Starring Peter Finch, Faye Dunaway and William Holden
Written By Paddy Chayefsky
Directed by Sidney Lumet
USA 1976
121 mins
Adaptations of classic movies are frequently to be found on the London stage - Network is currently enjoying a sell-out run at the National Theatre. Bryan Cranston (star of Breaking Bad) plays Howard Beale - a newscaster who breaks down on air in spectacular fashion only to become an unlikely cult figure and media star.
In the original 1976 movie the British actor Peter Finch gives a mesmerising performance as the anchorman who rebels against the medium he works in and the society that it is a part of. Alongside him is a cast of some of the finest actors of the era including William Holden, Faye Dunaway and Robert Duvall playing various executives of a fictional network. Ruthless ambition pervades their world where the prize is success in the TV ratings - at any price.
The screenplay is by Paddy Chayevsky - one of the most gifted and darkly funny writers ever to have worked in pictures. Chayefsky's other scripts include Marty and The Hospital for both of which he won an Academy Award (as he did for Network). He remains the only person to have won three solo Oscars in that category. Many consider Network to be his masterpiece.
The director is Sidney Lumet, a giant of American cinema whose work includes Twelve Angry Men, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon. Lumet began his career at the Actor's Studio in New York and continued in off Broadway productions and television. He was a notably humanitarian craftsman and made over 50 movies in his long and distinguished career.
Network won four Academy Awards and forty years on its sharp satire looks ever more prescient in this age of fake news and corrupted media.
