Network

This is the most effective satire film I’ve ever watched. It’s thoroughly devastating, and that’s because it doesn’t work on one level. While Network’s wry humor is very sharp and truly sore, it’s the sympathy I had for Howard Beale, Peter Finch’s character, that got me. Actually, the movie’s obvious flaw is that the aspect that is focused on, which is the political satirical one, is underdeveloped, or let’s say that all small changes that happen don’t make the story any better, instead, they made the satire less sharp, and made me less interested in the story.

By contrast, the character of Beale is continuously developed, and it’s character arc is painful to witness from the very beginning to the end. However, what really made me engaged despite the semi-hollow main plot are two things:

the first thing is the intelligent dialogue; it should be listed in top 10 movie dialogues of all-time. It easily can trick us as the plot is very well-developed.

The second thing is the characters, not only Howard Beale, but almost every character is a three-dimensional one. Specially when I was totally invested in all the characters, and how couldn’t I with, maybe, the greatest cast ensemble performing the roles?
Of course, Peter Finch is great, and balances very well between his moments of wrath, and his moments of psychopathic coldness. But, c’mon, his performance is far cry from De Niro’s in Taxi Driver, which is arguably the best performance in film. The performances that standout for me are William Holden’s as Max Schumacher, he really deserved to win the Oscar, and Faye Dunaway’s performance as Diana Christensen, which I think this is her best performance ever even better than her performance in Chinatown , and, fortunately, she took the Oscar for this role as the Best Actress in a Leading Role. Robert Duvall also, and as usual, gave a terrific performance. Needless to say, the entire cast is phenomenal!

I want to say that I love Sidney Lumet direction. He always shot the conversations in his movies in a way that make us feel they actually happen in real life, and 12 Angry Men and Dog Day Afternoon are the finest examples. But in the case of Network, there are some scenes that don’t need to be shot this fast, they needed a little more focus, a little more dramatic feeling. The result is some scenes that could have been more effective if they were less rushed, also, there are some acting, which is great, that seemed to be over the top. And that’s just because the direction, not the acting itself, except one scene in which the acting was really hammy. Also, the ending is rushed, but it’s very shocking. With that being said, Lumet established a disturbing atmosphere, that due to it, nothing in this movie would have worked.

All in all, I enjoyed watching this movie that left a bitter taste in mouth, because of nothing but its accuracy which made it very relevant nowadays. And despite all its major flaws, Sidney Lumet made a satirical drama that still one of a kind.

(8/10)

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