Network (1976 film)
Network | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sidney Lumet |
Written by | Paddy Chayefsky |
Produced by | Howard Gottfried Fred C. Caruso |
Starring | |
Narrated by | Lee Richardson |
Cinematography | Owen Roizman |
Edited by | Alan Heim |
Music by | Elliot Lawrence |
Production company | |
Distributed by | United Artists |
Release date |
|
Running time | 121 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3.8 million |
Box office | $23.7 million[2] |
Network is a 1976 American
Network received widespread critical acclaim, with particular praise for the screenplay and performances. The film was a commercial success, with nine Oscar nominations at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture, resulting in four wins: Best Actor for Finch, the first actor honored posthumously with an Oscar, Best Actress for Dunaway, Best Supporting Actress for Straight, who gave the shortest performance to ever win an Oscar, and a screenplay award for Chayefsky.
In 2000, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3][4] In 2002, it was inducted into the Producers Guild of America Hall of Fame as a film that has "set an enduring standard for American entertainment".[5] Widely considered one of the greatest screenplays of all time,[6] in 2005 the Writers Guilds of America voted Chayefsky's script one of the 10 greatest screenplays in the history of cinema.[7] In 2007, the film was 64th among the 100 greatest American films as chosen by the American Film Institute, a ranking slightly higher than the one AFI had given it ten years earlier.
Plot
In September 1975, Howard Beale, the longtime anchor for the UBS Evening News, learns from friend and news division president Max Schumacher that he has just two more weeks on the air because of declining ratings. The following night, Beale announces to his audience that he will commit suicide on next Tuesday's newscast. UBS tries to immediately fire Beale, but Schumacher intervenes so that he can have a dignified farewell. Beale promises to apologize for his outburst, but once on the air, he launches into a rant about life being "bullshit". Beale's outburst causes ratings to spike, and much to Schumacher's dismay, UBS executives decide to exploit the situation. When Beale's ratings soon top out, programming chief Diana Christensen reaches out to Schumacher with an offer to help "develop" Beale's show. He declines the professional proposal but accepts her more personal pitch; the two begin an affair.
When Schumacher decides to end Beale's "angry man" format, Christensen persuades her boss, Frank Hackett, to slot the evening news show under the entertainment division so she can develop it. Hackett bullies UBS executives to consent and fire Schumacher. In one impassioned diatribe, Beale galvanizes the nation, persuading viewers to shout, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" from their windows. He is soon hosting a new program called The Howard Beale Show, top-billed as "the mad prophet of the airwaves". The show becomes the most highly rated program on television, and Beale finds new celebrity preaching his angry
Seeking another hit, Christensen cuts a deal with a terrorist group called the Ecumenical Liberation Army (ELA) for a new docudrama series, The Mao Tse-Tung Hour, for which the ELA will provide exclusive footage of their activities. Meanwhile, Beale discovers that Communications Corporation of America (CCA), the parent company of UBS, will be bought out by a larger Saudi conglomerate. He urges his audience to pressure the White House to quash the deal. This panics UBS because the network's debt load has made the merger essential for its survival. CCA chairman Arthur Jensen arranges a meeting with Beale, describing the interrelatedness of the participants in the international economy and the illusory nature of nationality distinctions. Jensen scolds Beale and persuades him to abandon his message and preach his new "evangel".
Christensen's fanatical devotion to her job and emotional emptiness ultimately drive Schumacher away, warning her that she will self-destruct if she continues on her current path. Audiences find Beale's new sermons on the dehumanization of society depressing and ratings start to slip, yet Jensen refuses to fire him. Seeing its two-for-the-price-of-one value – solving the Beale problem while at the same time sparking a boost in season-opener ratings – Christensen, Hackett and the other executives decide to hire the ELA to assassinate Beale on the air. The assassination succeeds, putting an end to The Howard Beale Show and kicking off the second season of The Mao Tse-Tung Hour. A voice-over proclaims, "This was the story of Howard Beale: the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings."
