"You can keep your Marxist ways, for it's only just a phase,
For it's money, money, money, makes the world... go... round!"
--Monty Python, "Money Song" (written by Eric Idle and John Gould)
I alluded to this week's film a couple of weeks ago when I wrote about films of the 1970s, specifically that week Albert Brooks's film Real Life. Both films eerily predicted a lot of things that in the last half century have become so commonplace we don't even really give it much thought today. The word "prescient" gets thrown around a lot, particularly when discussing this week's film.
I watched it again this past week. I first saw it 20 years ago and I found it powerful and thought provoking then. It resonated even more with me this week in the wake of "The Late Show" going off the air.
In the movie, news anchor Howard Beale (played by Peter Finch) is essentially fired because of bad ratings. After making a spectacle on live television that draws in quite an audience, the network decides to give him his own show in which he tells a studio audience--and millions of viewers watching at home--exactly what's wrong with the world today and what they need to do to fix it. After Beale convinces his audience to try to kill a business deal that his network is trying to secure, the network realizes that he might be a liability to their bottom line and devises ways of bringing him under control.
Since the film was released 50 years ago, we've pretty much erased the line between news and entertainment. It is ostensibly a satire of media culture. It's a biting critique about how corporate greed has taken control of everything. In the movie, much like in real life, networks are being run by corporations with only one guiding principle--to make as much money as they possibly can, any way they can. We saw that in Paramount's decision to axe Stephen Colbert. They argue that it was financial. A lot of people (myself included) think it was political. Honestly, what's the difference at this point? Paramount wanted to merge with Skydance and the administration needed to approve the merger. The administration has made it clear they don't like Colbert. Getting rid of him would definitely make the merger more appealing to the government. Even from a political perspective, the move was still financially motivated.
Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning script is a feast for the ears. Watching the movie, you can tell that every actor was relishing their dialogue--especially the lengthy monologues. Beale's speech about how "there's an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube," is even sadder to contemplate when you realize that this now encompasses at least three generations. When Arthur Jensen (played by Ned Beatty) takes Beale to task for "meddling with the forces of nature," one really believes that there are no nations, just a list of corporations and conglomerations and an "international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today." Honestly, if this is what Chayefsky thought of television, I envy him for not living long enough to see what the internet has brought us.
The movie has proven to be quite prescient indeed. In the commentary track on the DVD, recorded in 2006, director Sidney Lumet says that everything that is depicted in the film has since actually happened in real life with the exception of the end of the movie. And he seemed pretty convinced that he would live to see that happen too. (Lumet died in 2011 at the age of 86. I'm glad to say it still hasn't happened. However, who knows what will happen tomorrow?) Even my favourite screenwriter, Aaron Sorkin, wrote, "no predictor of the future, not even Orwell, has ever been as right as Chayefsky was when he wrote Network."
The film went on to set a number of Academy Award records. Peter Finch died before the Oscars were awarded in 1977 and became the first actor to receive one posthumously. Beatrice Straight won Best Supporting Actress in spite of only being in two scenes with a total screen time of just over five minutes. Hers is the shortest performance to win an Oscar. (It should be noted that Ned Beatty also received a Best Supporting Actor nomination and he appeared in the movie for just under six minutes.) Finally, with this film, Paddy Chayefsky became the only screenwriter to win three Oscars for solo writing. (He also won in 1956 for Marty and again in 1972 for The Hospital.)
Even after half a century, the premise is still so relevant that it was adapted for the London stage in 2017 starring Bryan Cranston as Beale, opposite Michelle Dockery. A year later, Cranston continued the role on Broadway with Tatiana Maslany and Tony Goldwyn.
Originally released in 1976, starring William Holden, Faye Dunaway, and Robert Duvall, and directed by Sidney Lumet, please enjoy Network. It might make you mad as hell too.
As I said in my album "sermon," I'll be taking a couple weeks off because of family commitments. Until I return, stay safe, be good to your neighbours, and please remember that if at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Yours in peace, love, and rock 'n' roll!
The Reverend Will the Thrill
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