Capitalism's Sick Cycle
Arthur Jensen says to Howard Beale, “There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and ITT and A T and T and Dupont, Dow, Union Carbide and Exxon.” Sidney Lumet has said that this film is about, “...the inability of people to keep faith in themselves.” In the age of the television, people turned to it to get their entertainment, their news...what they believed to be the truth from people they trusted. Instead, the networks fed them anything that would draw their eyeballs to their brand, and the truth became distorted, but it didn’t matter because ratings were up, and profits were soaring.
Paddy Chayefsky wrote this script twenty-five years after the tv had become a household appliance. He saw the implications of this box being in every home. It meant that corporations would have direct access to the people they want to sell their products to, and the explosion that has continued to this day of advertising, now in our hands with the use of our mobile phones, shows that Chayefsky’s theme of capitalism infiltrating the day to day lives of the American people is still very much alive. The price that is paid for paying attention to, and believing the advertising and banal material coming from the television is that people lose their individuality, their ability to think for themselves. The real danger is that we all become drones to the capitalistic machine, a cog in the wheel, and we never really wake up to participate in life, we merely purchase goods that we see on tv and die. This film asks us to examine our complicity in capitalism as the viewer. That we do have the ability to make a change, and it’s as simple as turning off the television, when what we see is wrong, otherwise we continue to line the pockets of these corporations and make them even more powerful.
Corruption
For each character in Network, there are different ways in which they become corrupted. Howard’s heart and mind become corrupted with alcohol and loneliness after the loss of his wife. Diana begins and stays corrupted throughout the film. She is corrupted by the need to be number one, and she will do anything to get it, from enlisting terrorist organizations to execute crimes while filming them so that she can air them on tv, to her planning and carrying out the murder of Beale. Her corruption reveals a truth: once we believe that doing one thing that is wrong, the next wrong thing won’t be as hard to follow through on. Frank Hackett is corrupted by profits, and becoming the go to man for Arthur Jensen in his corporation. Frank initially pulls Howard off the air, thus doing what seems to be the right thing, but later puts him back on when Diana pitches to him that ratings could be through the roof with Beal’s madman show on the air. His desire for recognition corrupts his ability to see a man in Beale who is struggling to keep it together.
Max Schumacher is corrupted by love. After a twenty-five year marriage to his wife, he leaves her for Diana, who was told by her psychic that she would become emotionally involved with a middle-aged man. Max and his wife have endured decades of trials, and have built a life together and he is willing to throw it away because another woman feels something for him. The point I want to make is that feelings are fleeting. While love has the element of feeling within its structure, it is far more than a feeling. Love is knowing. Knowing that you can rely on someone, endure trials with them, find strength in fighting for them and turning away from a fleeting temptation. In truth, that is all Diana becomes when we see their relationship pan out, an untrustworthy temptation. Max chose a woman who didn’t have the decency to tell him that she was replacing him, she waits until Hackett is with her, and she doesn’t bat an eye. So, Max is corrupted, I believe, not by love, but by lust. The need to feel wanted.
Finally, Arthur Jensen is corrupted by power. To say that there is no America, no democracy, only IBM, AT&T and Exxon is the fruit of the disease of capitalism, meaning that their is no individual anymore, there are only corporations. This is a distorted truth, in that capitalism creates the opportunity to become someone through hard work, dedication and sacrifice. But, when the giants who already are someone decide that other individuals are no longer allowed to climb the same ladder they did, the beauty of capitalism disappears, and is replaced with power mongering. When Jensen steps before Beale in his speech to him, his face is darkened and a halo of light shines around his head. He is not God, he is playing God, and the darkness upon his face symbolizes the countless others who wield their self-righteous power over others and are never seen, never held accountable.
Freedom of Speech
Howard Beale’s journey ends tragically in this film, but it begins because he spoke the truth. While we must take into account that Beale is on the verge of a mental and emotional breakdown, his passionate speeches hit at the core of what’s happening in the lives of the American people. They are angry, fed up with the powers to be wielding that power over them. Vietnam, Watergate, the inflation, the depression have made the people angry. But, sheer anger and acts of violence don’t solve the issue, the perpetrate it. We see this very clearly in Beale’s being assassinated by an ultra-progressive terrorist organization backed by the network. The violence turns itself in the wrong direction, and instead of helping the cause, it potentially destroys it.
Where there is great hope, is when people begin to speak out and band together in ways that can’t be overlooked or fought against; ways that violence can’t. The main way we see in this film is people uniting as a community, which we see in the studio audience that has formed to support Beale, and that support carrying over to action when the American people flood the White House with six million telegrams demanding the blockage of UBS being sold to the Arabs. Freedom of speech matters. To tell the truth matters. There is, though, a great price that is paid to do so. We see this when Beale is murdered on live tv for what he is saying. I can’t sit here and begin to tell anyone to protest or speak out, but this film shows us that we can make a change. Though achieving the goal can seem daunting, we must ask if it is better to live in a free nation exercising our rights, or to fall in line and allow our lives to pass us by?
