Movie Review: Network (1976)

Network _____ 9/10
Presaging the rise of the New Media

Network“It is the international system of currency which determines the vitality of life on this planet. THAT is the natural order of things today.  THAT is the atomic and subatomic and galactic structure of things today.  And YOU have meddled with the primal forces of nature.  And YOU WILL ATONE.  Am I getting through to you, Mr. Beale?  You get up on your little 21-inch screen and howl about America, and democracy.  There is no America; there is no democracy.  There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon.  Those are the nations of the world today.” — Arthur Jensen, UBS (United Broadcasting System) Chairman of the Board (of the conglomerate purchasing the network)

An actual, modern-day “Old Media” elitist couldn’t have said it better, as a domineering Ned Beatty (playing Arthur Jensen) rips into the self-destructing TV cult icon Howard Beale (Peter Finch)—explaining to the now-cowed newsman the facts of life. Continue reading