Cast
- Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen
- William Holden as Max Schumacher
- Peter Finch as Howard Beale
- Robert Duvall as Frank Hackett
- Wesley Addy as Nelson Chaney
- Ned Beatty as Arthur Jensen
- Jordan Charney as Harry Hunter
- Conchata Ferrell as Barbara Schlesinger
- Darryl Hickman as Bill Herron
- Roy Poole as Sam Haywood
- William Prince as Edward George Ruddy
- Beatrice Straight as Louise Schumacher
- Marlene Warfield as Laureen Hobbs
- Arthur Burghardt as Great Ahmed Kahn
- Kathy Cronkite as Mary Ann Gifford
In addition, Lee Richardson provides various moments of narration advancing additional plot details.
Production
Development and writing
Network came only two years after the first on-screen suicide in television history, of television news reporter Christine Chubbuck in Sarasota, Florida.[8] The anchorwoman was suffering from depression and loneliness, was often emotionally distant from her co-workers, and shot herself on camera as stunned viewers watched on July 15, 1974. Chayefsky used the idea of a live death as his film's terminating focal point, to say later in an interview, "Television will do anything for a rating... anything!" However, Dave Itzkoff's book (Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies) allows that whether Chayefsky was inspired by the Chubbuck case remains unclear, that Chayefsky's screenplay notes on the week of the live death have nothing about the incident in them, and grants it is an eerie parallel. It was to be months later that actual direct reference was made, Chayefsky writing for Beale to bray that he "will blow my brains out right on the air ... like that girl in Florida", which met with a delete.[9] Sidney Lumet made the categorical statement that the character of Howard Beale was never based on any real-life person.[10]
Before beginning his screenplay, Chayefsky visited network TV offices. He was surprised to learn that television executives did not watch much television. "The programs they put on 'had to' be bad, had to be something they wouldn't watch," he remarked. "Imagine having to work like that all your life."
Chayefsky and producer Howard Gottfried had just come off a lawsuit against United Artists, challenging the studio's right to lease their previous film, The Hospital, to ABC in a package with a less successful film. Despite this recent legal action, Chayefsky and Gottfried signed a deal with UA to finance Network, until UA found the subject matter too controversial and backed out. Undeterred, Chayefsky and Gottfried shopped the script around to other studios, and eventually found an interested party in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Soon afterward, United Artists reversed itself and looked to co-finance the film with MGM, since the latter had an ongoing distribution arrangement with UA in North America. Since MGM agreed to let UA back on board, the former (through United Artists as per the arrangement) controlled North American/Caribbean rights, with UA opting for overseas distribution.[a]
Casting
In his notes, Chayefsky jotted down his ideas about casting. For Howard Beale, who would eventually be played by Peter Finch, he envisioned Henry Fonda, Cary Grant, James Stewart and Paul Newman. He went so far as to write Newman, telling him that "You and a very small handful of other actors are the only ones I can think of with the range for this part." Lumet wanted Fonda, with whom he had worked several times, but Fonda declined the role, finding it too "hysterical" for his taste. Stewart also found the script unsuitable, objecting to the strong language. Early consideration was given to real-life newscasters Walter Cronkite and John Chancellor, but neither was open to the idea. Although not mentioned in Chayefsky's notes, George C. Scott, Glenn Ford and William Holden reportedly also turned down the opportunity to play Beale, with Holden instead playing Max Schumacher: For that role, Chayefsky had initially listed Walter Matthau and Gene Hackman. Ford was under consideration for this part as well, and was said to be one of two final contenders. Holden finally got the edge because of his recent box-office success with The Towering Inferno.[15]
Producers were wary that Finch, an Australian, would not be able to sound authentically American; they demanded an audition before his casting could be considered. An actor of considerable prominence, Finch reportedly responded, "Bugger pride. Put the script in the mail." Immediately realizing that the role was a plum, he even agreed to pay his own fare to New York for a screen test. He prepared for the audition by listening to hours of broadcasts by American newscasters, and by weeks of reading the international editions of The New York Times and the Herald Tribune into a tape recorder, then listening to playbacks with a critical ear. Gottfried recalled that Finch "was nervous as hell at that first meeting over lunch and just like a kid auditioning. Once we'd heard him, Sidney Lumet, Paddy, and I were ecstatic because we knew it was a hell of a part to cast." Finch cinched the deal with Lumet by playing him the tapes of his newspaper readings.[16]
