Network (1976)

Network (1976)

Directed by: Sidney Lumet
Screenplay by: Paddy Chayefsky
Won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay

It’s one of the most compelling films I’ve seen in a long time. It has a lot of outrageous energy. The film is set in the TV news network, and the amounts of craziness that’s in there. A news anchor announces that he’d shoot himself live on TV in a week, and suddenly there’s a lot of attention to this show. Eventually it gets to a point where the network executives keep him going, because the show generates more views than a lot of other non-news shows just because of this man’s erratic behaviour on TV. Although the film makes a commentary on the turmoil of people against the government, which is pretty perpetual in a way. That way, this screenplay is way beyond the film. In a way, it predicts the future. The pitch of every actor is in a high tone, they’re almost never talking. They’re almost yelling. This beautifully captures the anxiety and the turmoil everyone is going through, in a desperate attempt to make more money.

The subplot of the affair between Max and Diana is beautifully written. It uses hyperreality as a tool, they constantly address how such affairs usually end up in pop culture and it exactly ends like that. Diana’s character hit me so hard – she’s an obsessed artist who’s good at her work, but the reason she’s obsesses with her work is because she finds self worth only at her work. In other aspects of her life, she has failed time and again and she’s somehow told herself that she perhaps is only good for her work and is continuing to do so. Self-fulfilling prophecy at play. One of the best conversations is between Max and Diana when they talk about how women always think the worst things they could say to a man is about how bad they’re at bed and that he left comparing genitals back at his high-school yard. This is a beautifully written screenplay, it has a lot of depth and layers – irrespective of whether you zoom out or zoom in.