Sandwiched between "Jaws" and "Star Wars", Sidney Lumet's "Network" was one of the last gasps of the American New Wave. With the unprecedented box-office successes of blockbuster movies, studios quickly seized upon high-concept premises, putting greater emphasis on tie-in merchandise, spin-offs and the use of sequels.
Realising how much money could potentially be made in films, major corporations started buying up the Hollywood studios. The corporate mentality these companies brought to the film-making business would slowly squeeze out the more idiosyncratic of the young New Wave filmmakers, while ensconcing the more malleable and commercially successful of them. Modern Hollywood was born. A smooth conveyor belt that bowed to art only when trends got stale. Test screenings, market analysis, committee screenplays and multi demographic franchises were here to stay.
"Network" is a Sidney Lumet satire devoid of pyrotechnics, fancy editing, noticeable camera work or even music. It concerns a news anchor by the name of Howard Beale, who vows to commit suicide on air. He's fed up of his life, his marriage and the meaningless crap he's forced to report. Why not end it all?
Beale's angry rants and morbid honesty begin to appeal to audiences, and soon he's the star of his own show. Beale's network (UBS) hates his instability but loves the fact that he's bringing in huge ratings. Soon his anti-establishment stance is being prostituted as a means to make easy money. As the film unfolds, we watch as dissent is commodified and the counterculture becomes part of capitalism's politico-military-media complex. Like "The Parallax View", all shocks to the system are enveloped.
To the powers that rule the news, Beale is a powerless fish in a pond far bigger than himself. They let him speak his mind because they know that he's ultimately impotent. But as UBS grows in stature and clout, unseen corporations begin to buy it up. Shares are sold, managers are changed, until eventually a mysterious Saudi Arabian company, backed by oil money, orchestrates a silent take over. Suddenly Beale is no longer a news reporter; he is seen as a prophet of truth, a tool whom new, unseen shareholders decide to use for their own ends.
Beale will not stand for this. He rallies the population and gets them to send angry letters to the White House. Due to public pressure and cold hard democracy, the Saudi Arabian company is forced to back down. Behind closed doors, shares and stock change hands.
Angry that Beale has thwarted a lucrative business deal, the mysterious head of UPS - played by Ned Beatty as a fuming corporate psychopath - summons Beale to his office. His scene steals the movie. Apocalyptic and furious, Ned tears apart Beale's philosophy with his own "corporate cosmology".
Patriotism, race, nationality, democracy, religion, these are all dead modes of organisation. The world is ruled by business. Profit has replaced prophet and the only effective praying is done by greedy conglomerates who prey on the wants and needs of the many. Man is standardised and institutionalised, he says. Individuality is important only insofar as it is marketable to the drones. All the troubles in the world are caused, not by the horizontal distinctions between race, religion and colour, but between the vertical distinctions between class, money and power.
As such, Ned demands that Beale preach a new message. That the world is one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit. A company in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilised, all boredom amused. Beale is chosen to preach this evangel, and so he leaves Ned's office as a battered and disillusioned man.
Needless to say, America does not like the new Howard Beale. His defeatist truth is too bleak, too harsh and too gloomy. They want a revolutionary and a prophet, someone to offer them hope. Beale sees no more hope.
Beale is assassinated days later, because of his increasingly low ratings. Over the course of the film, we've watched Beale transition from suicidal news reporter, to empowered revolutionary, to disillusioned wise man, to a dead and discarded piece of meat. The film is defeatist, though Beale's combative spirit continues to live on in certain circles, very much like Paul Newman's dead character in "Cool Hand Luke".
9/10 - "Network" still packs a prophetic punch, thanks largely to Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay. A control freak and auteur, Chayefsky (and producer Howard Gottfried) submitted the "Network" script to United Artists in 1975. UA drew up a short list of directors suitable for the production. This list included Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick and Sidney Lumet. Kubrick was given a script and sent back a favourable reply, but Chayefsky, who was as much a stickler for control as Kubrick, didn't want to hand his vision over to an auteur. Sidnet Lumet was finally chosen because it was felt that his working methods were suitably restrained. Years later, Chayefsky would remove his name from the "Altered States" screenplay because of Ken Loach's wild style. Chayefsky views his screenplay as the final word. The story set in stone. And in "Network" Lumet obliges by filming his words as simply and religiously as possible.