Dunaway was cast as Diana in September 1975. Lumet told her that he would edit any attempts on her part to make her character sympathetic and insisted on presenting her without any vulnerability. Lumet cast
Filming
After two weeks of rehearsals, filming started in Toronto in January 1976.[22] Lumet recalled that Chayefsky was usually on set during filming, and sometimes offered advice about how certain scenes should be played. Lumet allowed that his old friend had the better comic instincts of the two, but when it came to the domestic confrontation between Holden and Straight, the four-times-married director had the upper hand: "Paddy, please, I know more about divorce than you!" Finch, who had suffered from heart problems for many years, became physically and psychologically exhausted by the demands of playing Beale.[23]
There was some concern that the combination of Holden and Dunaway might create conflict on the set, since the two had sparred during an earlier co-starring stint in The Towering Inferno. According to biographer Bob Thomas, Holden had been incensed by Dunaway's behavior during the filming of the disaster epic, especially her habit of leaving him fuming on the set while she attended to her hair, makeup and telephone calls. One day, after a two-hour wait, Holden reportedly grabbed Dunaway by the shoulders, pushed her against a soundstage wall and snapped, "You do that to me once more, and I'll push you through that wall!"[citation needed]
Lumet and cinematographer Owen Roizman worked out a complicated lighting scheme that in Lumet's words would "corrupt the camera". Lumet recalled: "We started with an almost naturalistic look. For the first scene between Peter Finch and Bill Holden, on Sixth Avenue at night, we added only enough light to get an exposure. As the movie progressed, camera setups became more rigid, more formal. The lighting became more and more artificial. The next-to-final scene—where Faye Dunaway, Robert Duvall, and the three network gray suits decide to kill Peter Finch—is lit like a commercial. The camera setups are static and framed like still pictures. The camera had also become a victim of television."[19]
Release
The film premiered in New York City on November 27, 1976, and went into wide release shortly afterward.
Critical reception
Network opened to widespread critical acclaim, and became one of the big hits of 1976–77. Vincent Canby, in his November 1976 review of the film for The New York Times, called the film "outrageous ... brilliantly, cruelly funny, a topical American comedy that confirms Paddy Chayefsky's position as a major new American satirist" and a film whose "wickedly distorted views of the way television looks, sounds, and, indeed, is, are the satirist's cardiogram of the hidden heart, not just of television but also of the society that supports it and is, in turn, supported."[24] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film four stars out of four, calling it "a very funny movie that takes an easy target and giddily beats it to death."[25] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times put the film on his list of the 10 best of the year.[26]
In a review of the film written after it received its Academy Awards,
Not all reviews were positive:
On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 91% based on 76 reviews, with an average rating of 8.50/10. The site's critics consensus states, "Driven by populist fury and elevated by strong direction, powerful acting, and an intelligent script, Network's searing satire of ratings-driven news remains sadly relevant more than four decades later."[33] On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[34]
Legacy
Screenwriter
In popular culture
The film's catchphrase "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" and its derivatives have been referenced in a variety of media, including The Tubes' 1979 album Remote Control, the 1989 comedy UHF, "America Number One" by Consolidated (1990) and "Corporate Slave" by Snog (1992).
The "Mad as Hell" monologue is sampled by Dutch hardstyle artist
Other references include the first Animaniacs episode "De-Zanitized", Spike Lee's film Bamboozled, the first episode of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, and Episode 15 of Season 4 of Boston Legal.
Mad As Hell, a satirical Australian news show starring Shaun Micallef which began in 2012, takes its title from Finch's monologue; the various different incarnations of the opening sequence all feature visual references to the sequence of viewers yelling from their windows into the street.[37]
The 2014 documentary film Mad as Hell, about the news series The Young Turks, takes its title from the monologue.
