Details
Movie Description
With stunning prescience, Sidney Lumet's searing satire of television and the contemporary moment chronicles media corruption and the way that the public buys into the myths the media creates. The moral and spiritual turpitude delivered by the debilitating forces of television are rendered in sharp relief against a backdrop of crumbling humanity in what is regarded as one of the great satires in Hollywood history. With a visceral script from Paddy Chayefsky, NETWORK follows the doomed path of aging newsman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), who, upon learning that he is to be fired after decades as a news anchor, announces to millions of viewers that he will publicly commit suicide during his last broadcast. When the ratings consequently shoot up, hungry executive-in-training Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) seizes the moment to exploit Beale's Messianic nervous breakdown, turning his rage into the vehicle for the network's first Number One show and a nationwide craze. Who could have predicted that this 1976 film might someday influence an even more contagious trend in television broadcasting: the reality show?
Synopsis
Sidney Lumet's NETWORK takes a close look at the lengths to which television stations will go to improve their ratings--pulling publicity stunts, playing up news team dramas, and constantly scheming behind the scenes.
Film Notes
DVD Features:
Region 1 Encoding
Keep Case
Trivia
Production Notes
Hidden Menu Page
Interactive Quiz Game
Original Theatrical Trailer
Anamorphic Widescreen
Theatrical release: November 27, 1976.
Filmed on location in New York City.
The film is Peter Finch's last big-screen project; his last performance was in the TV movie RAID ON ENTEBBE.
NETWORK is number 66 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
NETWORK was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000.
Beatrice Straight won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress despite logging mere minutes onscreen, causing a minor uproar.
Industry Reviews
"...A vicious, exaggerated satire which aims for barbed black humour over belly laughs....[With a] sharp screenplay..."
Total Film - Andy Lowe (09/01/2000)
"Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his all-over-the-map portrayal of Beale."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (04/01/2004)
4 stars out of 4 -- "If movies can tell the future, then this 1976 harbinger about a major network's calculated and deranged ratings grab is right on time."
Rolling Stone - Peter Relic (03/09/2006)
"NETWORK is the perfect meeting of director and screenplay....Lumet and Chayefsky's real achievement is the subtle escalation of the drama..."
Empire - Adam Smith (10/01/2008)
Quotations
"So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up 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!'"--Howard Beale (Peter Finch)
"You're messing with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale!"--Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty) to Howard Beale
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