Network

Directed by Sidney Lumet, Network details the chaos that unfolds within a struggling television network after one of its news anchors (Peter Finch’s Howard Beale) essentially goes haywire during a broadcast. Filmmaker Lumet, armed with Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay, delivers an erratically-paced yet periodically spellbinding drama that benefits substantially from its raft of top-notch performances, and it’s clear, certainly, that the players’ uniformly first-class endeavors go a long way towards smoothing over the frequent bumps in the narrative and ensuring that the picture is, at the very least, successful as an actor’s showcase – with folks like Robert Duvall, William Holden, and Ned Beatty turning in superb work that elevates the proceedings on a regular basis. It’s disappointing to note, then, that Network is rarely able to lift itself up to the mesmerizing levels of its stars’ efforts, as the movie suffers from a sluggish and overly talky atmosphere that’s admittedly alleviated by an ongoing inclusion of electrifying scenes and sequences – with, of course, the now-iconic “mad as hell” interlude undoubtedly as engrossing and captivating as one might’ve anticipated. The uneven vibe ensures that Network fizzles out long before it arrives at its stirring, deeply cynical finale, ultimately, which does, in the end, cement the film’s place as a distressingly hit-and-miss production that’s in desperate need of some serious streamlining (eg an entire tedious subplot detailing a romantic affair between Holden and Faye Dunaway’s respective characters could and should have been excised completely).

**1/2 out of ****