# 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:** 4
**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 7, 2015, 10:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/61 "2015-09-07T10:24:55Z")
Gotcha. I didn’t think Carlin’s routine would be covered in such a book, but I was apparently wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Sangahyando](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f14d63/32.png) [@Sangahyando](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sangahyando)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 10:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/62 "2015-09-07T10:45:40Z")
Born 1948. Am not American, and this is not my preferred sort of thing to watch: feel that I could be excused for being oblivious to it. As it happened, I was vaguely aware of the film around the time that it came out – IIRC highly praised by someone I then knew, and mentioned in the British press. All I recalled until reading this thread, was that it was allegedly a hard-hitting piece about the broadcasting media and its potential for abuse and tragedy; and that it involved a character called Diana – the Faye Dunaway role, as I learn. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/63 "2015-09-07T13:57:19Z")
I was born in 1977 and have seen **Network**. I think I saw it five years or so ago. > [@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!” I was familiar with the phrase before I saw the movie. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/64 "2015-09-07T14:09:14Z")
I was in college and saw it when it first hit the theaters. Loved it a lot but it quickly became one of those over-quoted films that just faded out of my life. I don’t think I’ve watched it in the last 10 years or so. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/65 "2015-09-07T14:54:40Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > That was me and I **really** disagree. **Rocky** was a good film, but IMO it’s a story that’s been told dozens of times. For me, with the exception of the look of the film (and a very good score) it wasn’t anything that stayed with me. > > The other Best Film nominees that year were exceptional films. Not only with their story: > **Network** - so far ahead of it’s time. Great performances and a biting script. > **Taxi Driver** - Scorsese at his best. DeNiro is a standout. A film with such a memorable story and scenes and a soundtrack by the immortal Bernard Herrmann! > **All the President’s Men** - I just rewatched this a month ago, wow, what a great film! It’s a suspense film based on a true story (so you know how it ends) and there’s no chase scenes but man, you’re on the edge of your seat! An excellent supporting cast alongside Hoffman & Redford. > **Bound For Glory** - This (loose) bio-pic for Woody Guthrie looks beautiful. Ashby presents a movie that really presents an amazing picture of a Depression era America. > And don’t forget, this is the first film ever to use a steadicam, that helped give it it’s distinctive look. > > Any one of those films were standouts and IMO way better than just a good underdog fighter film. Disagree I guess. \*\*Network \*_to me is not a great movie, just good and **Bound for Glory** was only a glorified B movie_. Taxi Driver (oddly on last night) is a timeless classic and the best contender to beat out Rocky and **All the President’s Men** was just a notch below those 2. \*\* That is from someone that is a pretty big fan of Woodie Guthrie. But the writing and acting was not great. \* ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/66 "2015-09-07T21:55:58Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > If you loved _All the President’s Men_, I highly recommend an earlier Pakula thriller, _The Parallax View_. That’s a great movie; though the plot is not unfamiliar, the filming of it was expert, and the result is a tense, atmospheric suspense classic. > [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > That was me and I **really** disagree. **Rocky** was a good film, but IMO it’s a story that’s been told dozens of times. For me, with the exception of the look of the film (and a very good score) it wasn’t anything that stayed with me. > > The other Best Film nominees that year were exceptional films. Not only with their story: > **Network** - so far ahead of it’s time. Great performances and a biting script. > **Taxi Driver** - Scorsese at his best. DeNiro is a standout. A film with such a memorable story and scenes and a soundtrack by the immortal Bernard Herrmann! > **All the President’s Men** - I just rewatched this a month ago, wow, what a great film! It’s a suspense film based on a true story (so you know how it ends) and there’s no chase scenes but man, you’re on the edge of your seat! An excellent supporting cast alongside Hoffman & Redford. > **Bound For Glory** - This (loose) bio-pic for Woody Guthrie looks beautiful. Ashby presents a movie that really presents an amazing picture of a Depression era America. And don’t forget, this is the first film ever to use a steadicam, that helped give it it’s distinctive look. > Any one of those films were standouts and IMO way better than just a good underdog fighter film. I agree: **Rocky** is well-made, but it’s basically a feel-good formula movie. The others are far more challenging. (The only one I haven’t seen is the Guthrie biopic, and as a topic, Guthrie fits the ‘challenging’ label beautifully–he was a major anti-establishment iconoclast.) This is off-topic, but: can anyone even _begin_ to imagine a slate of comparable films being the Oscar nominees in 2016? ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/67 "2015-09-07T22:22:15Z")
Both Network and The Hospital are compromised by Chayefsky’s writing pronouncements rather than lines for his actors, his hamfisted telegraphing the jokes, and his women who mainly exist to either adore or confound the men. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/68 "2015-09-07T22:22:34Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > I agree: **Rocky** is well-made, but it’s basically a feel-good formula movie. If _Rocky_ was a formula movie, he’d have won the fight at the end. That’s actually an example of **Robot Arm’s First Law of Sports Movies** ; in the best ones, the result of the big game goes against the tone of the film. Rocky loses the big fight, the Bad News Bears lose their final game, Fast Eddie beats Fats at the end of _The Hustler_. There are a few exceptions. ---
