A little cynicism for a Sunday night in line with Will Harris’s ongoing coverage of the TCA confab and pow-wow. Written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet, “Network” is one of the movies that really started me thinking seriously about movies and other media when I first saw as a person who was maybe a little young to be seeing it. I may show you one of the better known scenes from this now-classic film a bit later (“I’m mad as hell…”…”You are meddling with the primal forces of nature”…, etc.), but right now I’m going with this equally crucial scene because it gets to the heart of the real-life media trend Chayefsky was attacking.
As the MPAA likes to say, this scene includes “language,” so it’s NSFW for anywhere F-munitions are unappreciated. On the other hand, if you work at a television network, it probably won’t be noticed.
