WATCH PARTY: Network (1976) dir. Sidney Lumet @ Mary Pretlow Library

"You have meddled with the primal forces of nature, MR. BEALE!" This movie is great. Screenplay by Paddy Chayefsky, the same delirious nutball who wrote Altered States.

We'll be in the second floor conference room to the left of the elevators/stairs.

RATED: R for language

RUNTIME: 121 minutes

SYNOPSIS (via Criterion.com): This media satire, directed by Sidney Lumet from a brilliantly incisive script by Paddy Chayefsky, is an X-ray of the corrupted soul of a corporate-dominated America, startlingly prescient in its anticipation of today’s outrage-driven news cycle. At a struggling television network, ambitious executive Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) finds herself with a hit on her hands when disgruntled newscaster Howard Beale (Peter Finch) goes off script, transforming himself into a mad-as-hell prophet railing against the ills of modern society. But can she control the populist revolution they have unleashed on the airwaves? Garnering four Oscars, including for Dunaway, Finch, and Chayefsky, this no-holds-barred New Hollywood classic remains as fearlessly funny as it is unnervingly relevant.

BLURBS:
"This tale of a failing network that feeds on the mental breakdown of one of its anchors, cannibalising itself for ratings, feels as savagely relevant now as it did when it was released nearly 40 years ago. Brutally unforgiving in its approach to the television industry, the film is also starkly funny." - Wendy Ide, The Times (UK)

"One of the most ferocious, outspoken, and generally cynical attacks ever launched by one medium upon another, and on the society that shapes and harbors them both. Fortunately... the assault is often as entertaining as it is savage." - David Sterritt, Christian Science Monitor

"So the movie's flawed... That finally doesn't bother me, because what it does accomplish is done so well, is seen so sharply, is presented so unforgivingly, that Network will outlive a lot of tidier movies." - Roger Ebert