- This was the story of Howard Beale, the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.
- Before his untimely demise, Howard Beale (Peter Finch) was a respectable news reporter who lived in the world of network television programming. These days, though, the strain of modern television journalism has gotten to him, and he has received his two weeks' notice at work. You see, his particular network is being overrun by corporate blowhards like Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall), whose only priority is to boost the ratings. Rather than go quietly, Howard instead chooses melodrama, first predicting his own on-air suicide and later explaining that he simply "ran out of bullshit." His forthright ranting resonates unexpectedly with the public, however, and he is given the chance to continue with his newly adopted style of "editorial comment." In the meantime, Howard has a strange pseudo-religious experience and tramps in his pajamas to the studio to implore his viewers to go to their windows and get "mad as hell." Soon, the increasingly unhinged "mad prophet of the airwaves" is starring alongside such luminaries as "Cybill the sooth-sayer" in a news program that has become equal parts religious revival and circus sideshow. Strange that someone's descent into madness should rate so highly with the public.
- With all of Howard's problems, it's easy to forget that Network is also the story of Max Schumacher (William Holden). Like Howard, Max too is a respected pillar of the news community who hasn't quite adjusted to the network's way of doing things. When the news division gets completely subsumed into network programming, Max tries to use his good friend Howard's erratic behavior to teach Hackett and others a lesson. Unfortunately, it is Max who instead learns the lesson from Howard's success; namely, not to overestimate the integrity of either the network or the public. After Hackett fires him, Max watches his friend's madness get exploited and begins to realize just how dehumanizing network practices really are. Feeling his years, Max wants only to connect with a real human being, but he ends up choosing the worst possible candidate.
- Program manager Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) is clearly part of what Max calls the "television generation." Like Hackett, she'll do anything for ratings, as evidenced by her business meetings with a communist extremist group (the "Ecumenical Liberation Army") that is, to adopt the pitchman parlance, Patty Hearst meets Angela Davis by way of the Black Panthers. Diana claims to be bad at everything except her job, although we never really see her off the clock. In fact, a hilarious montage shows Diana and Max going through the usual series of romantic encounters at a beach, in a restaurant, and in a hotel room, while she whispers sweet Nielson ratings in his ear. She excels at predicting what television audiences want to see, but only because her own personality is, in Max's estimation, "television incarnate...indifferent to suffering, insensitive to joy." While Max's wife Louise (Beatrice Straight) reveals a hidden torrent of feelings, Diana conceals only a complete vacuum of emotion. In the end, Max realizes this and rewrites their final script together with a speech that is exemplary of the film's dialogue:
- And it's a happy ending. Wayward husband comes to his senses, returns to his wife with whom he's established a long and sustaining love. Heartless young woman left alone in her arctic desolation. Music up with a swell. Final commercial. And here are a few scenes from next week's show.
- Network is a strange and wonderful satire peopled with fascinating characters and peppered with memorable dialogue. The film is a study in exaggeration, but it deals with a world that is more familiar that it should be. While nobody has yet been killed over ratings (so far as I know), the film is particularly prescient in its treatment of corporate management. I can only believe that it has grown more difficult over the years to discover the various agendas behind network programming, although I'm personally content to imagine that all faceless corporations are run by an absurdly bellowing Ned Beatty. Likewise, even Sidney Lumet must be surprised at how thinly distilled television news has become. When Howard jokes about the "terrorist of the week," it seems like a fairly accurate assessment of media coverage in the 21st century. So how could network television possibly get any worse? My prediction: the first time a reality show contestant gets killed, the network will get a fifty share, easy.
- There are lots of references, veiled and direct, to real events and people interspersed throughout the film.
