The 1976 film "Network" was forward looking beyond the creator's plan. Originally close to Cronkite-style news anchor Howard Beale is facing layoff due to poor ratings, his mental health collapsed, and he revealed on the show that he would soon commit suicide. Here comes the turnaround. Howard's madman's babble and madman's cries actually caused the ratings to rise, because he expressed the common voice of the American people during the Ford era. The fiction that was intended to be satirical has become mainstream today. Cronkite-style objective calmness is entering the history of radio and television. Rush Limbaugh, Glen Beck, Sean, who are noisy, provocative, have strong personal opinions, and are not astonishing to death are becoming more and more popular. Hannity, Bill O'Reilly.
Rewatching this movie on Netflix is a theme revisit, but also a new feeling. Actor Faye Dunaway, in her prime, plays show director Diana, a woman who shows little hesitation about her sexuality and is far from abusive, and who has a seemingly innate sense of show innovation. Keen may be more interesting. After seeing the pictures of the robbers who robbed the bank in the name of revolution, Diana proposed to start a new program, which will be broadcast every Wednesday night at prime time, mainly using real pictures, preferably including hijacking, kidnapping, assassinating ambassadors, etc. . I felt like I had found the starting point for the reality show that became popular years later, Diana called Mao Tse-Tung Hour (Mao Tse-Tung Hour). This should be seen as an endorsement of Chinese influence in the US in the 1970s, at least in exporting revolutions. At that time, American ultra-leftists often hung the portrait of Chairman Mao with Che Guevara, Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda and others. You know, so far, the "Belt and Road" has not become a topic mentioned in contemporary American movies, even if it is not ridiculed. The image of any one of the Seven Standing Committee members has also failed to enter popular culture.
The head of the news department, Max, is between half a generation and a generation older than Diana. The relationship between the two cannot be said to be completely normal. One has long since divorced and the other plans to divorce, but there is no doubt that they are in true love. According to the role arrangement in the movie, Diana is completely involved in the ratings and programming innovation. She grew up watching TV and can't distinguish real life from the script of the series. She loves Max but doesn't know how to love, but what she shows is cruelty driven by love. In Max's view, as the only effective channel to connect Diana with reality, his emotions can only wither day by day in pain. There is a wonderful line in the movie, roughly saying that Diana thinks of the two as the American TV version of "Anna Karenina", but the roles are gender swapped, and she plays Voronsky, and Max is the one who is lying on the rails. Anna.
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