Review of Network

Network was likely to have been conceived by writer Paddy Chayefsky as a cynically satirical film about corporate television companies. They so long had to carry the news departments as a loss leader.

In Network the corporation could imagine a world where news makes money. It does not have to be reporting events, facts or the truth. You just need a demagogue to tell you to be angry.

Network ended up being prophetic. Nowadays you get rich white people on the internet, cable news and shock radio giving you all the reasons to be angry about and they get even richer. Heck they send the maid out to get their illegal drugs because they cannot be bothered!

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) is not angry. He is mad because he is having a breakdown. A news anchor facing declining ratings and a personal life that led him to the booze bottle.

Beale is told by his long-term friend and news boss, Max Schumacher (William Holden) that it is over. The network are firing him. Beale response is to tell the live television audience that he plans to kill himself live on television.

In a later appearance he has a rant which causes ratings to shoot up. Programming boss Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) sees potential to do a new type of television show with Beale. She even signs up a domestic terrorist organisation to front their own show such as filming their own illegal activities.

Corporate Executive Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for it if the news division makes money. Hackett is the ultimate bean counter.

Network was an adult movie when it was released with frank language. People are used and discarded. Beale is only of use if he brings in the ratings.

Eventually his rants will affect the corporate bottom line or his ratings will decline.

Christensen has an affair with the veteran Schumacher because he is a powerful old man with knowledge of the world and the news division. To Schumacher she is a beautiful young woman, a last chance to fall in love again and have fun.

Over 40 years later, Network still delivers because its message is relevant. It is also so well acted. British actor Peter Finch did not live to collect his best actor Oscar. He won it posthumously. Ned Beatty almost matched him in his short cameo appearance.