All right ladies and gentlemen, it time for the review of one of my favorite and in my opnion, one of the greatest films ever made. the script by the incredible Paddy Chayefsky was recently ranked the 8th Greatest Screenpley of all Time by the WGA but i think it deserves to be in the top 5. Most people call this film a "satire": WRONG!!! This is beyond satire. this is a prediction and a damn good one. this is what happens today in our news. look at local news sensationalizing the mediocre events going on at this time. at that time the news covered everything up and/or censcored or candy-coated everything. This is one of the first films to tell us NO! Howard Beale says about the American people, "'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me have my toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'" Then he lunges over his desk and says, "Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone!!" He won't leave us alone, no he wants us to get MAD! he knows and even says that the world is full of bullshit and wants us to do something about it instead of just standing there. The news at this time would not allow this but Howard Beale did not care. he had rage inside of him that he needed to release.
"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, Mr. Beale, and I won't have it! Is that clear? You think you've merely stopped a business deal. That is not the case! The Arabs have taken billions of dollars out of this country, and now they must put it back! It is ebb and flow, tidal gravity! It is ecological balance! You are an old man who thinks in terms of nations and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There are no Russians. There are no Arabs. There are no third worlds. There is no West. There is only one holistic system of systems, one vast and immane, interwoven, interacting, multivariate, multinational dominion of dollars. Petro-dollars, electro-dollars, multi-dollars, reichmarks, rins, rubles, pounds, and shekels. It is the international system of currency which determines the totality of life on this planet. That is the natural order of things today. That is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today! And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature, and YOU... WILL... ATONE! Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale? You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state, Karl Marx? They get out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories, minimax solutions, and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments, just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale. It has been since man crawled out of the slime. And our children will live, Mr. Beale, to see that... perfect world... in which there's no war or famine, oppression or brutality. One vast and ecumenical holding company, for whom all men will work to serve a common profit, in which all men will hold a share of stock. All necessities provided, all anxieties tranquilized, all boredom amused. And I have chosen you, Mr. Beale, to preach this evangel."
That scene is not just a bunch of hob-gob nosense and big words. if you read it carefully, there are people in our society today that think this way. He had a small part but and incredibly vital one that got him the oscar nomination. Finch also won the Oscar posthumously but rightfully. Beatrice Straight won as well and she oly had an 11 minute part. again vital and with much force and power. William Holden, who had the great performance in Billy Wilder's masterpeice "Sunset Blvd.", turns around as the wiser one in this film. he has a wonderful performance as well and was nominated for the Oscar. Robert Duvall was goos too. The performances and screenplay and the direction from the decesed Sidney Lumet (R.I.P.) make ths film untouchable and should be given a third viewing to really get the gist of it all. But fter the film is over, i want you all to ask youselves something: was Beale having a psychotic breakdown, or did he really see the face of God?| Academy Awards, USA | |||
| Year | Result | Award | Category/Recipient(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1977 | Won | Oscar | Best Actor in a Leading Role Peter Finch Nomination and award were posthumous. Finch became the first posthumous winner in an acting category. His widow Eletha Finch and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky accepted the award on his behalf. |
| Best Actress in a Leading Role Faye Dunaway | |||
| Best Actress in a Supporting Role Beatrice Straight | |||
| Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen Paddy Chayefsky | |||
| Nominated | Oscar | Best Actor in a Leading Role William Holden | |
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role Ned Beatty | |||
| Best Cinematography Owen Roizman | |||
| Best Director Sidney Lumet | |||
| Best Film Editing Alan Heim | |||
| Best Picture Howard Gottfried 'Network' becomes the second film to win three awards for acting, following A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). | |||
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