It’s amazing when a film is able to so accurately point towards a problem that it becomes even more meaningful and relevant 50 years after it’s made.

This movie was made long before smart phones, Twitter, and the YouTube subscribe button, but it captures our instincts (as homo sapiens) and the media’s responses to those instincts so well that one could call it a prediction of things to come. It was satire when it was made, and now it’s barely satire but a reflection of our times.

As someone who’s not only starting his own media company, but as someone who’s starting a news channel within that media company, this movie hits me hard. It gives a lesson that’s important to all of America, but I feel as though this is a message that I should really take to heart

With this, witnessing the consequences both within the movie and in real life, I can understand how important it is to understand this movie’s message, and then act on it.

So here we are with 1976’s Network, written by Paddy Cheyefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet.

Much like with Dr. Strangelove a couple posts ago, this is satire, and satire is tough.

Network, though, does all the same things right that Dr. Strangelove did: it points to the truth (the lesson that we’ll get to), it’s even-handed (everyone is flawed), it doesn’t take a holier-than-the-viewer stance. See my Dr. Strangelove post for more on satires.

But, like with all satires, the most important point is the message of the film. Since satire is highlighting and exaggerating something, the entire movie rests on this exaggeration (while in other movies, it’s the backbone, but it’s not always as obvious).

However, identifying the main core message in the film can be a bit tricky because Network is saying a lot of things.

Initially, my guess was that the core message is “we, as a society care more about sensationalism than we do the truth.”

Afterall, the entire reaction to Howard Beale is people reacting to something exciting rather than just the boring old news.

The audience, Diana, and Frank all recognize that as well, as they keep him on the air and refuse to get rid of him because he’s lifting the ratings too much. 

As this continues, others have to offer Beale the same level of sensationalism in return, “you will atone,” as he’s gotten to the point that nothing else could possibly hold his attention.

And the only way to get rid of him, is to do something even more sensational: acting on his initial promise to kill himself on air, they have him executed in front of everyone (by Tim Robbins BTW!!.

This is a deep reflection on today’s world, as we are driven to the most sensational and hate-filled news, and the media gladly encourages this by treating everything as the biggest deal in the world and by treating the other side as the evil villain.

But although the movie nails this concept, upon my most recent watch, I realized that this is not, in fact, the central message, but it’s a symptom of the central message. The real message encapsulates the “sensational message” by even more universal and broad.

As noted above, one of the major criteria for good satire is that it doesn’t take a “holier than thou” attitude. And if the message was only “we crave sensationalism more than the truth,” it probably would have seemed more like Lumet was tsk tsking everyone. As if he was saying we’re all so dumb for doing it.

But fortunately, he plays more fair.

He has a deeper message that contains this sensational message but applies it to everyone: he, in effect, is saying “we can all be corrupted.”

This is reflected in Max and Diana’s relationship. They are both entering something they know they shouldn’t be doing, Max because he’s married and Diana because she knows she’ll be a bad partner, but they’re too corrupted by their attraction and the intrigue of the affair. Note that when Max leaves his wife he refuses to say he’s in love Diana, he just says he’s infatuated with her.

Diana is corrupted by how good she is at her job. She has no interest in relationship, and this even gets her off when she’s having sex with Max. She gets so deep into it that she’s even willing to sacrifice Beale’s life.

Laureen, the communist leader, gets corrupted as well. At the beginning, she’s fully on board with her cause, but as she collects power and fame, she gives up her ideals, and reaches for power (I believe that the movie is commenting on how this will happen within both capitalism and communism–thank you human nature!).

Even Beale gets corrupted by his own following, as he finds it funny at first, but he gets so into his own appeal that he starts to lose his own mind.

The message of “we want sensationalism more than the truth” also fits into this message. This craving of sensationalism is a corruption of the should. It’s something we can enjoy at first, but it’s so easy to get sucked down a rabbit hole of wanting to believe the exciting thing over the truth.

It’s so easy to get sucked into an exciting idea..

Whether it’s a politician or a writer or a podcast host or a media personality that leads us to it, getting behind people, like the people get behind Beale, has been happening for as long as humans have been humans.

And I don’t think it’s entirely bad. It might be good to stick our heads out of our windows and shout “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore,” but at a certain point that same anger has the ability to corrupt us.

That’s something I have to keep in mind, as I believe all of us should. We can be swept under someone’s magnetism, we can be swayed by a message, we can vent our anger, but we also need to be able to not lose ourselves because it’s when we lose ourselves, it’s then we have the susceptibility to be corrupted.

This is hard with every media source in the world trying to control us and gain our eyeballs (usually for the superficial cause of getting them more sponsors). Therein lies so much corruption, both from the media and from the people who are eating it up.

But we can be better. We can look for truth. This doesn’t mean we can’t indulge in sensationalism sometimes, but we have to do so without turning to the darkside.

So let’s all get together, let’s stick our heads out the window, and let’s say “I’m mad sometimes, and I don’t want to be that way, but I’m going to use rationality and empathy and work to be the best person I can be.”

Alright, it’s not as catchy, but still, I think it’ll take us to a different place than the cold floor of a news station.

Thanks for reading!

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