Network

  The 1976 film by Sidney Lumet stars Faye Dunaway as Diana Christensen, the VP of Programming at the struggling UBS broadcasting company, who takes over when a troubled news anchor loses his mind on live television.  Howard Beale, played by Peter Finch, has been a respected newsman for decades and recently has been through tough times in his personal life.  He tells his viewership, which has been lacking in recent years, that he plans on committing live suicide on air in two weeks time and that everyone needs to stand up against the injustice in the world and begin to do something about it - start by yelling out your window that you're mad as hell and you're not gonna take it anymore.  This stunning broadcast causes an immediate and drastic uptick in ratings, even though Beale is dismissed from the network.  After a few meetings with the brass, Christensen convinces the head of the news department, played by Holden, to let her take the network in a new, exciting direction using Beale as the catalyst for unprecedented ratings.  With the addition of radical revolutionaries, soothsayers and freedom fighters, the network enjoys extremely high ratings with Beale at the forefront.  Naturally, the novelty wears off and Christensen is left looking like the foolish, ratings-obsessed network executive that she is.
  The film won four Oscars, including Best Actor and Actress for Finch and Dunaway, respectively.  It effectively takes aim at the television culture, and I found this satire easily transferable to the Wal-Mart culture, the internet culture, etc etc.  This is only the fifth film I've seen by Lumet (12 Angry Men, Dog Day Afternoon, The Verdict, Before The Devil Knows You're Dead) and, based on this small sample, I must say that I find him to be amazing.  This, of course, is not shocking news, but I will say that I didn't care for Network as much as the others, particularly 12 Angry Men.  I did find it to be a fascinating look into how network television executives will literally do anything to get ratings.  This must be even more competitive in today's world with exponentially more television options for people to watch and an ever-increasing number of ways in which to watch.  For someone who watched this classic film for the first time in 2012, I found it retained much of its relevance.

*Note: Simply by chance, I watched the first episode of Aaron Sorkin's new HBO drama, Newsroom today and found that a lot of the themes Lumet explored in his classic film remain prevalent in today's broadcasting culture.