The performances are excellent, but the best thing about this 1976 masterpiece is the sizzling-hot, ultra-brainy script written by Paddy Chayefsky. For example, take this soliloquy, delivered rapid-fire by the ravishing Faye Dunaway as morality-free TV producer Diana Christiansen:
I was married for four years, and pretended to be happy; and I had six years of analysis, and pretended to be sane. My husband ran off with his boyfriend, and I had an affair with my analyst, who told me I was the worst lay he'd ever had. I can't tell you how many men have told me what a lousy lay I am. I apparently have a masculine temperament. I arouse quickly, consummate prematurely, and can't wait to get my clothes back on and get out of that bedroom. I seem to be inept at everything except my work. I'm goddamn good at my work and so I confine myself to that. All I want out of life is a 30 share and a 20 rating.
Dunaway richly deserved the Oscar that she received for her performance in "Network," as did Peter Finch, whose newscaster-turned-nutty-prophet Howard Beale is frighteningly believable. This film received ten Oscar nominations in total, winning four: Dunaway and Finch for lead acting, Chayefsky for original screenplay and, oddly, Beatrice Straight for her not-even-six-minutes-long supporting performance. Straight does a fine job in her one main scene, but had I been an Academy voter that year (unlikely since I would have been 4 years old), I would have picked Piper Laurie for "Carrie."
"Network" is available from Netflix, and I don't think it loses much going from the big screen to the small; in fact, TV might be the ideal medium for this movie.
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