Network (film)
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Network |
| Original title | Network |
 | |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1976 |
| length | 121 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | Sidney Lumet |
| script | Paddy Chayefsky |
| production | Howard Gottfried |
| music | Elliot Lawrence |
| camera | Owen Roizman |
| cut | Alan Heim |
| occupation | |
| |
Network is an American film satire from 1976 . Sidney Lumet directed from a script by Paddy Chayefsky .
Union Broadcasting System (UBS) news anchor, who is about to be fired, Howard Beale is rising to star after a series of live programs with suicide threats and verbal abuse.
action
Howard Beale, longtime news anchor for Union Broadcasting System (UBS), learns that he is about to be fired for restructuring. In front of the camera, he announced his suicide in his next - and last - broadcast, which attracts a lot of public attention. In the next show, Beale does not commit suicide, but complains in clear terms about his employer and the current state of the world. The media coverage is enormous. Diana Christensen, the new program director, can persuade the head of UBS, Frank Hackett, to give Beale a slot where he can let his tirades run free. The concept was successful, Beale quickly became a crowd favorite, much to the regret of his friend Max Schumacher, the head of the news department, who thought Beale was mentally ill and in need of help. Hackett fires Schumacher, who in turn starts an affair with Christensen and leaves his wife.
Beale's show, in which he appears as a television prophet, is reaching more and more people who find him a catalyst for their frustration with social conditions. Finally, Beale calls on his audience to prevent the takeover of the media group CCA, the owner of UBS, by an Arab group of investors and to send telegrams to the White House. CCA boss Arthur Jensen summons Beale and tells him his philosophy of global capitalism, which Beale is to proclaim from now on in his broadcast. Beale, who thinks he has "seen the face of God", agrees. As a result of his change of attitude, audience ratings are falling.
Schumacher separates from Christensen because he accuses her of living in her own television world and not being able to feel. Audience ratings for Beale's show continue to drop, but CCA's Jensen insists, against the will of the UBS creators, on keeping Beale on the program. Hackett, Christensen and the other heads of department decide in a secret meeting to have the unloved Beale shot in front of the camera by a terrorist group under contract with UBS. The plan is carried out; Over images of Beale's murder and commercials, a spokesman announced, "This was the story of Howard Beale, the first known case of a man who was killed because of poor audience ratings."
Reviews
| source | rating |
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| Rotten tomatoes | |
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| audience |
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| IMDb |
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James Berardinelli wrote in 1998 on ReelViews.net that this black comedy goes much further than the thematically related news fever - Broadcast News . Despite occasional weaknesses in tempo, it is brilliant, but not funny in the conventional sense, and can best be enjoyed on an intellectual level. Berardinelli praised the performance of the main and supporting actors alike.
The lexicon of international film judged: "An excellently staged and intensely played film, which is a dismaying as well as cutting-sharp satirical settlement with commercial television."
In the Deutsche Allgemeine Sonntagsblatt , Hellmut Haffner said that the film was "not designed as a grotesque, but as a sociopolitical ripper, with great effort, great speed, great cast". It is all the more astonishing that he “doesn't send shivers down the spine” of the audience.
The film is criticized by Jack Shaheen in his documentary Reel Bad Arabs as particularly anti-Arab . The film would work with stereotypes and use conspiracy theories .
Awards (selection)
Network won four Oscars . The award went posthumously to Peter Finch for Best Actor , Faye Dunaway for Best Actress , Paddy Chayefsky for Best Original Screenplay and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress . With just six minutes of film, Beatrice Straight holds the record for the shortest Oscar-winning appearance. There were nominations for William Holden as Best Actor and Ned Beatty as Best Supporting Actor as well as in the categories of Best Cinematography , Best Director , Best Editing and Best Film .
Sidney Lumet, Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky won the 1977 Golden Globe Award . The film was also nominated for Best Picture - Drama .
Peter Finch won the British Academy Film Award (BAFTA) in 1978, also posthumously . Network was nominated in eight other BAFTA categories.
Network has also received numerous critical awards, including those from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the New York Film Critics Circle .
The American Film Institute jurors selected the film in 1998 and 2007 as one of the “100 Best American Films of All Time”.
In 2000, Network was listed as "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant" in the National Film Registry of the American Library of Congress .
Web links
- Network in theInternet Movie Database(English)
- Network at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- zeit.de (2017): The elephant is in the room (thesis: 'Network' is a grandiose satirical prophecy that was fulfilled by Donald Trump's election as US President)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b [1] at Rotten Tomatoes , accessed on November 28, 2014
- ↑ Network in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- ↑ Review by James Berardinelli on ReelViews.net, accessed May 31, 2012.
- ^ Network in the Lexicon of International Films
- ↑ Hellmut Haffner: Hollywood is getting aggressive. Entertainment films that make people think . In: German General Sunday Gazette . No. 13/1977 , March 27, 1977, Kulturmagazin, p. 18 .
- ↑ Michael Darling: Oscars by the Numbers , Los Angeles Times Magazine, February 2012, accessed June 1, 2012.