Who knows what prompted me to buy the BLU-RAY of NETWORK a couple months ago.
I watched it last night after not having seen in in several decades. ...
What a devastating comedy and hard-biting satire.
It still stands up today and has not aged.
Sybill the Soothsayer is just as eye-popping funny...
Peter Finch as Beall is outstanding but beyond that Faye Dunaway and William Holden are brilliant and devastating and network execs faithful to only the bottom line.
Most startling is that you see today's TV shows up there with the screaming heads of the cable news shows, the wild-assed reality competitions of bitchy housewives, the moronic contest shows on everything from cooking to emergency rooms, and those mind-numbing, asinine comedies...
There's not a segment that wasn't predictive of the future and still isn't relevant.
And besides -- "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore" still stands as one of the most powerful sequences made more powerful by politics in this day and age.
NETWORK (1976, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky)
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Dave (imported)
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DeaconBlues (imported)
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Re: NETWORK (1976, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky)
If you liked "Network" you will probably also like "Wag the Dog." http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120885/
It is absolutely worth renting, and for me it was worth buying. Seeing the "spin doctors" portrayed in the movie, it was just TOO REAL and at the same time TOO UNREAL. Also the cameo appearances, Willie Nelson trying to find a good song and something that rhymes with "Albania." The insane murderer (played by Woody Harrelson) spun into a "hero" by the spin doctors.
It is absolutely worth renting, and for me it was worth buying. Seeing the "spin doctors" portrayed in the movie, it was just TOO REAL and at the same time TOO UNREAL. Also the cameo appearances, Willie Nelson trying to find a good song and something that rhymes with "Albania." The insane murderer (played by Woody Harrelson) spun into a "hero" by the spin doctors.
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bobover3 (imported)
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Re: NETWORK (1976, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky)
Network is brilliant. I saw it many times in the theater when it was new (before the internet). I saw it again a few months ago and it's lost none of its punch. A classic.
Wag the Dog is more of a "high concept" film than anything else. It has a provocative idea, but not much else.
Wag the Dog is more of a "high concept" film than anything else. It has a provocative idea, but not much else.