Network (1976). One Angry Man.

In honor of Sidney Lumet who passed away this weekend, we're re-publishing The Film Experience retrospective on Network from a few years ago. It's new to some of you!

One Angry Man
One thing I suspect about director Sidney Lumet: He liked his drama super-sized, Empire State Building big. No 800 lbs gorillas in the room please, make it King Kong. Give them 16 tons of drama. Lumet wanted grunting, sweating, lunging, screaming, gargantuan desperate drama like the kind you get in Dog Day Afternoon, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead and Serpico. Never mind 12 Angry Men. How about 1 Angry Man, Sidney Lumet, and in the case of Network -- arguably his best film -- one angry fictional man named Howard Beale (Peter Finch). Network eventually gets around to naming Beale the “mad prophet of the airwaves” but it’s also a self descriptive tag. The movie is mad as hell and prophetic, too. Network is Howard Beale and Howard Beale is Network. This impressively large but also miniature film --it's not hard to imagine it as a stage play -- swings wildly from mood to mood like its bipolar madman.

A lot of movies steal from Network but I love the borrowing that Network does right out of the gate, in omniscient detached voiceover.

In his time Howard Beale had been a mandarin of television. The grand old man of news with a hot rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969 however his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year his wife died and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share.

That calm voiceover, giving numbers as much if not more weight as the man's personal life, has already begun the chilling process of reduction. It's overtly reminiscent of both All About Eve's arch view of the theater world and Sunset Boulevard's ghost-eye view of Hollywood. Network’s target is television. Is it boldly proclaiming itself the final third of the Holy Trinity of Self-Loathing Showbiz Pictures? Whatever the intent, it moves with utter confidence, thereby forcing itself into the godhead. 

We're in the boredom killing business.

It may seem odd to claim that such a black hearted picture is completely entertaining, even enjoyable, but it is. Right from its first shot of four television screens (the one featuring Beale eventually growing to fill the whole screen) the movie surges at you with such electric, articulate force that you have no choice but to go with its current. The prologue of the film then finds Beale (just given his walking papers) with old friend Max Schumacher (William Holden) drinking and laughing maniacally. The chaser to their raucous laughter? A perfect 180˚ cut to Beale seated at the bar quietly announcing “I’m going to kill myself”. The two friends begin to set the movie's plot in motion with improvised plans for live suicides and terrorism on TV. "The Death Hour!" Max proclaims with forced 90 proof glee. Where does all this gallows humor put us before the title credits even begin to appear? 

That puts us in the shithouse. That's where that puts us.

Network is an easy film to quote and its super sculpted and scalding dialogue is undoubtedly the reason why the screenplay (by triple Oscar winner Paddy Chayefsky) is so lauded. It’s the type of talky feature that's jerry-rigged to draw attention to its themes, BIG ideas, diamond hard one liners and showcased monologues. But words aside, the plotting is also tight and strong. I can’t think of a single film that’s more interested in stopping for speeches that also moves with breakneck speed through the twists and turns of its various plots. 

Plot A: Howard Beale threatens to kill himself on air, leading to rubberneck ratings jumps and corporate exploitation of his sudden insanity. As Beale slips deeper into a complete psychotic break, corporate sharks Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) and Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) start swimming, devouring the smaller fish at the network like Max Schumacher, as they try to capitalize on Beale's popularity with the public who embraces his catchphrase:

I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!

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Reader Spotlight: Ziyad

In this Reader Appreciation series we're getting to know the Film Experience community, one person at a time ;) Today's interviewee is Ziyad who was born in Barcelona and is currently in Tel Aviv. He's truly international.

So let's jump right in.

Nathaniel: Do you remember your first filmgoing experience?
ZIYAD: Beauty and the Beast, I was 5 years old, the whole family (my parents and 2 brothers) went to a late showing, I fell asleep after 5 minutes and I woke up after in the ending credits, I got so pissed they didn't wake me so I forced my parents to take me again the next day.

