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Network (1976)
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Overview
User Rating:
Release Date:
29 January 1977 (Japan) moreTagline:
Not since the dawn of time has America experienced a man like Howard Beale! morePlot:
A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit. full summary | full synopsisAwards:
Won 4 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 19 nominations moreNewsDesk:
(32 articles)
Top Ten Apocalyptic/Post-Apocalyptic Films (From Rope Of Silicon. 6 July 2009, 2:25 AM, PDT)
The Dark Knight dominates at Saturn Awards
(From The Geek Files. 26 June 2009, 5:22 AM, PDT)
User Comments:
Top-notch satire of television moreUS Showtimes:
(register to personalize)Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only)| Faye Dunaway | ... | Diana Christensen | |
| William Holden | ... | Max Schumacher | |
| Peter Finch | ... | Howard Beale | |
| Robert Duvall | ... | Frank Hackett | |
| Wesley Addy | ... | Nelson Chaney | |
| Ned Beatty | ... | Arthur Jensen | |
| Arthur Burghardt | ... | Great Ahmed Kahn | |
| Bill Burrows | ... | TV Director | |
| John Carpenter | ... | George Bosch | |
| Jordan Charney | ... | Harry Hunter | |
| Kathy Cronkite | ... | Mary Ann Gifford | |
| Ed Crowley | ... | Joe Donnelly | |
| Jerome Dempsey | ... | Walter C. Amundsen | |
| Conchata Ferrell | ... | Barbara Schlesinger | |
| Gene Gross | ... | Milton K. Steinman |
Additional Details
Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parentsRuntime:
121 minCountry:
USALanguage:
EnglishColor:
Color (Metrocolor)Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 moreSound Mix:
MonoCertification:
Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16Fun Stuff
Trivia:
According to Shaun Considine, the author of "Mad As Hell: The Life and Work of Paddy Chayefsky", George C. Scott was offered the role of Howard Beale but declined without reading the script, apparently due to his having once been offended by director Sidney Lumet. Whatever happened, exactly, the hatchet must have been buried at some time, as George C. Scott made his final feature film appearance in the Lumet-directed film 'Gloria (1999)'. moreGoofs:
Revealing mistakes: Every one of Howard Beale's shows has the same studio audience (note the man in the black vest, with long hair and a beard). moreQuotes:
[first lines]Narrator: This story is about Howard Beale, the acclaimed news anchorman on UBS T.V. In this time, however, he was a mandarin of television with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, started to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.
Howard Beale: [on the street] I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
Max Schumacher: Must've been 1950 then.
[Beale nods]
Max Schumacher: I was at NBC, uh, associate producer. Morning News. I was just a kid. 26 years old.
[Not interested, Beale wanders off, until Schumacher stops him]
Max Schumacher: Anyway... anyway... they're building a lower level of the George Washington Bridge.
[Interested, Beale listens]
Max Schumacher: We were doing a remote from there.
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher: [start to laugh and snicker in unison]
Max Schumacher: And nobody told me!
[Beale keeps laughing, very interested]
Max Schumacher: Next morning I get a call, "Where the hell are YOU? You're supposed to be in the George Washington Bridge!"
[Beale and Schumacher exchange laughs]
Max Schumacher: I jump outta bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas, I run downstairs, I run into the street,
[Schumacher runs into the street]
Max Schumacher: SO I TAIL A CAB, AND I SAY TO THE CABBY, "TAKE ME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!"
[Beale laughs]
Max Schumacher: And the cabby turns around and he says...
[giggles]
Max Schumacher: he says "Don't do it, buddy! You're a young man! Ya got your whole life ahead of ya!"
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher: [shriek in hysterics, as Beale gives Schumacher a hug]
Max Schumacher: Did I ever tell ya that one before?
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I just finished watching this movie and was blown away. Sidney Lumet's satire shows the hollowness of television and the mindless generation that is produced from an excess of it. This film is shocking and eye-opening also showing executives' mad quest for ratings.
The acting in this film is superb. Peter finch stars as the TV anchor who becomes an "angry prophet who denounces the hypocrisies of our time." We gradually see how he first preaches to the common everyman, but is then exploited by the slick executives to achieve their one goal: Ratings. Faye Dunaway also shines as the Vice President in charge of programming who finds herself becoming less aware of the difference between television and reality. William Holden also lends fine support.
As the acting and directing in this film are exquisite, the message it portrays is a very strong one. This scathing indictment of TV is necessary for everyone to see.