It is a rough movie....both in the language and in the concepts. I had not watched the 1976 film....(1977 Academy Awards)....since it was released about a month after my wife and my wedding. I picked the DVD up at flea market....as it turned out about a week before actor Ned Beatty died....and put it in the machine a few nights ago.
Filmwise it was extraordinary in that it had a half dozen characters with powerful roles....and each actor was up to the task. Peter Finch of course was the highlight.....as Howard Beale. ("I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore") The film as you know by now was Network.
William Holden would pass away only a couple of years after receiving a Best Actor nomination. Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky would pass away a short while after Holden.
It was said in the film of Beale...."The American people want someone to articulate their rage for them." He ranted on television....and at his direction had the public shouting out their windows....that they also were mad as hell and were not going to take it anymore.
For those not familiar with Network....an aging.....formerly popular nightly news host....now about to be let go because of poor ratings....announces that he is going to kill himself on the air....is fired.....but requests that he be given one last time in front of the camera to leave in a better way....but decides in that moment to rant and rage using profanity....on the air.....which had a wildly popular effect on the American public...(who....once again....were mad as hell....and weren't going to take it anymore)....so he is given his own television show....and that's only the beginning!
Chayefsky gives Beale some chilling lines....in retrospect...."Right now there is a whole, an entire generation that never knew anything that didn't come out of this tube. This tube is the gospel, the ultimate revelation; this tube can make or break presidents....and woe is us if it ever falls into the hands of the wrong people"....and...."We'll tell you anything you want to hear, we lie like hell"....and...."You're beginning to believe the illusions we're spinning here...."
Faye Dunaway's character is described as a "humanoid"....by William Holden's character....who is love with her. Robert Duval's character is power and greed crazy in the film....Ned Beatty's is demonic....and Peter Finch's is described as a "mad prophet".....but seems more just 'possessed' by his own demons.
Beale was described at one point as...."processed, instant god." Chayefsky won the Best Screenplay Oscar. The character of Howard Beale gained instant stardom....and that popularity lasted a short while.....but even as the concept of ranting was getting old.....he still had those who were cheering him on at the sudden and shocking end of the film.
I hardly remembered anything about the movie other than the...."I'm mad as hell....and I'm not going to take it anymore." In fact I don't even think that I liked it back in 1976....and I'm not sure why I went out of my way to ask the vender at the flea market if he had it.
I'm in the habit of microwaving popcorn before putting a DVD in the machine....but did not pop any this time....and that was good....for this is not a 'popcorn at the theater' type of evening. It's more of a....'sign the guestbook and walk slowly by the casket'....kind of film....a 'pay your respects to America' type of viewing.
