Nowadays, among the constant influx of sequels and formulaic blockbusters, films rarely make audiences think. The odd episodes of exposé rarely shock contemporary moviegoers as various outlets from E! Entertainment Television to the National Enquirer keep us up to date with everything going on in the showbiz industry. When scandalous gossip is more hidden, for example, when The Simpsons make jokes about Fox and the control Rupert Murdoch's company try to exercise over the hit show, the more worldly wise among us pretend we understand the behind the scenes tittle-tattle and guffaw accordingly. Back in the 1970s though, being an average citizen with an insider ticket into the business was a new phenomenon. The public knew little about the strength of studios and how, when certain executives decided to throw their weight around, the ripples of their sometimes shocking decisions caused many repercussions.
Sidney Lumet's Oscar-winning film is a dark satirical joy, dismissed by some in 1976 as a paranoid piece, the news-as-entertainment idea is now more significant than ever. Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay is simply exquisite. The critique of television networks (in this case the fictitious UBS) in their quest for Nielsen ratings is engrossing in itself without the need for the intricate main story threads and abundant slight nuances we are treated to, but they are risks which pay off and only enrich this chronicle of media corruption and how the industry's turpitudes manipulate the public. Peter Finch's Howard Beale is the catalyst for the plot and, even though he bagged the Best Actor Academy Award for his performance, the Australian-English hero of the Golden Age is arguably only the hors d'oeuvre to the dramatic turns of William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall in this fine yarn of depression, difficulty and desperation. Beale, an anchorman fired as a result of poor ratings brought on by alcoholism, is a man driven to the edge who is exploited by the network he has helped build. Holden's Max Schumacher has to reluctantly let his friend Beale go but is stuck with a dilemma when his power is threatened by Dunaway's Diana and Duvall's Frank, two studio executives higher up the food chain willing to exploit Beale's insanity for a skyrocket in ratings.
The reason for Network's touchstone status as a bona fide classic is as a result of the various shifts in tone and genre the audience gallops through in two hours without ever losing focus. Beale and the appearance of the annoying liberation army (another group begging to be exploited) are treated with overt excess - Beale's famous speech along the lines of not being able to take anymore still hits home today with its proficient raw emotion from Finch, a real classic dramatic connoisseur. The poignancy of the film also spreads to the Dunaway/Holden/Beatrice Straight (in a Best Supporting Actress turn) romantic love triangle. Dunaway's Best Actress performance echoes the calculation of a noir femme fatale but is more palpable in her intentions - she even talks endlessly about ratings whilst having sex with the smitten Schumacher, a family man caught in her whirlwind rampage on the studio. Diana is such a career woman, a 1990s female power player in a regimented patriarchal world decades before her time. With Schumacher as the glue, the office scenes touch on gritty realism. Holden's interaction with Duvall over the future of the network is electric, Dunaway chips in with wacky ideas which have so obviously influenced the eccentrics we have in charge of television today, and Ned Beatty even steals a scene in the final moments, a monologue David Mamet could have so easily drawn inspiration from for Alec Baldwin's famous role in Glengarry Glen Ross.
A lesser director probably would have crumbled under the pressure of combining all of these factors into a solid cohesive unit, but Lumet transforms Chayefsky's madcap originality into a masterpiece of a media case study. He also delightfully passes on overindulging in his role as director. The talented auteur simply lets the great actors act and the story unfold in an inconspicuous and unassuming manner.
Release Information
Country: USA / Region: Free / Version: N/A / Discs: 1 / Distributor: Warner Bros.
Presentation
Network's Blu-ray presentation is a difficult one to judge in a way: it's fairly soft and grainy, with colours that look slightly washed out, but on the other hand, it looks natural and untampered-with (no evidence of digital sharpening, edge enhancement, or DNR here). It's hard to know whether a full restoration - à la fellow 1976 release Taxi Driver - could have improved things, but I suspect this is about as good as it can look. There's probably no more detail to be garnered from the original negative, due to the film stock used and Lumet's general avoidance of visual splendour.
The soundtrack is rendered in mono DTS-HD. It's slightly tinny and hampered by the recording quality, but never terrible. A 5.1 mix might have been helpful, given how dense the soundfield sometimes is (making the single speaker a little crowded), but purists will be perfectly satisfied.
Extras
Duplicating the extras on the 30th Anniversary DVD that never reached our shores, this US Blu-ray comes fairly well endowed with bonus features. The late Lumet's commentary is sometimes sparse but often feels like a cinematic education, in a good way - this guy knows his stuff and it's a pleasure to glean an insight into his methods. A lengthy retrospective documentary of about 80 minutes in length, divided into six chapters with a play all function, offers welcome context and background information into the film, its reception and its contemporary relevance, with particular emphasis on Paddy Chayefsky.
Summary
Sidney Lumet himself named Paddy Chayefsky as the author of Network, akin to the billing the writer of a stage play receives. Indeed, its emphasis on the acting, dialogue and character interaction bears all the hallmarks of great theatre. Chayefsky's savage satire of TV news has lost none of its biting edge over the years, with its famous line, "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it any more!" still resonating as much as it ever did.
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