# Who here has heard of the film "Network"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 5, 2015, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080 "2015-09-05T21:25:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/21 "2015-09-06T02:45:43Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I wonder how many people who haven’t seen or heard of the movie would recognize the phrase “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” > > (Born before 1976, have seen the movie, although it’s been a few years.) Never seen it, but familiar with the outline of the film. That phrase gained new currency during the early Tea Pot years, when it was taken as characterising the wild jacobins of the elder persuasion before the GOP co-opted the movement into the more treasured tradition of corporate stooge. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/22 "2015-09-06T03:04:04Z")
I never heard of this woman until after I saw “Network” (FTR, I was born prior to 1976). When I did, I realized that this movie was inspired, if not outright based on, her story. > **[Christine Chubbuck](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christine_Chubbuck)** > > Christine Chubbuck\[a\] (August 24, 1944 – July 15, 1974) was an American television news reporter who worked for stations WTOG and WXLT-TV in Sarasota, Florida. She was the first person to die by suicide on a live television broadcast. > Christine Chubbuck was born in Hudson, Ohio, the daughter of Margaretha D. "Peg" (1921–1994) and George Fairbanks Chubbuck (1918–2015). She had two brothers, Greg and Tim. Chubbuck attended the Laurel School for Girls in Shaker Heights, a suburb of Cleveland. Du... “Network” factoid: Faye Dunaway never wore a bra in any scene in that movie. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/23 "2015-09-06T03:05:27Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > One thing I could never figure out. At the Oscars the film’s dirctor was called to accept his statue. Dude goes up with a sullen expression on his face and says he doesn’t know why _ **HE** _ has to do this, as he believes Finch’s widow, who was present, should have been asked to accept. So it’s live TV, not a lot they can do to stop him and he calls the widow out of the audience to come get the Oscar. She seems like a nice lady, a little teary eyed but not bad. This was 1977, was race the issue? The widow was black. Wow, \*Network \* has been one of my favorite films and yet I’d never heard of this. [Here’s the clip](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnL3uE-TzFw) (it was the film’s screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky who initially comes up to accept BTW). There’s a YouTube comment that states that the producers didn’t want a “weeping widow” on stage, but I think that’s a pretty obvious cover story. Interracial marriage \*\*\*was \*\*\*still taboo even in Hollywood back then, and absolutely so in general. I always love remembering how one of the biggest criticisms of _Network at the time was that it just went too far, that it collapsed under its own self-parody. Turns out, it didn’t go nearly far enough!_ ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/24 "2015-09-06T03:23:19Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > I not only have heard of it, I own a copy. Excellent film. I own a copy too. And I agree with your assessment. ---
**Author:** ![Ponch8](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ponch8/32/9883_2.png) [@Ponch8](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ponch8)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/25 "2015-09-06T03:32:48Z")
I was born right in the poll’s cutoff year (1976), and I seem to recall watching part of it in a hotel room a long time ago (late 1980s?). Since that time, I’ve heard about it every so often (mostly in reference to the mad as hell line). ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/26 "2015-09-06T04:05:29Z")
> [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](#): > > I was in high school when the film came out. It was a really big deal in the media, and lots of people were talking about it, especially around Academy Award time. You couldn’t have missed knowing about it in those days unless you lived in a cave. I was in grade school when it was released so I didn’t see it until a few years later when it was on TV. Still, I do remember it was considered the favorite for Best Picture until it was upset by **Rocky**. Also, I remember a common complaint about the movie was the scenario presented was too ridiculous to be believed. Now, it seems quite tame and measured. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/27 "2015-09-06T04:09:59Z")
I was a child when it came out, and though I’m a film buff and am familiar with the movie, I’ve never gotten around to seeing it (to my shame). I shall have to rectify that; it’s a gap in my education I’m already aware of. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/28 "2015-09-06T04:34:48Z")
I was born in 1961. I didn’t see \*\*Network \*\* until I was in my twenties. It’s a **MASTERPIECE!** So far ahead of it’s time. The writing, the directing, the acting… not a scene is wasted! It might be Ned Beatty’s best role. And to think, **Network** , **Taxi Driver** , **All The Presidents’s Men** and **Bound For Glory** were all up for Best Picture in the Oscar’s that year and they lost to … **Rocky**??? Really??? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/29 "2015-09-06T06:45:29Z")
I don’t think I’ve ever seen it properly, just clips and sound bites; one of a long list of movies that have been pop-culturally embedded in my memory by osmosis but which I haven’t actually watched. There’s something about 1970s dramas that I find off-putting and difficult to concentrate on. I was born in 1969. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/30 "2015-09-06T08:16:29Z")
> [@Baker](#): > > Peter Finch, who played Howard Beale, is the only actor to have had the Best Actor Oscar awarded posthumously. > > When I saw the movie back then it was shocking, TV would never be like that! Boy was I wrong. > > One thing I could never figure out. At the Oscars the film’s dirctor was called to accept his statue. Dude goes up with a sullen expression on his face and says he doesn’t know why _ **HE** _ has to do this, as he believes Finch’s widow, who was present, should have been asked to accept. So it’s live TV, not a lot they can do to stop him and he calls the widow out of the audience to come get the Oscar. She seems like a nice lady, a little teary eyed but not bad. This was 1977, was race the issue? The widow was black. The idea of having Eletha Finch accept the award was advanced by _Network_ producer Howard Gottfried, but immediately nixed by _Exorcist_ director William Friedkin, who was producing the Oscars ceremony that year. This is covered in Dave Itzkoff’s book [_Mad As Hell: The Making of Network and the Fateful Vision