**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 7, 2015, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/69 "2015-09-07T22:42:31Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > If _Rocky_ was a formula movie, he’d have won the fight at the end. No Rocky, **did** win in the end. The film is NEVER about boxing or beating the champ, it’s about a lonely man without much of a future or any direction, achieving and finding love at long last. The boxing formula is just something for the character to do. It could have been about any sport or career choice. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/70 "2015-09-07T23:07:46Z")
I have never seen it but it was on cable here last week and it is waiting on my PVR for me. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/71 "2015-09-07T23:09:21Z")
> [@Richard\_John\_Marcej](#): > > No Rocky, **did** win in the end. > The film is NEVER about boxing or beating the champ, it’s about a lonely man without much of a future or any direction, achieving and finding love at long last. The boxing formula is just something for the character to do. It could have been about any sport or career choice. Yes, that’s sort of the point of my first law; in great sports movies the hero transcends the game and the final score doesn’t matter. But **Sherrerd** said _Rocky_ was a formula movie; in a formula movie he would have won the fight and the girl. ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/72 "2015-09-07T23:57:55Z")
> [@Ike\_Witt](#): > > I have never seen it but it was on cable here last week and it is waiting on my PVR for me. If you like it, check out a little remembered 1981 film SOB > **[S.O.B. (1981) ⭐ 6.4 | Comedy, Drama](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083015/)** > > 2h 2m | R It’s almost like a strange kind of sequel - and be sure to get the theater release and not the “TV” version. ---
**Author:** ![Sherrerd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sherrerd/32/8_2.png) [@Sherrerd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sherrerd)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/73 "2015-09-08T00:30:29Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Yes, that’s sort of the point of my first law; in great sports movies the hero transcends the game and the final score doesn’t matter. But **Sherrerd** said _Rocky_ was a formula movie; in a formula movie he would have won the fight and the girl. No, as Richard John Marcej said (and very well, I might add), the formula has the hero winning in the end, and Rocky did win in the end–he got over his feeling of being one of life’s losers; he found love; and he found a direction for his life and a belief in his own resources. So, yes: a formula movie. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/74 "2015-09-08T00:36:01Z")
> [@Sherrerd](#): > > No, as Richard John Marcej said (and very well, I might add), the formula has the hero winning in the end, and Rocky did win in the end–he got over his feeling of being one of life’s losers; he found love; and he found a direction for his life and a belief in his own resources. > > So, yes: a formula movie. So same with **Bad News Bears** (original) then? The writing in Rocky and characters were pretty exceptional. I think it stands the test of time. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/75 "2015-09-08T00:39:10Z")
I was already over 30 when the movie came out, but didn’t see it until a few years ago (I had known about it, just hadn’t seen it). Great movie. ---
**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 8, 2015, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/76 "2015-09-08T11:39:25Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Both Network and The Hospital are compromised by Chayefsky’s writing pronouncements rather than lines for his actors, his hamfisted telegraphing the jokes, and his women who mainly exist to either adore or confound the men. Haven’t yet seen _The Hospital_, but Diana Christensen, the female lead in _Network_, doesn’t at all match your description. Yes, she does confound William Holden’s character, but that’s not her primary purpose. She’s the programming director who almost single-handedly engineers the network’s transformation into an over-the-top tabloid. Without her, Beale’s on-air break-down would have been a passing anomaly; he would have been taken off the air (as the network had planned all along) and there would have been no further plot development to speak of. She’s one of the strongest and least dispensible female characters I’ve ever seen in a film from that era. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/77 "2015-09-08T14:40:08Z")
So yeah, she’s a plot device. And the whole point of her character is that she has no soul, just marketing instinct. (inner issues and reflections, character development, all that stuff that William Holden gets to do). It’s the writing that to blame. Faye Dunaway had the chops to do more, as she did in Oklahoma Crude. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/78 "2015-09-08T15:02:54Z")
> [@Skammer](#): > > 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. Ditto on all counts. ---
**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 8, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/79 "2015-09-08T15:07:05Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > So yeah, she’s a plot device. And the whole point of her character is that she has no soul, just marketing instinct. (inner issues and reflections, character development, all that stuff that William Holden gets to do). Your description is just as applicable to many of the film’s male characters, including those played by Robert Duvall and Ned Beatty. Dunaway’s character may not change much over the course of the film, but that doesn’t mean she lacks complexity and depth. There’s a _reason_ why she is so soulless and driven, and even if the viewer figures it out on their own, it’s still a joy to watch Holden’s Schumacher articulate it so eloquently, first to his wife and then later in their final scene together. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2015, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080/80 "2015-09-08T19:07:37Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > 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. I imagine the book mentions that this was just in the wake of the debacle of George C. Scott refusing his lead Actor Oscar 6 years earlier and Marlon Brando sending the disastrous proxy Sacheen Littlefeather to receive his Best Actor Oscar 4 years earlier. Those were wounds that were still pretty fresh with the Academy and they wanted to keep as tight a grip on non-scripted elements as possible. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-here-has-heard-of-the-film-network/730080.md?page=5)