History Film / Network

* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Frank Hackett couldn't care less about the condition of Howard Beale (or anyone else) as long as the ratings keep coming in. When Diana is asked whether she and Hackett are having an affair, she laughs it off with, "Frank Hackett has no loves, lusts or allegiances that are not directly related to becoming a CCA board member. I'm not even a stockholder."

* DownerEnding: "This was the story of Howard Beale, the first known instance of a man who [[spoiler:was killed because he had lousy ratings]]." Could border on BittersweetEnding though, as [[spoiler: Diana earlier mentioned UBS being investigated by the U.S. government (see the Fridge tab), and a smartened-up Max has left Diana, [[MaybeEverAfter perhaps salvaging his marriage to Louise as well.]]]]

* DownerEnding: "This was the story of Howard Beale, the first known instance of a man who [[spoiler:was killed because he had lousy ratings]]."

** Similarly, Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor on the basis of ''his'' one scene, which consists almost entirely of his epic filibuster to Beale, and has only a minute or so more screen time.

** Similarly, Ned Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor on the basis of scene, which consists almost entirely of his epic filibuster to Beale, and has only a minute or so more screen time.

* NewsMonopoly: After [[spoiler:Howard is assassinated on-air]], the camera pans out from a single monitor depicting the immediate aftermath of the event to a row of monitors featuring multiple news networks reporting on what just happened. One by one, they all turn off until the viewer is again left with the single frame of [[spoiler:Howard's dead body]].

* MarriedToTheJob: Most obviously Diana, but Frank (and, before retirement, Max) is also a workaholic who seemingly have no other interests in life.

* MarriedToTheJob: Most obviously Diana, but Max and Frank are also workaholics who seemingly have no other interests in life.
%% * MayDecemberRomance: Between Diana and Max.

%% * HighPoweredCareerWoman: Diana Christensen is a darkly amoral example.

* KarmaHoudini: The entire successful conspiracy to [[spoiler:murder Howard Beale]]. We don't even get any assurance that the people who [[spoiler:actually kill Howard]] get caught.

''Network'' is a 1976 American film, written by Creator/PaddyChayefsky and directed by Creator/SidneyLumet, that might just scare the living daylights out of you and make you stare at a wall for ten minutes. It is a harsh, satirical critique of (among other things) television and the short-attention-span culture over which it presides, [[StrawmanNewsMedia the media in general]] and its shameless pandering to the LowestCommonDenominator, the homogenization of American entertainment by giant conglomerates, and the executives who treat the nightly news as a profit center instead of a public service. Initially a skewering of the sensationalization of broadcast news (already happening even then), the film became frighteningly prescient of the state of the industry over the ensuing decades.

Nominated for ten UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, it's notable as one of only three films (''Film/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' and ''Film/EverythingEverywhereAllAtOnce'' being the others) to win for three of the four acting categories: Finch won Best Actor posthumously (with Holden also getting nominated), while Dunaway and Straight won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. (Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Creator/JasonRobards for ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen''). Chayefsky, meanwhile, won Best Original Screenplay.

It was adapted into a [[ScreenToStageAdaptation stage play]] in 2017 starring Creator/BryanCranston as Howard Beale, for which he won the Tony Award for Best Performance in a Leading Role by an Actor in a Play.

* NewMediaAreEvil: A large theme is that television can warp a viewer's reality by making them accept what they see as the truth. Max even cites this as one of Diana's problems--she was raised watching TV, so she expects RealLife to play out like a TV episode. There's also been fair criticism that Chayefsky's notions of what American television was like in TheSeventies weren't totally grounded in reality and he [[TheWarOnStraw was making a Strawman argument]]. One of Beale's examples of the dishonesty of TV is that "Nobody ever gets cancer in Archie Bunker's house." In fact, ''Series/AllInTheFamily'' had already done an episode where Edith finds a lump in her breast in 1973.[[note]]It ended up being just a cyst, so Beale's point still stands, but it still makes Chayefsky seem out of the loop on the subject. Especially since Edith's friend Irene ''did'' have breast cancer and they had a conversation about it.[[/note]]

The film's main story centers around Howard Beale (Peter Finch), an evening news anchor at the struggling TV network Union Broadcasting System, or UBS. After being given two weeks notice that he's getting laid off due to declining ratings, Beale announces on a live newscast that he is going to kill himself. UBS fires him immediately, but Max Schumacher (Creator/WilliamHolden), the head of the news department and Beale's best friend, protests; the network ultimately decides to give Beale one last broadcast, presumably so he can have a dignified farewell. Beale takes this opportunity and runs with it by launching into an on-air rant about how life is "bullshit" -- which causes his ratings to skyrocket, prompting UBS to immediately renew his contract. During a subsequent broadcast, Beale preaches to his audience with the now-famous line "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this anymore!", which soon becomes [[MemeticMutation his]] [[CatchPhrase mantra]]. UBS quickly turns Beale's news program into a live talk show, with segments on gossip, astrology, and opinion polls -- and Beale himself billed as the "mad prophet of the airwaves."

%% * GrandInquisitorScene: The confrontation between Howard Beale and Arthur Jensen.

%% * LoveTriangle: Diana/Max/Louise.

* [[MrExposition Ms. Exposition]]: A novel use of this as a way define a character. Diana's chatter to Max on their romantic evening together about the problems with ''The Mao Tse-Tung Hour'' gets the audience up to speed on that subplot, but the mere fact that she's obsessing about all this, even after having sex with the man she's fallen in love with, shows us how MarriedToTheJob she is.
* MoneyDearBoy: In-universe, the only reason anyone does anything at UBS is for ratings, including keeping Howard on the air at all, and then [[spoiler: [[MurderIsTheBestSolution killing him]]. It's heavily implied that UBS is going to use the on-air assassination for the opener for the next season of the Mao-Tse Tung Hour.]]

* NotSoBadassLongcoat: Howard's trench coat is old and battered. Of course, given how many people are inspired by Howard that night, it seems like

* PyrrhicVictory: Max makes it clear to Diana that for all her purported success, she's doomed to live a cold, empty existence devoid of human connection. Diana admits she's right and begs Max to stay with her, but Max wants nothing to do with her anymore.

Nominated for ten UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s, it's notable as one of only two films (''Film/AStreetcarNamedDesire'' is the other) to win for three of the four acting categories: Finch won Best Actor posthumously (with Holden also getting nominated), while Dunaway and Straight won Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively. (Beatty was nominated for Best Supporting Actor, but lost to Creator/JasonRobards for ''Film/AllThePresidentsMen''). Chayefsky, meanwhile, won Best Original Screenplay.

* {{Fainting}}: Beale tends to do this mid-rant.

* GrandInquisitorScene: The confrontation between Howard Beale and Arthur Jensen.

* HighPoweredCareerWoman: Diana Christensen is a darkly amoral example.

* LoveTriangle: Diana/Max/Louise.

* MayDecemberRomance: Between Diana and Max.

* TerroristsWithoutACause: The Ecumenical Liberation Army.

* WeAreExperiencingTechnicalDifficulties: Hastily employed after Beale threatens suicide.