Network

Genre: Black Comedy / Satire

Premise: Howard Beale, an aging TV anchorman for UBS, is fired and to be off air in two weeks after a long decline in ratings. He reacts by announcing his intention to commit suicide on air and becomes a major TV icon and one of the most valuable assets to CCA, the company that’s buying out UBS. Beale is even given his own show. The program is a huge success, but when Beal begins to make shocking revelations about CCA, people start planning his assassination.

About: In the late 1970’s when a major worldwide company was in negotiations to buy ABC, Paddy Chayefsky realized once a multinational corporation took over a network, they might try to make the news division a profit center, enabling them to bastardize the news and turn it into entertainment. Chayefsky had just come out of a lawsuit with United Artists challenging the studio’s right to release Chayefsky’s previous film, Hospital, in combination with another, much inferior picture. As a result, producer Howard Gottfried secured a deal at MGM.
Writers: Paddy Chayefsky

Selected by The National Film registry, praised by The Library of Congress, and voted one of the top ten scripts of all time by the Writers Guild –East, Network is the pinnacle of screenwriting excellence. I think we all know it for the “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore” line. And while I also definitely enjoy the film, are these accolades well merited?

You know what I love about Network more than anything? How it switches between main story line (Beale going crazy and having his TV show) and the side plot of Diana Christiansen, the workaholic network exec, and her relationship with Max Schumacher, the aged news executive, who enters in a failed romantic tryst with her. The Beale scenes are crazily over the top, and the scenes with Diana and Max are smooth, quiet, drama. And that’s the brilliant thing about Network. It balances a whole bunch of different tones (quiet drama, craziness, behind the scenes) into one acceptable atmosphere. In that way, it’s sort of set up like an Altman film where all these universes collide on one another.

Also, this film is great at carrying out into scenes that probably wouldn’t work in real life, but we’re capable of accepting due to film logic. The long monologues. All the crowds that go hog wild over the “mad as hell” thing. There’s also a sex scene where Diana and Max discuss ratings, which works great and is totally memorable. There’s so much stuff here that the audience is sold on because it hooks you just right.

The thing is, Network doesn’t have much of a meaning besides the fact that the television audience is a bunch of drones. There’s a rant about the evils of Arabians. Are we supposed to take that face value? Yes. Ultimately television is a medium capable of brainwashing people with bad ideas. But, ultimately, because Chayefsky lets Beale spew out whatever insane message he wants, that means we’re giving truth and legitimacy to these rants, which are at times bigoted and xenophobic. Chayefsky made a really powerful script, but I’m not sure he handled the material responsibly. And as a result, Network comes across with a message I’m not too crazy about.

What does this mean in terms of the media as depicted? TV has become crap. Nothing but cheap thrills. Shock jocks. Howard Stern. Jerry Springer. And, as the world gets crazier, television becomes a medium filled with more loons and crazier ringmasters. And ultimately, we’re becoming slaves to this crap and need to break out and act in our own ways. We must unleash ourselves from TV. I think in the late 70's, this was probably a much more startling and fresh idea then it is now. This message now is a blatantly obvious one.

Scooby Doo (Complete Crap)
Atilla (Poor, Few Redeeming Qualities)
Wedding Crashers (Mediocre)
[X] - Hot Rod (Good)
Definitely Maybe (Pretty Darn Good)

Isla Prospects: The Faye Dunaway would be a great Isla role. It has the suave, woman of the world feel to it Isla pulls off so successfully in Definitely, Maybe.

What I Learned: You always hear that extended monologues don’t fly in screenplays. But, with the right dialogue, the right theme and introduced in the same frame monologues can be really successful. In Network, these monologues have become one of the most memorable parts to the film. It’s a great turn. And another example that there are no hard or fast rules to the screenwriting craft.