SAYS the website, Amazon, of the 1976 movie, Network, satirising TV networks and their chasing of ratings: “Ageing television presenter, Howard Beale (Peter Finch), is on the edge of a mental breakdown when he is fired.
“He decides to open his heart to his audience, breaking down live on TV. Incredibly, this boosts his ratings, and Beale is re-hired and given his own show on which he can scream and shout.”
Written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, the film also stars Faye Dunaway, Beatrice Straight, William Holden and Robert Duvall.
It won four Academy Awards: Best Actor (Finch), Best Actress (Dunaway), Best Supporting Actress (Straight), and Best Original Screenplay (Chayefsky). Plus several other awards, elsewhere.
One key part of the movie has Beale urging viewers to fight back: “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more.”
Watch the movie trailer, here…
Buy the movie, here.
