Network (1976)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Sidney Lumet

Writer:

Paddy Chayefsky (written by)

Release Date:

29 January 1977 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Not since the dawn of time has America experienced a man like Howard Beale!

Plot:

A TV network cynically exploits a deranged ex-TV anchor's ravings and revelations about the media for their own profit.

Plot Keywords:

Television | Ratings | News Anchor | Terrorist | Television Network

Awards:

Won 4 Oscars. Another 14 wins & 19 nominations

Cast

Faye Dunaway	...	Diana Christensen
William Holden	...	Max Schumacher
Peter Finch	...	Howard Beale
Robert Duvall	...	Frank Hackett
Wesley Addy	...	Nelson Chaney
Ned Beatty	...	Arthur Jensen
Arthur Burghardt	...	Great Ahmed Kahn
Bill Burrows	...	TV Director
John Carpenter	...	George Bosch
Jordan Charney	...	Harry Hunter
Kathy Cronkite	...	Mary Ann Gifford
Ed Crowley	...	Joe Donnelly
Jerome Dempsey	...	Walter C. Amundsen
Conchata Ferrell	...	Barbara Schlesinger
Gene Gross	...	Milton K. Steinman
Stanley Grover	...	Jack Snowden
Cindy Grover	...	Caroline Schumacher
Darryl Hickman	...	Bill Herron
Mitchell Jason	...	Arthur Zangwill
Paul Jenkins	...	TV Stage Manager
Ken Kercheval	...	Merrill Grant
Kenneth Kimmins	...	Associate Producer
Lynn Klugman	...	TV Production Assistant
Carolyn Krigbaum	...	Max's Secretary
Zane Lasky	...	Audio Man
Michael Lipton	...	Tommy Pellegrino
Michael Lombard	...	Willie Stein
Pirie MacDonald	...	Herb Thackeray
Russ Petranto	...	TV Associate Director
Bernard Pollock	...	Lou
Roy Poole	...	Sam Haywood
William Prince	...	Edward George Ruddy
Sasha von Scherler	...	Helen Miggs
Lane Smith	...	Robert McDonough
Ted Sorel	...	Giannini (as Theodore Sorel)
Beatrice Straight	...	Louise Schumacher
Fred Stuthman	...	Mosaic Figure
Cameron Thomas	...	TV Technical Director
Marlene Warfield	...	Laureen Hobbs
Lydia Wilen	...	Hunter's Secretary
Lee Richardson	...	Narrator (voice)
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
John Chancellor	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Walter Cronkite	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Andrew Duncan	...	Agent (uncredited)
Todd Everett	...	Reporter (uncredited)
Betty Ford	...	Herself (beside her husband) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Gerald Ford	...	Himself (speech on assassination attempts) (archive footage) (uncredited)
John Gabriel	...	TV anchor reporting Beale's suicide threat (uncredited)
Lance Henriksen	...	Network lawyer at Khan's place (uncredited)
Howard K. Smith	...	Himself (news anchorman) (archive footage) (uncredited)
David Susskind	...	Himself (conducts interview) (archive footage) (uncredited)
Michael Tucker	...	Man At Desk (uncredited)
Ahmed Yamani	...	Himself (at OPEC conference) (archive footage) (uncredited)

Directed by
Sidney Lumet

Writing credits
Paddy Chayefsky		(written by)

Produced by
Fred C. Caruso	....	associate producer (as Fred Caruso)
Howard Gottfried	....	producer

Original Music by
Elliot Lawrence

Cinematography by
Owen Roizman

Film Editing by
Alan Heim

Casting by
Juliet Taylor

Production Design by
Philip Rosenberg

Set Decoration by
Edward Stewart

Costume Design by
Theoni V. Aldredge

Makeup Department
John Alese	....	makeup artist
Susan Germaine	....	hair stylist: Ms. Dunaway
Lee Harman	....	makeup artist: Ms. Dunaway
Philip Leto	....	hair stylist (as Phil Leto)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Alan Hopkins	....	first assistant director (as Jay Allan Hopkins)
Ralph S. Singleton	....	second assistant director (as Ralph Singleton)

Art Department
Connie Brink	....	property master (as Conrad Brink)

Sound Department
Jack Fitzstephens	....	sound editor
Marc Laub	....	sound editor (as Marc M. Laub)
Sanford Rackow	....	sound editor
James Sabat	....	sound mixer
Dick Vorisek	....	sound re-recordist
Louis Cerborino	....	assistant sound editor (uncredited)
Mel Zelniker	....	adr recordist (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
Michael Ginsburg	....	still photographer
Kenneth Goss	....	key grip
Norman Leigh	....	gaffer
Gary Muller	....	second assistant camera
Tom Priestley Jr.	....	assistant camera
Fred Schuler	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
George Newman	....	costumer
Marilyn Putnam	....	costumer