of the Angriest Man in Movies_](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17910086-mad-as-hell). Itzkoff actually devotes several pages to the issue of deciding who would be accepting the award for the late Peter Finch, the controversy this caused in Hollywood circles and in the press, and the stunt the filmmakers ended up pulling at the Oscars ceremony. Here are a couple paragraphs which summarize the arguments that were put against Finch’s widow accepting the award: > [@Dave Itzkoff](#): > > The resistance to Eletha Finch could have been a simple issue of propriety: she was not formally involved with _Network_, and allowing her to accept the award over someone who worked on the film could, in future instances, open the door to all kinds of unsuitable proxies. Eletha was also known for her outspoken nature, and there was some question as to whether, if put before an audience, she would stick to a script. As Gottfried described her, “She was one piece of work, let me tell you. Don’t you dare mess with Peter Finch while she’s around. And then of course, if you’re a woman, watch out.” > > […] > > But as the issue continued to simmer, some uglier speculation began to rear its head, that the Academy did not want Eletha Finch, a black woman, receiving an Oscar on behalf of Peter Finch, a white man, because home television viewers, or the organization itself, were made uncomfortable by such an image. Such a scene could also be an unwanted reminder that, to date, only three black people had won the Academy Award outright. A more insidious whisper campaign at the time suggested that Eletha, who was Jamaican, had remained in the United States illegally after Peter Finch’s death and should not be allowed to represent her husband because she risked deportation. In the end, the filmmakers reached an agreement with the Academy that the screenwriter (and main creative force behind the film), Paddy Chayefsky, would accept the award on behalf of Finch. But this turned out to be an act of perfidy on the part of Chayefsky, Gottfried, and Eletha Finch; they had planned all along for Chayefsky to turn the stage over to Eletha. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/31 "2015-09-06T13:07:35Z")
> [@NDP](#): > > I was in grade school when it was released so I didn’t see it until a few years later when it was on TV. Still, I do remember it was considered the favorite for Best Picture until it was upset by **Rocky**. Also, I remember a common complaint about the movie was the scenario presented was too ridiculous to be believed. Now, it seems quite tame and measured. Welll…sponsoring a gang of radical bank robbers? I think that’s still out there. But yes, I do think this is a pretty good movie. Not the best movie, but [not bad at all.](http://www.flickchart.com/Charts.aspx?user=SlackerInc&perpage=250)😉 ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/32 "2015-09-06T15:22:23Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I never heard of this woman until after I saw “Network” (FTR, I was born prior to 1976). When I did, I realized that this movie was inspired, if not outright based on, her story. That must have been quite a feat of prophecy on Chayefsky’s part, considering that he drafted an early version of the film in December 1973, about 19 months before Chubbock killed herself on-air. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/33 "2015-09-06T16:52:20Z")
Speaking about the Oscars and the film **Network** , Beatrice Straight is cited by many sources as having appeared in the shortest amount of screen time for any actor/actress in the history of the Oscar Awards, to ever win. Straight, who played Max Schumacher’s (William Holden) wife, appears for only 5 minutes and 40 seconds in the film. Essentially she just has one single scene (about 4 minutes long) where she confronts her husband as he admits his affair. She won the Best Supporting Actress Award for her performance. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/34 "2015-09-06T17:13:56Z")
Ned Beatty monologue is the one that stands out the most for me. > [@](#): > > You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won’t have it! Is that clear?! Do you think you’ve merely stopped a business deal? That is not the case. The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multi-variate, multi-national dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and sub-atomic and galactic structure of things today! And you have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and You Will Atone! > > Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state - Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that perfect world in which there’s no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock, all necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel. (Beale: “Why me?”) Because you’re on television, dummy. Sixty million people watch you every night of the week, Monday through Friday. (Beale: “I have seen the face of God.”) You just might be right, Mr. Beale. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_John_Marcej)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/35 "2015-09-06T17:24:21Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](#): > > Ned Beatty monologue is the one that stands out the most for me. That is an awesome scene. I hope you got a chance to see **The Simpsons** episode from last season, _ **“Let’s Go Fly A Coot”** _. The episode itself is uneven but there’s a spoof of Betty’s monologue in it. ---
**Author:** ![Stringbean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/36 "2015-09-06T17:42:34Z")
Awesome monologue. The delivery is far too over-wrought. Much of the affect is lost in Beale’s howling bluster. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/37 "2015-09-06T17:43:34Z")
The funniest bit was the Commie arguing over her residuals. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_jeffrey_lebowski/32/215_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Jeffrey\_Lebowski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Jeffrey_Lebowski)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/38 "2015-09-06T18:02:25Z")
Did not see the Simpson’s parody. I’ll definitely look for it. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/39 "2015-09-06T18:39:14Z")
Born in 1971. Have seen it twice, I think, first time in the 80s, I believe. Great, great movie. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2015, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/40 "2015-09-06T18:50:06Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > I wonder how many people who haven’t seen or heard of the movie would recognize the phrase “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!” Surely, it’s been quoted, referenced, and [parodied](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9W-smdTVjA) often enough that it’s at least somewhat familiar? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080.md?page=3)