Friday, August 26, 2011

Network (1986)

Network is about a seemingly prophetic news anchor who gets his own show because of the messages he is trying to send to the American people. The corporation he works for is really just milking his show for the money, while he stands up on stage and yells his ass off about the country's problems and how he's mad.
   There are some sub plots within it, but Howard Beale's rantings are a focal point. He makes a good point most of the time, and as the movie goes on his message is distorted by orders from the higher ups in this corporation. This shows how the networks can and will twist the concept of a show because one man is saying too much. It also shows how TV is all about the ratings, and the money.
  The movie starts with Howard saying on national television that he is going to kill himself on a broadcast. The day after, the ratings jumped tremendously and the network had an absurd amount of investors at the ready.
  I took this whole thing to be showing of how only one man cared for Howards rantings, every other executive only wanted him around long enough to make them money. I would say if you haven't seen it, go do it. There are a few great moments of Howard's ranting where he points out how the TV is everything to some people and how they should turn it off, and yet they still get more viewers. If you take anything out from it, take either Howard's message, or the ideas of the corporation to make money off of howard. Both are more or less negative, but one gives a better outlook on how to fix it.

16 comments:

  1. Believe me it has quite the ammount of truth in it...Just look at "modern" TV ffs!

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  2. sounds good, gonna have to give it a watch.

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  3. I love this movie!! The rant in it is legendary

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  4. Never seen it, I'll check it out.

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  5. Ha, this movieeee
    I remember it, but I never knew the name for it! I watched it with my dad a few years ago on TV...
    Kinda funny to see it show up in you blog out of a sudden.

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  6. @Christian I have a way of doing that sometimes.

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  7. that's a fucking nice movie, but only i've seen some videos in youtube, do you know where can i find it complete?

    nice post

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  8. @Nekron I'm not sure if it's on Netflix or somewhere, but for some reason I found it at my local video store and got it there.

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  9. excellent post, i'm going to watch this movie

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  10. Why does this sound like a better version of "What Really Grinds my Gears"?

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  11. Epic movie, and a great watch when you are 'mad as hell'.

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