Network

UPC: 883929232666

Studio: Warner Home Video

MPAA Rating: R   Contains:[Mild Violence, Adult Situations, Adult Humor, Profanity, Sexual Situations]

Summary: A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year. Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is put out to pasture because he "skews old." Network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden), Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. Network head Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for kicking Beale out then and there, but when it looks as though the UBS is going to have its greatest ratings ever on the night of Beale's self-destruction, ambitious programming exec Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) talks Hackett into treating that fateful final telecast as a special event. Naturally, Beale doesn't go through with it -- but he does begin rambling about the horrible state of the world in general and television in particular. He concludes his tirade by admonishing his viewers to "Go to the window and shout as loud as you can: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'" With that, Howard Beale becomes the hottest TV personality in America, and Diana becomes the network's fair-haired girl. She draws up plans to treat the nightly news broadcast as garish entertainment (complete with a psychic), all built around the rants of Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves." Network won Oscars for Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay as well as for three of four acting categories -- Dunaway for Best Actress, Peter Finch for Best Actor (in the only posthumous Oscar yet awarded), and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, in one of the shortest-screen-time performances ever to win an Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Category: Comedy Drama

Awards: Best Actor – British Academy of Film and Television Arts Best Picture – British Academy of Film and Television Arts 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Picture – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Screenplay – Los Angeles Film Critics Association Best Director – Directors Guild of America Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Screenplay – null Best Picture - Drama – null Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – null Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Editing – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Original Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Supporting Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Screenplay – New York Film Critics Circle Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Supporting Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture - Drama – Hollywood Foreign Press Association Best Screenplay – Hollywood Foreign Press Association

Features: The making of Network 6-part documentary
Vintage Paddy Chayefsky interview excerpt from Dinah! hosted by Dinah Shore
Commentary by director Sidney Lumet
Private screenings with Sidney Lumet: Turner Classic movies host Robert Osborne interviews the director
Theatrical trailer

Network

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 01/10/2012

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DHMA null

Runtime: 121 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) English,French,Spanish

Subtitles: French,Spanish

Lucia Bozzola

Part of a cycle of 1970s conspiracy films and a sharp satire of the TV business, Network bitterly critiques corporate culture's impact on the spread of information and the resulting cult of the TV guru. As directed by Sidney Lumet and scripted by Paddy Chayefsky, Network takes a relatively straightforward approach to its outrageous acts, even those of Faye Dunaway's ambitious programmer, lending a disturbingly matter-of-fact tone to the corporation's most venal and dehumanizing machinations. The mad ravings of Peter Finch's messianic Howard Beale become an almost sane response to the systemic rot, but the corruption is too deep and the TV audience too fickle. A popular and critical hit, Network was praised for wittily yet somberly tapping into the mid-'70s mood of cultural disaffection, providing the perfect catch phrase for any and all frustrations, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" Nominated for ten Oscars including Best Picture, Network won four awards, including Best Screenplay, and three out of the four acting awards: Best Actress for Dunaway; Best Supporting Actress for Beatrice Straight as William Holden's bitterly wronged wife (at that time, the briefest Oscar-winning performance in history, since bested by Judi Dench's role in Shakespeare in Love); and a posthumous Best Actor for Finch. While journalists in 1976 howled about the film's inaccurate absurdity, the continuing conglomeration of the media and resulting excesses of infotainment ensure Network's continuing sting. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Ken Kercheval  Actor 
Fred Stuthman  Actor 
Sasha von Scherler  Actor 
Todd Everett  Actor 
Mitchell Jason  Actor 
Lane Smith  Actor 
Lynn Klugman  Actor 
Stanley Grover  Actor 
Michael Lombard  Actor 
John Carpenter  Actor 
Jerome Dempsey  Actor 
Russ Petranto  Actor 
Conchata Ferrell  Actor 
Paul Jenkins  Actor 
Pirie MacDonald  Actor 
Jordan Charney  Actor 
Gene Gross  Actor 
Ken Kimmins  Actor 
Theodore Sorel  Actor 
Ed Crowley  Actor 
Lance Henriksen  Actor 
Michael Lipton  Actor 
Bernie Pollack  Actor 
Paddy Chayefsky  Screenwriter 
Howard Gottfried  Producer 
Sidney Lumet  Director 
Elliot Lawrence  Composer (Music Score) 
Faye Dunaway  Actor 
William Holden  Actor 
Peter Finch  Actor 
Robert Duvall  Actor 
Wesley Addy  Actor 
Ned Beatty  Actor 
Beatrice Straight  Actor 
Arthur Burghardt  Actor 
Bill Burrows  Actor 
Kathy Cronkite  Actor 
Darryl Hickman  Actor 
Roy Poole  Actor 
William Prince  Actor 
Marlene Warfield  Actor 
Lee Richardson  Actor 

Country: USA