Network review

 Number 180 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1976 black-comedy satire Network.

Howard Beale (Peter Finch) long time news anchor of the fictional news network UBS declares on-air that he will commit suicide live. UBS, which has long been struggling with low ratings, immediately tries to fire him, but his friend and division president Max Schumacher (William Holden) permits Beale to have one more broadcast to say goodbye. Beale takes this as a chance to rant about how life is "bullshit." When the network's ratings spike, UBS decide to exploit this with programming chief Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) deciding to give Beale his own "angry man" segment.

For a film that is so damning about the evils of everyday life, Network shares many tropes with your average melodramatic soap opera. We have lots of people yelling at each other (more on this later,) an extra-marital affair, ham-fisted messages, graphic violence and even a cheesy catchphrase. 

Perhaps I'm the wrong target demographic of this film. Being a millennial living in 2022, I am well aware of the pitfalls of modern society. For me, TV is little else than something I would just play in the background. But back in the seventies, TV was king and so the messages of the film may have resonated more with a 70's audience. I found everything very preachy and soapboxey. Beale's rants were like something you would see from a TV evangelist. They quickly lost their novelty and bloated out a film. It was only two hours long but it felt much longer.

This film was a critical success and was nominated for nine Oscars including the four acting Oscars. Finch, Dunaway and Beatrice Straight, who played Schumacher's wife, all won. Holden and Ned Beatty were also nominated but lost out. Yet I'm at a loss as to why any of them were nominated. As previously said, all they did was yell at each other. There was a lot of screaming and shouting in this film and not much else. Again, it did make for a very repetitive watch.

All in all, I'm probably the wrong audience. Network is a film that just doesn't hold the same relevance as it might once have done. After all, who still watches television?