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Select media
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Stills must not be reproduced, copied or downloaded in any way.
Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
USA
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Year
1976
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Introduction
“Network is Lumet’s sole film that presents him in the role of sociological pamphleteer... [expounding his] persistent concern with the forces awaiting our increasing social passivity and abandonment of reason.”
Frank R. Cunningham, Sidney Lumet, 2001
Inspired by a newsreader’s real-life on-air suicide, writer Paddy Chayefsky conceived this stinging rebuke of craven network television. Peter Finch plays Howard Beale, an anchor at the end of his rope, facing oblivion because of poor ratings. A bitter threat to kill himself in front of the cameras spells potential for the more entertainment-minded within the network – notably ambitious producer Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) – and soon Beale’s rants against modern life are topping the ratings even as they sow the seeds of his demise.
Applying to the media the tone of cynical conspiracy-mindedness characteristic of much American political cinema of the 1970s, Network still makes for bracingly confrontational viewing, its soapier plot elements offset by its fatalism and prescience. They hadn’t seen nothing yet.
The same era’s The Parallax View (1974) and All the President’s Men (1976) also allege nefarious string-pulling in high places. Broadcast News (1987) offers a far gentler take on the milieu.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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narrator
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Diana Christensen
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Max Schumacher
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Howard Beale
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Frank Hackett
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Nelson Chaney
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Arthur Jensen
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Harry Hunter
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Barbara Schlesinger
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Bill Herron
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Sam Haywood
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Edward George Ruddy
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Louise Schumacher
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Laureen Hobbs
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Great Ahmed Kahn
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TV director
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George Bosch
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Mary Ann Gifford
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Joe Donnelly
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Walter C. Amundsen
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Milton K. Steinman
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Jack Snowden
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Caroline Schumacher
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Arthur Zangwill
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TV stage manager
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Merrill Grant
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associate producer
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TV production assistant
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Max's secretary
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audio man
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Tommy Pellegrino
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Willie Stein
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Herb Thackeray
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TV associate director
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Lou
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Helen Miggs
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Robert McDonough
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Giannini
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mosaic figure
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TV technical director
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Hunter's secretary
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[.]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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Assistant Director (1st)
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Assistant Director (2nd)
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Script Supervisor
Production:
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Production Company
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Production Company
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Produced by
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Associate Producer
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Office Co-ordinator
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Production Auditor
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Location Co-ordinator
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[Production Assistant]
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[Production Assistant]
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[Production Assistant]
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[Assistant to Ms Brown]
Casting:
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Casting
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Casting
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Casting (Extras)
Writing:
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[Screenplay] By
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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Camera Operator
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Assistant Cameraman
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Assistant Cameraman (2nd)
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Gaffer
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Key Grip
Stills:
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Still Photographer
Special Effects:
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UBS video logo
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UBS video logo
Editing:
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Editor
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Assistant Editor
Design:
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Production Designer
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[Assistant to Art Director]
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Set Decorator
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[Scenic Artist]
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Property Master
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[Construction Grip]
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[Carpenter]
Costumes:
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Costume Designer
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Costumer
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Costumer
Make-up:
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Ms Dunaway's Make-up
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Make-up Artist
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Ms Dunaway's Hair
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Hair Stylist
Music:
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Original Music Composed and Conducted by
Sound:
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Sound Mixer
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Re-recordist
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Sound Editor
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Sound Editor
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Sound Editor
Consultant:
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[Television Consultant]
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[Transportation Chief]
Publicity:
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[Publicity Co-ordinator]
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