Network starring Faye Dunaway, William Holden
Director: Sidney Lumet


Essential Actor / Actresses Here

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Media madness reigns supreme in screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky's scathing satire about the uses and abuses of network television. But while Chayefsky's and director Sidney Lumet's take on television may seem quaint in the age of "reality TV" and Jerry Springer's talk-show fisticuffs, it's every bit as potent now as it was when the film was released in 1976. And because Chayefsky was one of the greatest of all dramatists, his Oscar-winning script about the ratings frenzy at the cost of cultural integrity is a showcase for powerhouse acting by Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and Beatrice Straight (who each won Oscars), and Oscar nominee William Holden in one of his finest roles. Finch plays a veteran network anchorman who's been fired because of low ratings. His character's response is to announce he'll kill himself on live television two weeks hence. What follows, along with skyrocketing ratings, is the anchorman's descent into insanity, during which he fervently rages against the medium that made him a celebrity. Dunaway plays the frigid, ratings-obsessed producer who pursues success with cold-blooded zeal; Holden is the married executive who tries to thaw her out during his own seething midlife crisis. Through it all, Chayefsky (via Finch) urges the viewer to repeat the now-famous mantra "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not gonna take it anymore!" to reclaim our humanity from the medium that threatens to steal it away.
Synopsis
A fourth-rated network, United Broadcasting System (UBS), unsuccessfully fights off a corporate takeover. The changing guard heralds a new atmosphere at the network, as new executives, who show an apparent lack of concern for ethics and morals, take power. Their first action: firing Howard Beale, the network's longtime news anchor. Despondent, with nothing left to lose, Beale goes berserk on the air and threatens to commit suicide in one week's time. Viewers, excited by the possibility of this on-air spectacle, tune in; ratings zoom and the new programming whiz takes advantage of the furor by developing a new form of live, violent "guerrilla television". But the advertisers don't like what's going on at all, and in the dark, secluded corridors of the networks headquarters, they quietly conspire to end Howard Beale's brief moment of glory.

Video Description
Paddy Chayefsky prophetically satirizes the lurid depths to which TV execs will go for ratings. A ruthless network executive realizes a news anchorman, driven crazy by the plunge in standards, is worth more to her crazy than sane. A fired veteran news editor is drawn to her in both fascination and horror. Academy Award Nominations: 9, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor--William Holden. Academy Awards: 4, including Best Actor--Peter Finch, Best Actress--Faye Dunaway, Best (Original) Screenplay--Paddy Chayefsky.

 

 

 

 

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