Movie Description
With stunning prescience, Sidney Lumet's searing satire of television and the contemporary moment chronicles media corruption and the way that the public buys into the myths the media creates. The moral and spiritual turpitude delivered by the debilitating forces of television are rendered in sharp relief against a backdrop of crumbling humanity in what is regarded as one of the great satires in Hollywood history. With a visceral script from Paddy Chayefsky, NETWORK follows the doomed path of aging newsman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), who, upon learning that he is to be fired after decades as a news anchor, announces to millions of viewers that he will publicly commit suicide during his last broadcast. When the ratings consequently shoot up, hungry executive-in-training Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) seizes the moment to exploit Beale's Messianic nervous breakdown, turning his rage into the vehicle for the network's first Number One show and a nationwide craze. Who could have predicted that this 1976 film might someday influence an even more contagious trend in television broadcasting: the reality show?
| Credits | | Producer: | Howard Gottfried | | Cast: | Bernie Pollack, Cameron Thomas, Fred Stuthman, Kathy Cronkite, Kenneth Kimmins, Lane Smith, Lee Richardson, Lydia Wilson, Lynn Klugman, Marlene Warfield, Michael Lipton, Michael Lombard, Paul Jenkins, Peter Finch, Pirie MacDonald, Roy Poole, Theodore Sorel, Zane Lasky |
| Details | | Edition: | 2-Disc Special Edition |
Editorial Reviews
"...A vicious, exaggerated satire which aims for barbed black humour over belly laughs....[With a] sharp screenplay..."
Total Film - Andy Lowe (09/01/2000)
"Finch won a posthumous Oscar for his all-over-the-map portrayal of Beale."
Premiere - Premiere Staff (04/01/2004)
4 stars out of 4 -- "If movies can tell the future, then this 1976 harbinger about a major network's calculated and deranged ratings grab is right on time."
Rolling Stone - Peter Relic (03/09/2006)
"NETWORK is the perfect meeting of director and screenplay....Lumet and Chayefsky's real achievement is the subtle escalation of the drama..."
Empire - Adam Smith (10/01/2008)
Awards
1976Academy AwardsBest ActorPeter Finch, 1976Academy AwardsBest ActressFaye Dunaway, 1976Academy AwardsBest Original ScreenplayPaddy Chayefsky, 1976Academy AwardsBest Supporting ActressBeatrice Straight
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