Network - 9 stars out of 10

Network - 9 stars out of 10

"Network" is an incredible dramatic satire of the world of television executives and the influence of the media over its audience.  It is no surprise that this film won four Oscars with its eloquent script, unique characters, and an impressive cast to bring these two things to life.  The heart of this film is its series of genius monologues that are contextually tied together by greedy network executives and a man who is losing his mind.  Peter Finch's Oscar was a no-brainer as he delivers his emotional "Mad as Hell" newscasts with the charisma of a television preacher to a cheering audience as he faints.  I would tell you to just look these monologues up on youtube, but the rest of the film is so good that it wouldn't be right to take these rants out of their context.  Another great emotional outburst comes from Beatrice Straight in her Oscar-winning role as she calls out her cheating husband.  She did not have an enormous role (less than 6 minutes of screen time), but her moment of movie magic obviously left an impression.  Faye Dunaway is as lovely as ever, showing both her sweet side and her aggressive side.  The crazy thing is that I just mentioned three actors that won Oscars for this film, and that still leaves William Holden and Ned Beatty who were nominated and did not win.  And even crazier is that Robert Duvall gave an incredible performance and wasn't even one of the five nominees for Best Actor/Actress!  All of these actors put on a clinic of how to create a memorable performance, but some of this credit also belongs to the Oscar-winning script by Paddy Chayevsky.  The dialogue shifts between humor and drama, but its true shining moments are contained in the monologues by Finch and the emotional outbursts by many of the other characters.  It has a fantastic pace that builds and evolves its characters until the shocking, perfectly written ending.  "Network" may be overlooked by many because it did not win an Oscar for Best Picture, but this film is the complete package and once you can get past the language and sexual content, it will make you rethink the power of the network executives with characters that you will never forget.