Television has made mindless droids out of millions of people. It's a noisy, passive clutter of advertisements, propaganda, and naive stories and situations, glorifying and capitalizing on violence, infidelity, and vague caricatures of human beings. And how brilliant. If you don't like a program, simply change the channel. There are literally hundreds of options. Television networks make their living on ratings and they'll do just about anything, sink to unnatural, ungodly lows, in order to achieve good ratings and gain more shares. In 'Network,' Faye Dunaway plays a television executive with just that intention.
Howard Beale is a news anchor for a failing network and his show is in the tanks. He is told that he only has two more shows left. He uses the opportunity to declare on live television that he will commit suicide during the broadcast of his last show. This scene is so outrageously, sinfully funny because of the dreadful seriousness in which it is played. None of the people on set or in the editing room even realize the death threat because they're busy saying, "and cue howard," "be ready to cut to a wide shot," "do we have the commercial reel ready?" After a few hilariously calm minutes, the script supervisor finally says, "Did you hear what Howard said? He said he was going to kill himself next week." Of course, they should fire him without having a final episode. But, wonders Dunaway's character, Diana Christensen, what would the ratings look like for a live suicide?
Beale doesn't kill himself, but his show is a hit, because of his manic behavior. His anger and vehemence against the conservative government and big corporations, with his ability to say whatever he wants, causes the network to become number one in the world, peaking at the classic scene in which Beale utters his famous line, "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!" causing a movement of people screaming the creed out their windows.
Peter Finch as Beale is wonderful, but we never see him aside from his speeches on television. To us, he is just the messianic prophet, so to speak, to reach the television goers of America. But, do we listen? He even rants in front of a live audience for people to turn off their television sets, yet they go on watching, ratings going up, shares going up, executives getting richer. Soon, the show gets a bigger budget, a segment with a psychic, a group of assassins, and a far left radical group doing real bank robberies and abductions for a cameraman. It gets a jazzy theme song and a heavenly stained glass window framing Beale as he greets an impressionable crowd.
Amidst the chaos is ex-television executive Max Schumacher, played by legendary William Holden, who is fired for attempting to stop Beale's number one hit show. He begins a relationship with Christensen, and must explain to his wife that he's leaving her. He tells her that life is not like television, and not to expect him to be back in her arms by the end of the show. Beatrice Straight plays his wife, appearing only in this scene, less than six minutes long, and she won an Academy Award for it. She plays the desperate wife for a bit, than the angry wife, unmerciful: "After 25 years of building a home and raising a family and all the senseless pain that we have inflicted on each other, I'm damned if I'm going to stand here and have you tell me you're in love with somebody else. Because this isn't a convention weekend with your secretary, is it? Or - or some broad that you picked up after three belts of booze. This is your great winter romance, isn't it? Your last roar of passion before you settle into your emeritus years. Is that what's left for me? Is that my share? She gets the winter passion, and I get the dotage? What am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to sit at home knitting and purling while you slink back like some penitent drunk? I'm your wife, damn it. And, if you can't work up a winter passion for me, the least I require is respect and allegiance.." Ironically, he does end up back in her arms.
Dunaway represents the "television generation." A generation that has seen life through a tube since they were children and now have a skewed sense of how to live it. She is unable to connect on any sort of human level, even with her savvy charms. In a very funny scene, she and Holden make love as she continues talking about how shares have gone up, what is expected of the show, and a new series the network is working on. She is a quick manipulator and knows how to get what she wants (she was taught by the best: television). She needs Schumacher, needs to have some sort of physical connection with another human being. But, she is unable to rid herself of television's addiction.
The movie climaxes when, suddenly speaking in defense of big business, Beale's ratings have dropped and the head of the company refuses to cut the show. In order to save their ratings, a group of executives, including Christensen, decide the best course of action is to kill Howard Beale. They'll have the assassins from their other show do the deed, and then they can rebroadcast it for added ratings. The scene is funny and chilling. Nobody seems to tiptoe around the issue or question the validity of the proposition. It is simply stated. Like reading a report or coming up with a new storyline for a soap opera. "Well, the issue is: Should we kill Howard Beale, or not?"
'Network' is dark satire. A warning of society's dependence on television. So, after thirty-five years, did it predict well? Youtube has taken over. Thirty minute sitcoms were too much of a time commitment. There are millions of hits on videos little more than a minute in length of girls singing out of pitch in their closets, animated stick figures shouting a word or two, and cats climbing walls. Video games put you in the driver's seat, but the stories and characters have been replaced with mindless violence and noisy jumping. Kids will play 'Angry Birds' for hours on end, and what mental stimulation do they gain? Flipping the channels is not enough. We watch t.v., listen to music (flipping through the playlist, of course), text, and fiddle around with our i-pads all at once. We are a nation of noise. We need constant noise at all times, or else we go crazy. It's addicting. 'Network' has never felt more prophetic than today. Read a book. Write. Think. Go out for a walk. Take a look at the world around you. Sit in silence and enjoy it. Get together with friends and leave your phone and any other distractions at home. Don't let television guide your lives. There are only more distractions to come. Ignore them.
No comments:
Post a Comment