Network (1976)
Director: Sidney Lumet
Starring: Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Peter Finch
Synopsis:
A news anchor with sagging ratings has a breakdown on air when he's let go which becomes an unexpected hit
Impressions:
All I knew going into this was the "I'm as mad as hell and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" speech. I actually thought it was the climax of the entire movie rather than the peak of the first act. This movie is an amazing piece of biting satire about TV culture at large and the news media in particular. It's very much a product of its time but also has a lot of relevance 30 years later. (You could even argue that it's more relevant now than ever.) It's true that some scenes are overwrought and the dialog often overwritten, but, man, is it ever brilliant. There are plenty of fine performances, but I particularly liked Peter Finch as the mad prophet of the airwaves Howard Beale, Faye Dunaway as the cold-blooded program director Diana Christensen, and Ned Beatty's one-scene wonder. William Holden is also quite good and really the glue that holds it all together. Robert Duvall as hatchet man Hackett and Marlene Warfield as a commie agitator also deserve nods. This is an amazing film that any film collector should have.
Treasure It