Duvall, Ned Beatty and Beatrice Straight. Highly recommended; see if you don't agree with me that TV has come to what's in the movie. Rated "R" for strong language, violence and adult situations.
The late William Holden gives a fine performance here, as the most grounded and sane soul in this forsaken company. Whenever commentary is required, it usually comes from Holden's lips.
I had heard that Beatrice Straight, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance here, had the shortest on-screen time (two scenes, five minutes on screen) of any Oscar winner. Ned Beatty's Oscar nominated perf was also only two scenes, with just a bit more screen time.
Faye Dunaway's character was allegedly based on a real-life NBC programmer named Lyn Bolen.
Spoiler:
In the film, the management of UBS wanted to sell out to the Western World Funding Corporation, until Beale used his influence to stop the sale. Beale went public on his show with the finding that Western World Funding was an Arab front. Foreign ownership of American media is forbidden by law.
MOST MEMORABLE LINE:
"I'm as mad as H*ll, and I'm not going to take it anymore!"
There's a Special Edition DVD due out Feb. 28, 2006.
Howard Beale's threat to commit suicide on the air was allegedly inspired by the story of Christine Chubbuck, a Florida television personality who shot herself while on the air in 1974.
Actually, Beale says "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore. It was the people yelling out the windows (of what director Sidnet Lumet says what in real life was an empty building) who screamed "won't take it."
The film is set in the time it was released, c. the mid 1970's. Now, it seems a bit quaint. There's a scene in which Ms. Christensen asks her staff if they read a report she had distributed the previous day. I couldn't help but think today, that report would be e-mailed.
Direcor Lumet said in his commentary that no sets were built; everything was filmed in an already existing room. Most of the film was shot in New York (even the L.A. scenes, which were filmed on Long Island.) The scenes on the newscast set were shot in Canada, not for economic reasons (the reason much stuff is filmed there today,) but it was the only place that they could get a newscast set for the two weeks it took to shoot those scenes. The offices were actual offices in the MGM building in New York.
Also, look for Lane Smith (Lois and Clark, My Cousin Vinny) in a supporting role, and Michael Tucker (L.A. Law) in a tiny walk-on part.
Blu-Ray due out 2/15/2011. It seems that what was on the two-disc 2006 30th anniversary DVD has been ported over to the one-disc Blu-Ray. Making purchasing it again unnecessary if, like me, you already have the two-disc set.
The cover art is the same for both editions. But - why didn't whoever designed the cover put the cast pictures in the same order as their names are listed?
Network is to become a Broadway play, opening this November. Heisenberg himself, Bryan Cranston, will play Howard Beale. Tony Goldwyn (Ghost) will play Max Schumacher.
"Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge" - Max Schumacher.