When the Sidney Lumet-directed satire ‘Network’ was released in 1976, the premise of the film – murderously cynical television producers exploit an emotionally unstable former news anchor and create reality television out of urban terrorism for cheap ratings – seemed like over-reach.
Now, it looks uncannily prescient. In this, one of the best scenes in the movie, top-rating current affairs show host and on-air “mad as hell” everyman Howard Beale (Australian posthumous Oscar winner Peter Finch) pushes the envelope too far when he uses his show to criticise the proposed takeover by a Saudi conglomerate of the corporation that owns the US network that employs him .
Beale is dragged into the boardroom by the current network owner’s CEO Arthur Jensen (Ned Beatty), who delivers a biblical tirade about the true nature of democracy and the role of the media….and this was nearly 35 years ago….
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