The Network Film Analysis

The feature film called, Network (1976), directed by Sidney Lumet is the story of a fictional television news host called Howard Beale. The film is pure satire and it portrays how much of an impact the media has, especially television. Howard Beale was a news anchorman on UBS for a long time and was fired that would be effective in two weeks. He announced on live television he would be retiring from the show because of poor ratings and was going to kill himself on live television a week from that day. The network fired Beale right after that, but Beale convinced Max Schumacher, who was president of the News Division at UBS, that he would make a public apology on air. Howard, however, started to rant about how he ran out of bullshit. After that both Schumacher and Beale were under fire from the UBS. However, Diana Christensen, is the …show more content…
In The New York Times review by Vincent Canby, published on November 15, 1976, give a detail summary of the film and express views about the film. Vincent Canby said that the screenwriter humor was not ‘gentle or generous’. Canby said that Network was a funny American comedy that was satire. He said that it would become a huge hit. However, in the coming years the film Network (1976) has become less of a satire and more of a prophesy about the current state of reality television. In an article, The 1976 Movie 'Network ' Predicted YouTube and 'Two and a Half Men ', by Jim Edwards, talks about now the film predicted reality television. Edwards states “It 's because the movie predicts everything about modern media in the 21st Century—from reality TV and YouTube to Glenn Beck and the tabloid news format. And it did so 20 years before the internet even existed.” Edwards describe that the Network has predicted the rise of Tabloid TV, reality TV, YouTube and merge of media companies. The predictions of the film has been on point and it truly has become a