If Network had the ring of truth to it in 1976, you can be sure it's even truer today.
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"I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" --Peter Finch, "Network"
When the movie opened in 1976, it was supposed to be a satire. But even then, audiences could tell that the object of its ridicule had gone way beyond the point of being a lightweight problem meriting lightweight derision, no matter how biting and wicked the humor. Television had become what Newton Minnow, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, in 1961 called "a vast wasteland"; yet television had continued to be a driving, shaping force in American life, and the consequences were scary. "Network" was, in fact, far closer to real-life truth than to mere cinematic irony, parody, caricature, or lampoon.
The thing is, television has gone beyond being a monumental waste of time, a simple boob tube. It's become a national obsession and a way of life. And people don't just get their news from relatively unbiased TV news programs anymore; frequently, they get it from political commentators and conservative or liberal-leaning talk-show hosts. Scariest of all, people too often believe everything they see and read and blindly accept everything they hear, with so-called "reality TV" blurring the lines between what is true and what is fictional. No matter how ridiculous the lie, if viewers hear it repeated often enough by well-known people, they begin to believe it. Television continues to be the biggest, most influential mass-market medium the world has ever known; consequently, it has the biggest commitment to act responsibly. Unfortunately, in its clamor for ever more ratings points and ever more money, television doesn't always live up to its responsibilities, as we see repeated on a daily basis.
If "Network" had the ring of truth to it in 1976, you can be sure it's even truer today. This is in no small part thanks to the contributions of screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky ("Marty," "The Americanization of Emily," "Altered States"), director Sidney Lumet ("12 Angry Men," "The Pawnbroker," "Fail-Safe," "Murder on the Orient Express," "Dog Day Afternoon," "The Verdict"), and stars Peter Finch, Fay Dunaway, William Holden, and Robert Duvall.
Playing longtime network news anchor Howard Beale, Peter Finch steals the show. An appropriately somber-voiced announcer tells us in a voice-over that Howard was "the grand old man of news," a veteran broadcaster who used to have the highest audience rating in the nation. But Howard's popularity declined as he got older, his wife died, he became morose, and he began drinking heavily. In 1975, the time the story begins, his network, UBS, fires him. The network gives him two final weeks on the air, and then he has to get out. With nothing to lose, the next day on live TV Howard announces he's going to commit suicide a week hence in front of the entire nation. He's going to blow his brains out on the seven o'clock news. Hilariously, tragically, almost nobody in the station's control booth notices what Howard has just said because, as usual, they're not paying attention to him.
Howard, of course, causes a national furor, and Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall), the new hatchet man for the conglomerate that has just bought the network, tells Howard not to show up for work again. But Howard's best friend, Max Schumacher (William Holden), head of the network's news division, gives him one last show to say his good-byes, and Howard makes the most of it. He tells the nation that life is "bullshit" and so is television. The nation is stunned. The world is stunned. The network is stunned.
Then the ratings come in. Howard's blunt profanity has made him an instant hit. The UBS network is in financial straits and needs higher ratings and more advertising revenue. Which is where the network's new program director, Diana Christiansen (Faye Dunaway), comes in. She's a cold-blooded, calculating, scheming, devious, driven, dedicated businesswoman who will do anything to attract viewers. She sees dollar signs written all over Howard Beale. She believes "the American people want somebody to articulate their rage for them...they want angry shows," and she sees an angry old man in Howard. "For God's sake, Diana," exclaims Hackett, "we're talking about putting a manifestly irresponsible man on television!" And both of their faces light up in mutual delight. Money is everything.
Howard gets his own "reality" news show, a carnival act, really, complete with audience call-ins and fortune tellers. He becomes the "mad prophet of the airwaves," literally fainting on camera most evenings, and his ratings go through the roof. Then Howard goes completely mad, thinking he's been imbued with wisdom by some higher spirit, that a secret voice has ordained him for his new calling. There is nothing more frightening than overzealous spiritual fervor. For his performance in "Network," Finch deservedly won an Academy Award, and in a final bit of irony, he died of a stroke while promoting the movie, becoming the only actor in history to receive the Oscar posthumously.
The fact is, Howard's nightly outbursts would make as much sense today as they did in 1976. No, double that because the world in general has only gotten more irrational, and television in particular has fifty times more channels catering to ever more human automatons. Howard tells his audience across the nation that "TV is not the truth," to get mad, to say "I'm a human being; my life has value!" Then, in his most famous speech, he shouts to his viewers, "I want you to get up now; I want you to get out of your chairs; I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it, and stick your head out and yell: I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" And people do it; all over the country, people begin shouting Howard's mantra, just as movie audiences took it to heart and have repeated it ever since.
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