Review of Network (1976) by Niklas S — 14 Jul 2012

Honestly I almost find it unfair when Movies criticize television, I mean when television wants to criticize and take a jab at itself that's fair game but considering they're natural enemies for our visual attention it just seems a little unfair for one to rail against the other I mean neither are perfect industries but they both bring us quality and crap in equal measure. But I can understand that Network at least Paddy Chayefsky's 1976 satire of the television industry comes from a sincerely outraged place. See around that time there was a highly publicized scandal when a female news anchor shot herself in front of thousands of viewers in Florida being pushed to her emotional limits while suffering from depression by her relentless executives and bosses at the news network. Chayefsky saw this as the ultimate tragic consequence of an industry that obsessively chased ratings over quality and even the well being of the employees and other people responsible for making it. And so Chayefsky wrote his biting indictment of the industry and one of the darkest comedies of its day a project so controversial in subject it took almost two years to get picked up and even than only when acclaimed filmmaker Sidney Lumet attached himself to the project with some well known stars of the day. How does it hold up? Does it work as a scathing satire of its day or even god forbid of this day still? Let's take a look that's mad as hell and than we won't take it anymore.

Though many people incorrectly assume the film is about the famous irate anchorman at its center in truth I believe the closest thing this shambling film has to a main character is Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway at her energetic best portraying a character with vitality, venom and even a bit of vulnerability) the head of fictional UBS is Programming Department who is obsessed with harnessing the power of the counterculture in a bitter post-Watergate America into the networks programs to turn around its poor ratings in the past. Christensen engages in a heated romance with Max Schumacher (William Holden, god damn this is a sad fucking performance) the head of the news division who is a married man half her age and is running into problems of his own as his old friend and anchorman Howard Beales (Peter Finch, the highlight of the film one of the funniest and most compelling performances of all time) is suffering a well publicized nervous breakdown after being told he will be fired from the show in two weeks time. When Beales loses on the air for two nights in a row however Christensen notices a spike in viewership and turns to her boss the shareholders well known hatchet man Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall, matching comedic wits with Finch in one of his incredibly humorous tough guy performances) to turn the news ratings around by devoting a portion of it to Beales ravings a decision which is met with great financial gain but taxes her relationship with the ousted Schumacher and Beales fragile mental health as he develops a Messianic Complex and becomes convinced he is spreading the essential and pure teachings of the Universe.

The first half of this movie is damn near perfect Beales is one of the most inspired characters in Hollywood's entire history and we get just enough of him that we're genuinely fascinated and excited when he comes on screen and some nice development and hilarity from the other characters who actually take up the bulk of the film. But its in the second half this movie starts to kind of lose traction. Beales is sort of pushed to the background and instead we get focus on two swiftly becoming uninteresting plots of Christensen's relationship with the by the end very unlikeable Schumacher, a relationship that's arc essentially amounts to the old generation was so warm and compassionate and this generation is so cold and selfish and evil a sentiment every aging generation seems to have but baffling none see the irony of. The secondary plot that floats around with Hackett floating in and out is Christensen's quest for more programming which if they were going to shove Beales into the background as almost a tertiary subplot should have held promise of some hilariously ridiculous programming but instead we get ONE silly show she comes up and tries to create and though it has some funny moments is really more stupid than witty. It all comes to a sort of resolution when Beales is taught the cynical secrets of the Universe he must preach by Ned Beatty's Executive Character which is one of the funniest scenes I've ever seen but at that point we've slogged through about forty minutes of a meandering forced story with increasingly silly characters you find it harder and harder to care about or be interested in. Network can't decide if it wants to be a serious and transcendent societal criticism or just an Airplane level yuk fest and doesn't really reach either potential as a result. Moreover it holds a lot of bile and contempt for the television networks but can't decide if it would rather attack the way they run the news starting with what is more entertaining and going from there, how they exploit anti establishment ideas and cultures for pandering entertainment to simply turn a profit or their utter disregard for ethics and those that work for them so long as it makes money and thus it's a really unfocused criticism unfortunately. The performances are great but really if it weren't for the ahead of his time and eerily prophetic of those that would end up on TV character of Howard Beales Network would be a very unremarkable film with an average story and directing.

I didn't dislike Network, I laughed my ass off mostly at the scenes with Beales but even during the ones without him and I thought the performances were great and the script if not the story sharper than most but it doesn't mesh together to make anything spectacular. Peter Finch who as he deserved won the first posthumous Oscar for the role elevates the movie to greatness with his unforgettable rants as Beales and his sharp comedic edge and timing and Dunaway, Holden and Duvall are all excellent as they all were want to be at this time but even they can't save the weak second half of the story culminating in one of the most unforgiveably out of place stupid endings of all time that left me scratching my head wondering how they thought it was a good idea. It feels like almost three different great films are fighting around for dominance in here and its a shame none of the three got a chance to really shine.