In Better Call Saul's first episode "Uno" (2015), Jimmy McGill quotes part of Jensen's diatribe when he is lambasting the board of his brother's law firm, addressing Howard Hamlin, then tells his confused audience that his quote came from Network. The same camera angle is employed in both instances.[38]
Stage adaptation
A stage adaptation by Lee Hall premiered in the Lyttleton Theatre at the National Theatre in London in November 2017. The play was directed by Ivo Van Hove featuring Bryan Cranston making his UK stage debut as Howard Beale, and Michelle Dockery as Diana.[39][40] It opened on Broadway on December 6, 2018, with Cranston reprising his role as Beale, and with Tatiana Maslany as Diana and Tony Goldwyn as Max Schumacher.[41]
Awards and honors
At the Academy Awards, Network won three of the four acting awards. As of 2023, it is the second of only three films which have accomplished this feat, preceded by A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) and followed by Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022).
Peter Finch died before the 1977 ceremony and was the only performer to win a posthumous acting Academy Award (until 2009 when Heath Ledger won Best Supporting Actor). The statuette itself was collected by Finch's widow, Eletha Finch, after Chayefsky invited her onstage.
Beatrice Straight's performance as Louise Schumacher occupied only five minutes and two seconds of screen time, making it the shortest performance to win an Oscar as of 2022[update] (breaking Gloria Grahame's nine minute and 32 second screen time record for The Bad and the Beautiful in 1953).[42] Additionally, Ned Beatty's performance of Arthur Jensen occupied only six minutes of screen time, also making it the shortest performance by an actor to be nominated for an Oscar as of 2024[update].[43]
American Film Institute
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – #66
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs – Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains:
- Diana Christensen – Nominated Villain
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" – #19
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – #64
Notes
- Turner Entertainment Co. to handle rights to this library on August 2, 1986. In 1996, Turner Broadcasting System merged with Time Warner (now Warner Bros. Discovery) putting the majority of the pre-May 1986 MGM library in the hands of Warner Bros.However, since MGM retained the rights to the United Artists library, Network is in a unique position of being owned by both companies. Today, Warner Bros. (via Turner Entertainment Co.) controls the film in the North America, while MGM controls the film internationally.
- ^ Tied with Annie Girardot for Run After Me Until I Catch You.
- ^ Tied with Rocky.
References
- ^ "Network (15)". United Artists. British Board of Film Classification. November 1, 1976. Archived from the original on April 18, 2017. Retrieved August 8, 2023.
- ^ "Network, Box Office Information". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on February 24, 2020. Retrieved January 23, 2012.
- ^ "Complete National Film Registry Listing". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on October 19, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ "Librarian of Congress Names 25 More Films to National Film Registry". Library of Congress. Archived from the original on April 3, 2019. Retrieved May 6, 2020.
- ^ Archive of Producers Guild Hall of Fame – Past Inductees, Producers Guild of America official site. Accessed October 31, 2010. Original site.
- ^ Chayefsky, Paddy. Network (1976) screenplay (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on May 14, 2023.
NARRATOR: This story is about Howard Beale who was the network news anchorman on UBS-TV
- Writers Guild of America, West. Archivedfrom the original on November 22, 2016. Retrieved November 29, 2015.
- ^ "Television will eat itself in Sidney Lumet's searing satire". dead link. October 1, 2008. [dead link]
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave. Mad as Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies. Henry Holt and Company, 2014, p. 47.[1]
- ^ "Sidney Lumet on directing the film "Network" - EMMYTVLEGENDS.ORG". YouTube. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved July 14, 2017.
- ^ "Network At 40". The Attic. Retrieved July 27, 2018.
- ^ from the original on February 21, 2017. Retrieved March 13, 2017.
- ISBN 0-671-67526-5. Archivedfrom the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2020.
- UPI. July 31, 1978 – via Milwaukee Sentinel.
- ^ Network Archived February 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine TCM. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
- ISBN 9780207958311.
- ^ "Robert Mitchum: Not Starring ..." Archived from the original on November 7, 2017. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ISBN 0-671-67526-5.