Dedication. I love it. When did you start reading?
Around September 2004, I was checking if Javier Bardem had a chance at getting nominated for The Sea Inside, I loved the "actressexuality", bookmarked it instantaneously and since then visited on a daily basis. My favorite part: Film Bitch Awards -- I owe you copyrights for doing my own with your extra categories as well, EVERY YEAR, the difference is that I do it for myself and have no place to share it.

3 favorite actresses. Go.

Julianne Moore, she is my goddess, my face glows by just seeing her, in anything;  Meryl Streep... "She could play Batman and be the right choice"; And a tie between Carmen Maura, Hiam Abbass, Susan Sarandon, Bette Davis, and Kate Winslet. SORRY! Right now Emma Stone is everything to me. Every time I watch Easy A I fall a little bit more in love with her.

Um this is less of a "tie" than an ensemble film!

I'm horrible at following orders.

Take one Oscar away from something and give it to something else.
I'm going to have to do two. I take Angelina Jolie's Oscar for Girl, Interrupted and give it to Julianne Moore for Magnolia (god, it HURTS physically that she wasn't even nominated). I think I could take every Oscar and give it to Julianne Moore.

All the Oscars Belong To Her.

The second one, is actually a movie... I would take A Beautiful Mind's and give it to Amelie. Best Movie Ever.

What's one movie you're super ashamed to say you haven't seen and why is it taking you so long?

The Godfather Trilogy. I'm just lazy.

Previous Reader Spotlights:
Andrew, Yonatan, Keir, Kyle, Jamie, Vinci, Victor, Bill, Hayden, Dominique, Murtada, Cory, Walter, Paolo, Leehee and BBats

First and Last: The Lumberjack's Abandoned Shoes

the first and last images and dialogue from motion pictures.

the images

the dialogue for a second clue

first: Your bible. Don't lose it now.
last: Home.

ANOTHER CLUE? This film stars two of the biggest stars of the 50s, one of them is in the shot above and the other left her shoes on the road. It was not nominated for any Oscars.

Can you guess the movie?

See the answer after the jump.

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DVD: Gwynnie, Kate and Dolph?

Today's DVD releases cover a lot of ground. But let's start with the most amusing. Two collections arrive today. One, Tracy & Hepburn the Definitive Collection, collects every film that co-starred Spencer Tracy & Katharine Hepburn, one of moviedom's most legendary couples both onscreen and off. The other is Dolph Lundgren Triple Threat. Hee. Because my movie-addled brain is always mushing things together I couldn't help but imagine a Lundgren/Hepburn series for a split second. What kind of movie could they possibly have made together?

The Lundgren triple doesn't even include any movie you've heard of. It's mostly post 90s stuff. Unfortunately none of the films are musicals despite the title of "triple threat" . When you hear triple threat you automatically think of a actor/singer/dancer, right?  Make your next straight-to-DVD action pic a musical, Dolph.

The best of the new releases is Claire Denis's typically hypnotic and disturbing White Material, which I wrote briefly about in January and the worst is Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 1 which I'm off-trend about it because it got wildly thumbs up reviews but I think it's easily the worst Potter feature  (give or take the Chamber of Snoozing) and aside from that admittedly stellar animated sequence, it was the most cynical (and successful) cash grab of 2010. The debuts  I haven't seen: the Gilles Marchand thriller Black Heaven starring Grégoire LePrince-Rinquet (Love Songs) and the acclaimed documentary Marwencol, about a brain damaged man recreating a World War II era town to 1/6th scale.

Finally, Country Strong also debuts on DVD today. But since we've heard Gwyneth's lovely voice crooning the  tracks, is there any reason left to see the movie? Have any of you?

I feel a poll coming on...

poll by twiigs.com

Curio: Poster Designs by Matt Needle

Alexa here. Matt Needle is a freelance designer living in the UK with a knack for poster design. I've been following his work since last year, when I was on the lookout for cool indie posters for Inception.  Lately he's added so many new designs to his portfolio that I can barely keep up! Here are some highlights from his film poster collection; check out his flickr to see more, including some great music and television posters (and a very cool Don Draper).  All are available for purchase from his bigcartel shop.

Click to see Hitchcock, Miyazaki and more...

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