Network

DVD Features:

Audio:

• Mono 1.0 English
• Mono 1.0 French

Major Awards:

Academy Awards - Best Actress (1976)

Academy Awards - Best Actor (1976)

Academy Awards - Best Supporting Actress (1976)

Academy Awards - Best Original Screenplay (1976)

Description by OLDIES.com:

Still Mad As Hell After 30 Years.

Newscaster Howard Beale has a message for those who package reports of cute puppies, movie premieres and fender benders as hard news: "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore." Sidney Lumet directs Paddy Chayefsky's satire (an Academy Award-winning screenplay) about the things people do for love...and ratings. Three performers won Oscars. Best Actress Faye Dunaway is the TV exec guarding ratings like a tigress protecting cubs. Best Actor Peter Finch is Beale, whose airwave rants become a phenomenon. And William Holden, Robert Duvall and Best Supporting Actress Beatrice Straight add to the fierce vitality.

Product Description:

With stunning prescience, Sidney Lumet's searing satire of television and the contemporary moment chronicles media corruption and the way that the public buys into the myths the media creates. The moral and spiritual turpitude delivered by the debilitating forces of television are rendered in sharp relief against a backdrop of crumbling humanity in what is regarded as one of the great satires in Hollywood history. With a visceral script from Paddy Chayefsky, NETWORK follows the doomed path of aging newsman Howard Beale (Peter Finch), who, upon learning that he is to be fired after decades as a news anchor, announces to millions of viewers that he will publicly commit suicide during his last broadcast. When the ratings consequently shoot up, hungry executive-in-training Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) seizes the moment to exploit Beale's Messianic nervous breakdown, turning his rage into the vehicle for the network's first Number One show and a nationwide craze. Who could have predicted that this 1976 film might someday influence an even more contagious trend in television broadcasting: the reality show?

Plot Synopsis:

Sidney Lumet's NETWORK takes a close look at the lengths to which television stations will go to improve their ratings--pulling publicity stunts, playing up news team dramas, and constantly scheming behind the scenes.

Plot Keywords:

Big Business | Black Comedy | Classic | Drama | Essential Cinema | Infidelity | Psychos | Recommended | Satire | Social Issues | Television | Theatrical Release

Exerpts:

"So I want you to get up now. I want all of you to get up out of your chairs. I want you to get up right now and go to the window, open it and stick your head out and yell, 'I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!'" -- Howard Beale (Peter Finch)

"You're messing with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale!" -- Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty) to Howard Beale

Production Notes:

• Theatrical release: November 27, 1976.
• Filmed on location in New York City.
• The film is Peter Finch's last big-screen project; his last performance was in the TV movie RAID ON ENTEBBE.
• NETWORK is number 66 on the American Film Institute's list of America's 100 Greatest Movies.
• NETWORK was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000.
• Beatrice Straight won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress despite logging mere minutes onscreen, causing a minor uproar.

Cast and Crew: