“He’s saying life is bullshit, and it is, so what are you screaming about?”
There is a lot of genuine truth in the tirades that Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes on in Network. He does actually capture something genuine, and audiences want that, which is a good thing. The problem is that he is connecting with people because they are angry. Anger can be a powerful motivator to action, and Beale does call his viewers to action against several causes. But when executives like Diana (Faye Dunaway) weaponize people’s own anger against them to drive business success and get more attention, it becomes a huge problem.
History
Network’s screenplay was written by Paddy Chayefsky, who was old friends with director Sidney Lumet and worked alongside him on set. Chayefsky initially set out to write a lighter comedic film, but when he visited several network offices as part of his research, he noted the cynical nature of the network television roles, with executives producing content that they would never watch themselves. He adopted a darker and more critical tone in his writing, settling on a satirical message.
Lumet was in the midst of a very productive decade of work, and coming off the success of another New Hollywood masterpiece, Dog Day Afternoon. The movie’s cast mixes Old Hollywood stars like William Holden, with New Hollywood stars like Dunaway and Robert Duvall, with established character actors like Ned Beatty. Almost everyone in the cast is dialed up to 10 and being asked to give outsized, comedic, satirical performances.
Importance
Network primarily uses the character of Diana to portray media’s parasitic relationship with its viewers. Diana is willing to air sensationalized content to attract viewers and better ratings, without considering the value of the content or how it may shape public opinion in adverse ways. She is endlessly ambitious and unscrupulous, and played to perfection by Dunaway. She is always on the lookout for novelty and what will attract the best rating, and most of all hates boring television. Diana describes Beale as “articulating the popular rage,” pushing people to seek out anger, consume content that stirs it up, and sit in it every day.
Network’s deep understanding of how media becomes a tool for the powerful to make money and influence people at the expense of the viewers makes it one of the most incisive films ever made about the modern world.
Legacy
Network won three of the four acting awards at the Oscars, and there is a strong argument it should have gone four for four as Beatty’s iconic monologue has stood the test of time. Network stands as one of the greatest ever showcases of acting, assembling a stellar cast, giving them great material to chew through, and giving them the freedom to go as big as possible.
There is a death spiral happening in media where sensational content gets way more eyeballs than thoughtful stuff. Network was way ahead of the trend in recognizing it, but the internet has accelerated the death spiral, and its effects are a lot more apparent now than they used to be. The key issue is that sensational media gets more eyeballs than thoughtful media. When media creators can track how their content is doing, they are incentivized to create whatever will get the most views. Audiences are susceptible to engaging with worse and worse content, and become desensitized to things that used to be sensational, needing more and more novelty to maintain their interest. Media creators respond in kind, and the ones that don’t get pushed out in favor of whatever will get the most eyeballs. It’s a huge problem that preys on human curiosity and does not have an easy solution.
There is hope yet to get out of the death spiral. We can reject the lemming-like existence that media and big tech companies have planned for us. We can choose to resist the pangs of curiosity when we see outrage-bait. We can mute and block, and we can engage with only the things that add value to our lives. We can seek out art that enriches rather than content that enrages and numbs. And we can advocate for others to do the same. Will you join me?
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