In honor of the passing of the great Sidney Lumet, Turner Classic Movies had a mini marathon of films he'd directed. I caught the last part of "The Hill" and it had lost none of its power from the first time I'd seen it many years ago. Following that was the unforgettable "Network". It had been a while since I'd seen that too so I gave it a watch. And when I did I found out how much I had forgotten.
What was unnerving, though, was to see how much was satire in 1976 was reality in 2011. Curious, I went through the triva at IMDB and found this nugget: The director and the screenwriter claimed that the film was not meant to be a satire but a reflection of what was really happening. I've said before that the definition of the future is to take what's happening today and move it into the light i.e. the housing bubble in 2005 defines the housing crash of 2008. I also found someone else remarking in the trivia to have seen the same parallels I did and that made me feel not so alone. (And from whom I stole the phrase "eerie prescience")
First, there's the whole fourth network bit. Understandably, they had to create one as a vehicle for the film, the Big Three too untouchable at the time. But I instantly thought, "Fox network!" Then this exchange happens between UBS executives:
Nelson Chaney: All I know is that this violates every canon of respectable broadcasting.
Frank Hackett: We're not a respectable network. We're a whorehouse network, and we have to take whatever we can get.
Nelson Chaney: Well, I don't want any part of it. I don't fancy myself the president of a whorehouse.
Frank Hackett: That's very commendable of you, Nelson. Now sit down. Your indignation is duly noted; you can always resign tomorrow.
Like most executives who've traded in their soul, Nelson sits down and finishes his meal. Who is he to stand in the way of corporate profits? That's a question far too many of us fail to ask. But I laughed out loud when the madman Howard Beale character later laments a potential conglomerate taking over the UBS network, as he lets loose this gem: "And when the twelfth largest company in the world controls the most awesome goddamned propaganda force in the whole godless world, who knows what shit will be peddled for truth on this tube!"
"By god, it is Fox!" I exclaimed.
Of course, this all starts with ratings victim and news anchor Howard Beale being told he's getting the sack. Washed up with nothing left to lose, he announces on air in delicious revenge: "I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to blow my brains out right on this program a week from today."
This creates a media firestorm as then - like now - there's nothing the media likes more than reporting on itself. At first is the natural reaction of concern, of getting Howard help. Then the overnight ratings come in. Tunnel-vision Diana sees the corporate light at the end of tunnel:
"Did you see the overnights on the Network News? It has an 8 in New York and a 9 in L.A. and a 27 share in both cities. Last night, Howard Beale went on the air and yelled bullshit for two minutes, and I can tell you right now that tonight's show will get a 30 share at least. I think we've lucked into something."
And that's what it's all about, folks: bringing in the eyeballs. Whether it's the Beale-like wackiness of Glenn Beck or the outlandish spinning of Bill O'Reilly or a network using short-skirted news anchors, who can survive without money? At the UBS stockholder's meeting it's announced that the news division will start pulling its weight and no longer be allowed to be a money losing entity. Legendary script writer Paddy Chayefsky was right on the money there!
Reality TV is also portended in Network as ruthless Diana drools over its low cost and potentially high ratings. She sums up the American public of 2011 - err, 1976 thusly:
"...the American people are turning sullen. They've been clobbered on all sides by Vietnam [Middle Eastern wars], Watergate [GWB Presidency], the inflation [soaring gas and food prices], the depression [Great recession]. They've turned off, shot up, and they've fucked themselves limp."
To counter that she wants weekly footage of actual terrorism to be included in a series laughably titled, "The Mao Tse Tung Hour". You see, like any addict, a tolerance is gained and you have to keep upping the dose to get the same high. How extreme will reality TV go to stay alive? I'm not sure I want to know the answer.
But what I really loved was the conglomerate's CEO's speech to Howard to sway him into accepting the acquisition. He tongue lashes Beale with a truth most Americans still won't admit today even as it becomes more and more glaringly obvious:
"You get up on your little twenty-one inch screen, and howl about America and democracy. There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today. What do you think the Russians talk about in their councils of state -- Karl Marx? They pull out their linear programming charts, statistical decision theories and minimax solutions and compute the price-cost probabilities of their transactions and investments just like we do. We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies, Mr. Beale. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable by-laws of business. The world is a business, Mr. Beale!"
Or as I put it: the world is a criminal enterprise.
Pretty damn scary to see that speech coming from 1976, that the depths of the roots of our current corporate stranglehold go so deep. The conservative bent in this country is no accident and will always win as long as we believe in illusory corporate profits over actual human welfare. There's nothing new under the sun.
Howard Beale's maniacal ramblings have a shelf life (Hello, Glenn Beck!) and his ratings start to irreversibly crater. But now that he's a virtual mouthpiece for the CEO it has been mandated his show cannot be cancelled. In an airtight dilemma, the UBS executives can see only one answer: kill Howard Beale. And this they do - on air, of course, to get the maximum possible ratings.
This was the story of Howard Beale
who was the network news anchorman
on UBS-TV, the first known instance
of a man being killed because he
had lousy ratings.
who was the network news anchorman
on UBS-TV, the first known instance
of a man being killed because he
had lousy ratings.
Tell me you can watch this 35 year old speech and not be disturbed...
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