Editorial Department
Michael Jacobi	....	assistant editor
Don Dittmar	....	color timer (uncredited)
Norman Hollyn	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)
Jeffrey Wolf	....	apprentice editor (uncredited)

Music Department
Elliot Lawrence	....	conductor

Other crew
Selma Brown	....	production auditor
Kay Chapin	....	script supervisor
Stephen Frankfurt	....	title designer
Connie Schoenberg	....	office coordinator
John H. Starke	....	location coordinator (as John Starke)
Mark Hurwitz	....	production assistant (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
• United Artists

Distributors

• Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• United Artists (1976) (USA) (theatrical)
• Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS) (1978) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Chapel Distribution (1997) (Australia) (theatrical) (35mm print)
• United Artists (1977) (France) (theatrical) (as Les Artistes Associés)
• MGM Home Entertainment (Europe) (2003) (UK) (DVD)
• MGM Home Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Warner Home Video (2000) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)

Other Companies

• EUE/Screen Gems Video Services  UBS video logo
• Todd/Champion Ltd.  extras casting

Runtime:

121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Canada:R (Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:16 | Australia:M | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba) | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Singapore:M18 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

CFTO-TV Studios, Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

Kay Lenz was offered the lead female role but turned it down due to her commitment to the TV miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976).

Goofs:

Continuity: When Max Schumacher is telling Howard Beale a story on the sidewalk in front of their building, he backs up into the street a few times as cars pass by. At the very end of the story, as he hugs Beale, an empty cab is parked on the sidewalk, right behind where he was standing in the street.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Narrator: This story is about Howard Beale, the acclaimed news anchorman on UBS T.V. In this time, however, he was a mandarin of television with a HUT rating of 16 and a 28 audience share. In 1969, however, his fortunes began to decline. He fell to a 22 share. The following year, his wife died, and he was left a childless widower with an 8 rating and a 12 share. He became morose and isolated, started to drink heavily, and on September 22, 1975, he was fired, effective in two weeks. The news was broken to him by Max Schumacher, who was the president of the news division at UBS. The two old friends got properly pissed.
Howard Beale: [on the street] I was at CBS with Ed Murrow in 1951.
Max Schumacher: Must've been 1950 then.
[Beale nods]
Max Schumacher: I was at NBC, uh, associate producer. Morning News. I was just a kid. 26 years old.
[Not interested, Beale wanders off, until Schumacher stops him]
Max Schumacher: Anyway... anyway... they're building a lower level of the George Washington Bridge.
[Interested, Beale listens]
Max Schumacher: We were doing a remote from there.
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher: [start to laugh and snicker in unison]
Max Schumacher: And nobody told me!
[Beale keeps laughing, very interested]
Max Schumacher: Next morning I get a call, "Where the hell are YOU? You're supposed to be in the George Washington Bridge!"
[Beale and Schumacher exchange laughs]
Max Schumacher: I jump outta bed, throw my raincoat over my pajamas, I run downstairs, I run into the street,
[Schumacher runs into the street]
Max Schumacher: SO I TAIL A CAB, AND I SAY TO THE CABBY, "TAKE ME TO THE MIDDLE OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE!"
[Beale laughs]
Max Schumacher: And the cabby turns around and he says...
[giggles]
Max Schumacher: he says "Don't do it, buddy! You're a young man! Ya got your whole life ahead of ya!"
Howard Beale, Max Schumacher: [shriek in hysterics, as Beale gives Schumacher a hug]
Max Schumacher: Did I ever tell ya that one before?

Movie Connections:

Featured in Zeitgeist (2007) (V)

A Prophet known as Paddy Chayefsky

To think that this blackest of black comedies was made in 1976 could only means two things: 1) Nothing has changed or 2) Paddy Chayefsky was seeing the future with the most disturbing clarity. I endorse the later of the two because I believe things have changed since 1974 - I wasn't born yet, but I know because of my parents, the movies, literature, etc, etc, etc. Peter Finch as the mad prophet of the airwaves gives Chayefsky a riveting and powerful voice. The scenes between old chums Finch and William Holden are some of the best written scenes in any American movie until the Coen brothers emerged. Finch is superb, superb! and Holden, at the end of a legendary career, gives a performance of such ferocious sincerity that I rediscovered the man, the actor and felt the need to revisit some of his opus. From Golden Boy to Sunset Boulevard, Holden was a man who carried his own discomfort as a weapon. Extraordinary! However, the most alarming character in the whole thing is Faye Dunaway's. She is magnificent in her thin, nervous, bra-less attitude. She is a monster of commercial amorality. Everything in this incredible movie moves with the precision of an inspired clairvoyant's vision. Duvall's executive, Beatrice Straight's betrayed wife and Ned Beatty's god like big shot makes this one of the most frightening, entertaining, funniest, remarkable film from the 70's. Sidney Lumet proves once more that he's as good as his material. Here he is at his zenith.