- ^ ISBN 9780679756606.
- ISBN 9780345353993.
- ^ "Part 2: Network (1976): Why The Acting Is So Good-Acting-CinemaTyler on YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on April 9, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ^ "Network (1976)". AFI Catalogue of Feature Films. Los Angeles: American Film Institute. Archived from the original on September 29, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
- ^ "Network (1976): Why The Acting Is So Good-Acting-CinemaTyler on YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on September 20, 2018. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ^ Review of Network Archived February 7, 2012, at the Wayback Machine from the November 15, 1976 edition of The New York Times
- Siskel, Gene (December 19, 1976). "'Network' power scrambles TV's set image". Chicago Tribune. Section 6, p. 2-3.
- Champlin, Charles (January 2, 1977). "Picking the Top 10 Motion Pictures in a Lean Year". Los Angeles Times. Calendar, p. 1, 30.
- ^ Review of Network by Roger Ebert from the 1970s
- ^ Review of Network Archived February 4, 2013, at the Wayback Machine by Roger Ebert from October 2000
- ^ Kael, Pauline (December 6, 1976). "Hot Air". The New Yorker. p. 177.
- ^ Arnold, Gary (December 16, 1976). "'Network': Satirical Overkill". The Washington Post. B1.
- ISBN 0-684-19051-6.
- ISBN 0-14-017513-X.
- ^ "Network (1976)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved January 19, 2024.
- ^ "Network". Metacritic. Retrieved October 1, 2021.
- ^ Itzkoff, Dave (May 19, 2011). "Notes of a Screenwriter, Mad as Hell". The New York Times. Archived from the original on January 16, 2017. Retrieved January 13, 2017.
- ^ "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time". Empire. Bauer Media Group. Archived from the original on August 14, 2011. Retrieved August 17, 2011.
- ^ "Airdate: Shaun Micallef's Mad as Hell". TV Tonight. April 27, 2012. Archived from the original on August 5, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ Salud, April (February 24, 2015). "'It's From a Movie': A Guide to Better Call Saul". Geek and Sundry. Archived from the original on August 4, 2020. Retrieved July 4, 2020.
- ^ "New for 2017 and 2018 | National Theatre". www.nationaltheatre.org.uk. Archived from the original on February 2, 2017. Retrieved March 20, 2017.
- ^ Billington, Michael (November 13, 2017). "Network review – Bryan Cranston is mad as hell in blazing staging of Oscar winner". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 26, 2021. Retrieved November 14, 2017.
- ^ "Breaking: Tony Goldwyn Joins Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany in NETWORK on Broadway". broadwayworld.com. Wisdom Digital Media. September 27, 2018. Archived from the original on October 15, 2018. Retrieved October 15, 2018.
- ^ "Beatrice Straight performance length". Serving Cinema. Archived from the original on August 6, 2017. Retrieved October 9, 2016.
- ^ Stewart, Matthew (January 30, 2021). "Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominees: Who contended for a performance of only 139 seconds?". GoldDerby. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
- ^ "Awards for 1976 - LAFCA". Archived from the original on February 8, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
- ^ "Accademia del Cinema Italiano - Premi David di Donatello". Archived from the original on April 26, 2020. Retrieved November 8, 2020.
Further reading
- Itzkoff, David. "Notes of a Screenwriter, Mad as Hell", The New York Times, 19 May 2011
- Parker, James. "Madder Than Hell: How Network Anticipated Contemporary Media". The Atlantic. No. March 2014. Retrieved July 16, 2016.
External links
- Network essay by Joanna E. Rapf on the National Film Registry website
- Network at AllMovie
- Network at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Network at Box Office Mojo
- Network at IMDb
- Network at the TCM Movie Database
- Network essay by Daniel Eagan in America's Film Legacy: The Authoritative Guide to the Landmark Movies in the National Film Registry, A&C Black, 2010 ISBN 0826429777, pages 733-735
- Network: Thoughts on Being Mad As Hell | Brows Held High on official YouTube channel