Network
every line of dialogue has the sting of truth and every character delivers them as if they’re tearing strips off the world itself.
there are scenes where the rage is so articulate, so exquisitely phrased, that I wanted to stand up and salute my pc screen. who talks like that in real life? nobody, of course but that’s precisely why it works. these speeches are what we would say if we were braver, cleverer, angrier, and less afraid of being told to calm down.
the film’s fury has aged into prophecy. the executives spouting about ratings and market share sound like every politician and media boss I’ve seen on TV and on the internet ever. the cynicism is pure. I kept thinking: this was made in the seventies? they already knew. they already saw it coming.
the writing rattled something in me. It reminded me that rage, when properly harnessed, can be beautiful. that sometimes the only sane response to a mad world is to shout until the walls tremble.
Network is a public service announcement from the furious heart of humanity. and it left me wishing I had written even one line as sharp, as scathing, as necessary as any in the script.