JEB Banks
blog assignment #2
Movie: Network
The film Network is about a fed-up and recently fired network news anchor, Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch. He declares on-air that he will shoot himself on live television. His angry rants boost ratings on the program and he becomes a regular figure similar to an angrier "Andy Rooney" segment from 60 Minutes and later televangelism, telling his opinions in a satirical manner. Since the film came out in 1976, a lot of the ranting didn't seem so shocking in today's age.At the time it was "cutting edge stuff". The real core of this story is not the shocking speeches and rampant use of the word "bullshit", but how horribly detached everyone is from each other. The profit-driving leaves the characters with no human compassion. the exception being Max Schumacher, played by William Holden, who repeatedly tries to save his longtime friend, Beale, from making a fool of himself for corporate gains. Diana Christensen, played by Faye Dunaway, does a sensational job of what passes for a "villain" in this movie. She is action-packed, charismatic, and totally believable in the role of the cut-throat network programmer who decides that airing Beale's news show will save the bankrupt network. Beale is to be used as "a later-day angry prophet denouncing the hypocrisies of our time". Christensen and Schumacher partner up in a romantic and business sense, despite a considerable age difference. The two could have been the only two actors in the film, with just their scenes as-written, and the could have told the whole story and won awards for it, their acting prowess were that strong! Beale starts to believe his own hype and gets delusions of talking to a God-like voice in his head. Schumacher gets his doubts as his "old school" approaches to journalism repeatedly gets tested. He honestly feels sorry for his friend, which a human emotion, as Beale spouts about how we need to feel "more human". A great scene is when Howard Beale convinces his audience to shout out that "they're mad as hell and not going to take it anymore", which shows just how many people are watching his show at the same time. Beale gets a momentum and goes on television telling people that none of TV ("tube") is real, eventually passing out after shouting "turn it off!". Totally worth it for the dumbstruck looks on the audience's faces.
There are obvious parallels with literacy rates in the United States. Beale speaks of 3% of viewers reading books and 18% of viewers reading the news. The sad tragedy is that these numbers are even lower today. Schumacher says to his wife in regards to his infidelity with Diana Christensen, "I don't know if she is capable of real love. She's television generation, raised on Bugs Bunny. The only reality she knows comes to her over the TV set. She has very carefully devised "roles" for each of us like the Movie of the Week." These words are true 35 years later. Today's generation is fed their knowledge through mass media, and it has colored their views of social situations. Many people are detached from the company they keep. Just look at groups of people eating together in a restaurant and see how many of them are on their cell phones. With everyone tweeting, blogging, or posting on Facebook, not much is left to talk about in person and problems others have seem surreal and unattached from our immediate lives.
I really enjoyed some of the behind-the-scenes-type scenes involving shots of production and the studio. Frequently, the camera will pan to rows of people sitting in front of monitors and using "call-outs" similar to a space shuttle launch. There is a constant reference to Neilson ratings and viewer percentages. advertising issues as well as ethical broadcasting issues are discussed often. The scene where the broadcast lawyers and the radical Communists are sitting in the base of a local communist militia debating whose sole responsibility it would be for overhead costs was hilarious. The lighting for the scene where Beale is being chewed out for not noticing "The world runs on business" added gravity to the issues the network head, Arthur Jensen, was discussing. I wonder how many takes it took to film all that diction.
SPOILERS:
By the end of the film, the UBS network is stuck with Howard Beale as a thorn in their side. He is badmouthing the network and scaring off billions in foreign investors. They cant fire him because his popularity would allow him to move to another network and take his viewers with him. Beale can't resist speaking out, despite all those around him giving him warnings. seeing his death as a way to eliminate the problem and a boost in ratings, Diana Christensen conspires Beale's murder using the militia to do the dirty work. All of the media executives back the plan."This was the story of Howard Beale, the first man knowingly killed for bad ratings."
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