Network Notes

I recently watched Network, the 1976 movie that made "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take this anymore!" famous. One of the movies many people will say "you must see," I decided to cross it off the list.

The movie begins with a network news anchor being given two weeks' notice of losing his job. The next night, he blurts out on his broadcast that without his job he has nothing left to live for, and so he plans to kill himself live on an upcoming broadcast. The producers yank him off the air, but then reluctantly agree to allow him one final on-air editorial in which to apologize for the outburst. Instead, he rants and curses on the air... and stirs up big ratings, leading to an all new format in which he rails against society.

Some have lauded the movie as prescient, and indeed parts of it seem quaint and lose all context now, three decades later. Essentially, this news anchor character's ranting, which is supposed to seem so shocking and risque at the time, is exactly the sort of show that Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, or Keith Olbermann has today -- and there's little or nothing outrageous about it. How times have changed, right?

But there are still a few "jokes," if you will, about television gone too far that still play today. (Maybe not for much longer, though.) For example, as part of a subplot, a ball-busting producer played by Faye Dunaway champions a one-hour drama that opens every episode with footage shot by a domestic terrorist organization as they carry out one of their missions, then expanding into a "story behind the story" dramatized hour. We see television executives meeting to discuss the practicalities of such a program, and even handling contract negotiations with representatives of the terrorist group to get the footage they need.

The idea of the story still plays, and the acting is mostly good (though a bit over the top at times). But unfortunately, I still regard Network as a weak movie. The problem is that it doesn't stay focused on skewering television. Instead, the back half of the movie gets bogged down in a completely unnecessary subplot about a romance between the fired head of news and Faye Dunaway's executive character. It wouldn't even actually be fair to call it a "subplot"; the story actually takes over the film and dominates the final 45 minutes. And it lacks any trace of the satire or drama that the first chunk of the movie has.

Between the flaws I feel were baked in from day one, and the fact the movie really hasn't aged well, I can't give it more than a C-.