Grade: A-
Synopsis: Television executives (Robert Duvall and Faye Dunaway) exploit a mentally unstable anchorman (Peter Finch) over the objections of a seasoned newsman (William Holden).
Network is a biting satire of the television industry that still works over 30 years later. That’s as much a credit to the film as a condemnation of the industry on which it’s based.
Paddy Chayefsky’s Oscar winning script is sharp and entertaining. Granted, the romance between Faye Dunaway and William Holden seems a bit forced, but that’s easy to overlook considering the tremendous presence both bring the screen. Further, their scenes together serve as a more intimate reflection of the same rationalization the network itself was using to justify its own ends, and that’s the genius of Chayefsky’s screenplay: it’s really telling the same story two different ways, and the result is a more subtle way of making a rather insidious point about our willingness to use and exploit others for our own gain.
Director Sidney Lumet plays the straight man with the camera, avoiding both the over-the-top touches of other satires, as well as the stale, one-note style of many documentaries, and instead allows his actors, and Chayefsky’s script, to shine.
Bottom Line: Network is a top-notch satire that sadly seems to move closer to documentary every day.
