Network (1976) * * * *

Directed by:  Sidney Lumet

Starring:   Peter Finch, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, Beatrice Straight, Ned Beatty

Even before Howard Beale's famous, "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not going to take this anymore," rant, it was clear to most that he was cracking up.      He was an anchorman for the floundering UBS Nightly News and informed by his boss and best friend Max Schumacher (Holden) he was being let go due to sagging ratings.     The following night, he announces on the air he intends to commit suicide.     "Did anyone hear what Howard just said?, asks a crew member in the control booth.     Since so few people watched the UBS Nightly News, his announcement only created a minor stir.    In the days leading to his final broadcast, he would create a major stir and a sudden upturn in the ratings.    This catches the attention of UBS' Vice-President of Programming Diana Christiansen (Dunaway), who thinks she can turn the news hour into a hit fueled by Beale's mad rantings.  

A narrator announces in the beginning of Network, "This is the story of Howard Beale."     As the film progresses, Howard Beale is chewed up and spit out by the daily business of broadcast television.     He is insane and needs treatment, however, UBS executives are thinking of Beale as a cash cow for the network.     This doesn't sit well with Max, who is eventually fired by new network president Frank Hackett (Duvall), and begins an ill-advised affair with Diana.     Why does he fall for a woman who clearly lives only for her work?     He leaves his wife and moves in with Diana.    Does he think he can change her?    Or is just infatuated by a younger woman?     It comes as little surprise that the relationship doesn't work out.     "There's just nothing in you that I can live with anymore,"  he tells Diana.    

Max's relationship with Diana is a microcosm of what Network is all about.     Ordinary decency and feelings take a back seat to profits and ratings.    Men like Max are considered dinosaurs, not because of tenure, but because he would dare suggest UBS end its top-rated show because Howard is mentally ill.    Network is a fascinating film.     When it was released in 1976, it was almost deemed a satire because UBS would do anything for ratings, even hook up with an ultra-radical group of terrorists and give them their own weekly show.     Considering what's on TV now, the film ultimately seems like a prophecy.     The ever-growing desire of profit continues to up the ante.     There is TV show on now called "Amish Mafia", that depicts criminal acts of people in Amish country.     In 1976, that would've been the basis for a comedy, or maybe would've even found its way to the UBS fall programming schedule.   

It's amazing to observe the characters of Hackett, Diana, and even Arthur Jensen (Beatty).    They are seen completely within the scope of their work.    They don't appear to have any outside interests other than UBS.    The only emotion they seem to be able to express is anger, which occurs when ratings begin to drop and profits are threatened.     They take umbrage with Beale when he rants about UBS being taken over by Saudis, which leads to a come to Jesus meeting between Beale and Jensen.     "You are messing with primary forces of nature, Mr. Beale," he explains.     When Diana goes away for a weekend rendezvous with Max, all she discusses is her job and the goings-on at UBS.      When she climaxes during sex, it's not because she feels joy or love, but because she thinks the network may land a Mao-Tse Tung show.    People like Diana aren't able to feel ordinary joy, which Max realizes soon enough.

Network is a thorough examination of not just television, but big business in general.     People are expendable once it appears their Q rating is falling or if they've outlived their usefulness.      Nothing can be permitted to threaten profits.     Everything is "handled" or "spinned" in a way to minimize damage.    Finch won a posthumous Best Actor Oscar for his work.    His role is the showiest and he is good as "the mad prophet of the airwaves."    For my money, the trickier, multi-dimensional role is Holden's (also a Best Actor nominee).     He negotiates treacherous ground as a relatively moral man in an increasingly amoral world.     He comes across as the most human in a film where most of the characters are like pod people; seemingly human on the outside, but there is nothing inside.     Faye Dunaway also won an Oscar for her role.     We've met people like her:  Driven, career-minded, empty.    Despite her general loathesomeness, we remain intrigued by her.      Beatrice Straight also won an Oscar as Max's thrown-over wife despite having only about 6 minutes of screen time.     She has one scene of any substance, which is when Max announces he is leaving her.      She handles it well, almost as if she came to grips long ago with Max's mid-life crisis and saw this as an inevitable part of the process.

Network, directed by Sidney Lumet and written by Paddy Chayefsky (whose script won an Oscar), remains a scathing document.     Cable television was in its infancy at that time.    I wonder how UBS would've handled the advent of this new technology.     There was enough pressure just beating out the other three networks.      I'm sure UBS would've found a way to keep its share of an ever-increasing pie.     I'm not sure if the final scene in which executives discuss the fate of Howard Beale was meant as over-the-top satire, but something tells me I wouldn't be shocked to learn that such discussions have likely been held before, even if the act wasn't actually carried out.      It's just amazing how Hackett's solution to kill Beale is not met with any sort of protest except for "We're talking about a capital crime.    We have to distance the network from it as much as possible."      The Beale death is seen as a practical solution to their chief concern, which is that his show no longer generates good ratings.

The film's epilogue contains the narration, "This was the story of Howard Beale, the only man ever killed because of bad ratings."     The news story discussing the details of his murder are blended into background commercial noise to the point where we can no longer hear or listen to the story.     Chayefsky correctly assessed that we are living in a world where sound bites and sensationalism have replaced fact and information.      The lines have been permanently blurred.    Anyone who watched round the clock news coverage of the Sandy Hook shootings has witnessed this.