Realising how much money could potentially be made in films, major corporations started buying up the Hollywood studios. The corporate mentality these companies brought to the film-making business would slowly squeeze out the more idiosyncratic of the young New Wave filmmakers, while ensconcing the more malleable and commercially successful of them. Modern Hollywood was born. A smooth conveyor belt that bowed to art only when trends got stale. Test screenings, market analysis, committee screenplays and multi demographic franchises were here to stay.
"Network" is a Sidney Lumet satire devoid of pyrotechnics, fancy editing, noticeable camera work or even music. It concerns a news anchor by the name of Howard Beale, who vows to commit suicide on air. He's fed up of his life, his marriage and the meaningless crap he's forced to report. Why not end it all?
Beale's angry rants and morbid honesty begin to appeal to audiences, and soon he's the star of his own show. Beale's network (UBS) hates his instability but loves the fact that he's bringing in huge ratings. Soon his anti-establishment stance is being prostituted as a means to make easy money. As the film unfolds, we watch as dissent is commodified and the counterculture becomes part of capitalism's politico-military-media complex. Like "The Parallax View", all shocks to the system are enveloped.
To the powers that rule the news, Beale is a powerless fish in a pond far bigger than himself. They let him speak his mind because they know that he's ultimately impotent. But as UBS grows in stature and clout, unseen corporations begin to buy it up. Shares are sold, managers are changed, until eventually a mysterious Saudi Arabian company, backed by oil money, orchestrates a silent take over. Suddenly Beale is no longer a news reporter; he is seen as a prophet of truth, a tool whom new, unseen shareholders decide to use for their own ends.
Beale will not stand for this. He rallies the population and gets them to send angry letters to the White House. Due to public pressure and cold hard democracy, the Saudi Arabian company is forced to back down. Behind closed doors, shares and stock change hands.
Angry that Beale has thwarted a lucrative business deal, the mysterious head of UPS - played by Ned Beatty as a fuming corporate psychopath - summons Beale to his office. His scene steals the movie. Apocalyptic and furious, Ned tears apart Beale's philosophy with his own "corporate cosmology".
Patriotism, race, nationality, democracy, religion, these are all dead modes of organisation. The world is ruled by business. Profit has replaced prophet and the only effective praying is done by greedy conglomerates who prey on the wants and needs of the many. Man is standardised and institutionalised, he says. Individuality is important only insofar as it is marketable to the drones. All the troubles in the world are caused, not by the horizontal distinctions between race, religion and colour, but between the vertical distinctions between class, money and power.
As such, Ned demands that Beale preach a new message. That the world is one vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit. A company in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilised, all boredom amused. Beale is chosen to preach this evangel, and so he leaves Ned's office as a battered and disillusioned man.
Needless to say, America does not like the new Howard Beale. His defeatist truth is too bleak, too harsh and too gloomy. They want a revolutionary and a prophet, someone to offer them hope. Beale sees no more hope.
Beale is assassinated days later, because of his increasingly low ratings. Over the course of the film, we've watched Beale transition from suicidal news reporter, to empowered revolutionary, to disillusioned wise man, to a dead and discarded piece of meat. The film is defeatist, though Beale's combative spirit continues to live on in certain circles, very much like Paul Newman's dead character in "Cool Hand Luke".
9/10 - "Network" still packs a prophetic punch, thanks largely to Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay. A control freak and auteur, Chayefsky (and producer Howard Gottfried) submitted the "Network" script to United Artists in 1975. UA drew up a short list of directors suitable for the production. This list included Roman Polanski, Stanley Kubrick and Sidney Lumet. Kubrick was given a script and sent back a favourable reply, but Chayefsky, who was as much a stickler for control as Kubrick, didn't want to hand his vision over to an auteur. Sidnet Lumet was finally chosen because it was felt that his working methods were suitably restrained. Years later, Chayefsky would remove his name from the "Altered States" screenplay because of Ken Loach's wild style. Chayefsky views his screenplay as the final word. The story set in stone. And in "Network" Lumet obliges by filming his words as simply and religiously as possible.