Network (1976)

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writer:

Paddy Chayefsky (written by)

Release Date:

29 January 1977 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Not since the dawn of time has America experienced a man like Howard Beale!

Plot:

A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.

Plot Keywords:

Television | Ratings | News Anchor | Television Network | Prophet

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

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
Stanley Grover	...	Jack Snowden
Cindy Grover	...	Caroline Schumacher
Darryl Hickman	...	Bill Herron
Mitchell Jason	...	Arthur Zangwill
Paul Jenkins	...	TV Stage Manager
Ken Kercheval	...	Merrill Grant
Kenneth Kimmins	...	Associate Producer
Lynn Klugman	...	TV Production Assistant
Carolyn Krigbaum	...	Max's Secretary
Zane Lasky	...	Audio Man
Michael Lipton	...	Tommy Pellegrino
Michael Lombard	...	Willie Stein
Pirie MacDonald	...	Herb Thackeray
Russ Petranto	...	TV Associate Director
Bernard Pollock	...	Lou
Roy Poole	...	Sam Haywood
William Prince	...	Edward George Ruddy
Sasha von Scherler	...	Helen Miggs
Lane Smith	...	Robert McDonough
Ted Sorel	...	Giannini (as Theodore Sorel)
Beatrice Straight	...	Louise Schumacher
Fred Stuthman	...	Mosaic Figure
Cameron Thomas	...	TV Technical Director
Marlene Warfield	...	Laureen Hobbs
Lydia Wilen	...	Hunter's Secretary
Lee Richardson	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Chancellor	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Walter Cronkite	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Andrew Duncan	...	Agent (uncredited)
Todd Everett	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Betty Ford	...	Herself (beside her husband) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gerald Ford	...	Himself (speech on assassination attempts) (archive footage) (uncredited)
John Gabriel	...	TV anchor reporting Beale's suicide threat (uncredited)
Lance Henriksen	...	Network lawyer at Khan's place (uncredited)
Tim Robbins	...	Assassin (uncredited)
Howard K. Smith	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
David Susskind	...	Himself (conducts interview) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Michael Tucker	...	Man At Desk (uncredited)
Ahmed Yamani	...	Himself (at OPEC conference) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Sidney Lumet

Writing credits
Paddy Chayefsky		(written by)

Produced by
Fred C. Caruso	....	associate producer (as Fred Caruso)
Howard Gottfried	....	producer

Original Music by
Elliot Lawrence

Cinematography by
Owen Roizman

Film Editing by
Alan Heim

Casting by
Juliet Taylor

Production Design by
Philip Rosenberg

Set Decoration by
Edward Stewart

Costume Design by
Theoni V. Aldredge

Makeup Department
John Alese	....	makeup artist
Susan Germaine	....	hair stylist: Ms. Dunaway
Lee Harman	....	makeup artist: Ms. Dunaway
Philip Leto	....	hair stylist (as Phil Leto)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alan Hopkins	....	first assistant director (as Jay Allan Hopkins)
Ralph S. Singleton	....	second assistant director (as Ralph Singleton)

Art Department
Connie Brink	....	property master (as Conrad Brink)

Sound Department
Jack Fitzstephens	....	sound editor
Marc Laub	....	sound editor (as Marc M. Laub)
Sanford Rackow	....	sound editor
James Sabat	....	sound mixer
Dick Vorisek	....	sound re-recordist
Louis Cerborino	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)
Mel Zelniker	....	adr recordist (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Ginsburg	....	still photographer
Kenneth Goss	....	key grip
Norman Leigh	....	gaffer
Gary Muller	....	second assistant camera
Tom Priestley Jr.	....	assistant camera
Fred Schuler	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
George Newman	....	costumer
Marilyn Putnam	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Michael Jacobi	....	assistant editor
Don Dittmar	....	color timer (uncredited)
Norman Hollyn	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)
Jeffrey Wolf	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Elliot Lawrence	....	conductor

Other crew
Selma Brown	....	production auditor
Kay Chapin	....	script supervisor
Stephen Frankfurt	....	title designer
Connie Schoenberg	....	office coordinator
John H. Starke	....	location coordinator (as John Starke)
Mark Hurwitz	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• United Artists

