I know I personally have a lot of issues with the majority of the movies released during the late 1960s/1970s for some reason. I don't know if it was the type of film they used back then, or the style of cinematography, but I don't like the way a lot of them look. Prior to this period, the movies are all in technicolor wonderfulness and somewhere in the early 80s they changed things, but these movies released in the 70s look and often feel very dated to me. "Network" swings both ways here.
Though the film may look dated in certain places, it certainly doesn't feel like it is. The story is surprisingly very relevant to today, with our current TV culture of 24/7 network news stations that sometimes make up news to make news (Balloon Boy 2009 anybody?) or where shows that are based in "reality" are not really "reality" and destroy the show's targets (see the self-destruction of Jon and Kate's marriage because of their fame.) At times I couldn't believe the movie was written in the 70s. So either writer Paddy Chayefsky was psychic OR real TV network execs saw this movie and decided it would be a good idea to everything that the movie was saying wrong.
The network referred to in "Network" is the fourth place, ratings challenged, and floundering UBS, who's evening news is the lowest rated show and so they decide to fire the current news anchor, Howard Beale (played by an intensely crazy Peter Finch, who infamously died between the filming of the movie and winning his Oscar for it.) So Beale goes on a bender on how sucky life is and ends up telling everybody in America over the news that he is going to kill himself on air and to get off their couches, go out to window and scream "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" So they do because he speaks to the inner anguish of the viewers, and so a man with a serious mental problem ends up becoming a national superstar and saves the UBS Network. Some other key players include a wonderfully ruthless, young, you-know-what executive played by Faye Dunaway who also won an Oscar for this part. It's so nice to see her be subtle because the last movie I watched her in was "Mommie Dearest" and that's anything but subtle. Her character is the one who capitalizes on Beale's insanity. William Holden, who got SO old between making this movie and "Sunset Blvd" plays the voice of reason at the network and doesn't like what is happening with Beale. And then the crazy-ass ending where everything goes just a bit too far and the executives decide to kill Beale on the air, and I was kind of left in shock, just because it shows how far people will go for ratings or for entertainment. Here's an example from a couple years ago: Anna Nicole Smith. Someone with serious issues, exploited for TV, and she ends up dead. How this movie know this sort of stuff would happen?!
The plot is way more complicated than what I typed out, and I admit some of the dialogue went WAY over my head, but I did like this movie. The performances of the entire cast really made it awesome. Perhaps not as one of the greatest movies ever made, as it's been called, but I did think it's a very good classic, and an important film.
Patrick Approval Rating: 8/10
"Network" @ imdb
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