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1978) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical) (35mm print)
• United Artists (1977) (France) (theatrical) (as Les Artistes Associés)
• MGM Home Entertainment (Europe) (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• EUE/Screen Gems Video Services  UBS video logo
• Todd/Champion Ltd.  extras casting

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

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:16

Filming Locations:

CFTO-TV Studios, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

In Shaun Considine's biography of Paddy Chayefsky, it is revealed that Glenn Ford and William Holden were the finalists for the role of Max Schumaker. Holden's recent success in The Towering Inferno (1974) was believed to have been the deciding factor in his casting.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Early in the film, after Howard Beale says that he's going to kill himself on-air, he's on the phone with Schumacher (Holden) angling to get his job back, and he mentions that he "has 11 years with this network." Later, following his on-air rant that "he ran out of BS," he's confronted by the press in the lobby of UBS where he says, "Every day, five days a week for 15 years, I've been sitting behind that desk..."

Quotes:

[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?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Fallout 2: A Post-Nuclear Role-Playing Game (1998) (VG)

It Is More Than a Film, It Is Like a Crystal Ball

"Network". If there was ever a film that foreshadowed to events of the future it would be "Network". Much like "Midnight Cowboy" seven years earlier, "Network" was hailed because it took risks and it was like nothing that the cinema had ever experienced before. Both films were great when they were initially released, but few great films become so much better with time like "Midnight Cowboy" and "Network". The fictional fourth network of 1976 is UBS. Ratings are bad and the network desperately needs some new show to give them a boost to challenge NBC, CBS, and ABC. Enter the network's national news anchorman (Peter Finch in his posthumous Oscar-winning role). He, like the network, is going through a crossroads. His wife has just passed away, he is about to be fired, and he is slowly losing his mind. The firing is imminent and he decides that he will announce to the world that he will commit suicide on his last evening news broadcast. Of course a national frenzy starts, but Finch surprises all by showing just how crazy he is. Instead of committing suicide, he goes on the air and becomes a modern-day Moses to some with crazed ravings and outlandish statements that really are just the ramblings of a man slowly spinning out-of-control. Faye Dunaway (Oscar-winning) and Robert Duvall are the key people at the network who find a way to market Finch and boost anemic ratings. Finch is given a variety show which could be best described as "The Tonight Show" gone stark-raving mad. He gets on stage and basically says whatever is on his mind and the crowds love it. Co-worker and close personal friend William Holden (Oscar-nominated) knows that Finch is out of control, but cannot do anything and eventually is let go due to his disapproval and interference. Holden though has fallen in love, or lust, with the unfeeling Dunaway. Wife Beatrice Straight (in an Oscar-winning performance in which she has less than 10 minutes of screen-time) learns of what is going on and more trouble ensues for Holden on the home-front. Finch meanwhile continues his ravings as he hears voices in his head telling him what he must do each time he is asked to perform. Soon his act grows stale as the public tires of his antics and the network must always defend speeches that they themselves do not really understand. Finch's "15 minutes" of fame eventually come to an end, but not in the conventional way that one may think. "Network" is a cinematic masterpiece because it is so strong in the major elements of the industry. The acting is exceptional. There were five performing nominations from this film (Ned Beatty was the fifth) and three wins. The only other film to accomplish that was "A Streetcar Named Desire" from 1951. Sidney Lumet was great before this film, but he became even greater afterwards. This is arguably his greatest directing job. The screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky is one of the smartest ever written. It is insightful and has a real depth to it. "Network" was looked upon as a sort of "far-fetched black comedy" in 1976. However, "Network" is a film that is all too realistic 25 years later. In many ways the fictional UBS station is much like the FOX station which came on the air in the late-1980s and stole audiences with wild shows that were quite different from the other three networks. Reality television, perverted talk shows, and other types of variety programming run wild today. "Network" did not have much to do with all this occurring, but it is like those who worked on the film had a crystal ball into the future. A great movie that becomes greater as time passes. 5 stars out of 5.